Soaps from yesteryear

[paul revere]

Nowadays it's all Corrie, Eastenders and Emmerdale, the big three soaps. There was a time when a less ratings driven schedule could accomodate a handful of more quirky and off-beat examples of the genre. Remember Granada's Albion Market which ran for exactly a year and one hundred episodes, August 1985 to August 1986. Then there was Gems, Thames afternoon soap set in the fashion world, a kind of downmarket Howard's Way without the boats. And talking of boats, who could forget the much maligned Triangle. Angels was a grittier hospital-based serial which launched a good many careers. Less gritty was ATV's Genral Hospital. From STV came High Living, Garnock Way and Take The High Road.

Families spanned two continents while Eldorado briefly flew the flag down Spain way. Lesser known and even shorter lived were London Bridge, the ecclesiastical Revelations and Liverpudlian offering Springhill. The two most serious pretenders when it came to rivalling the big hitters were Crossroads with it's legendary wobbly sets and hard hitting Brookside which often went where others feared to tread. Those were the days.

[clubster]

I used to enjoy the early 80s Sothern tv soap Together about the residents of a housing association, the second series was filmed live so you did see the odd mistake on screen, I also thought the Channel 5 soap Family Affairs was underated and had one of soaps best villians in Pete Callan.

[Ray]

name='clubster'] I also thought the Channel 5 soap Family Affairs was underated and had one of soaps best villians in Pete Callan.

I also used to enjoy Family Affairs, although I had not watched it until I appeared in two episodes as an Extra in 2005. It seemed a very happy company, and I was very sad to see it finish. I noticed that they have used heavily disguised parts of the Family Affairs street in some episodes of The Bill, their sets ajoined each other at the Deerpark Studios, South Wimbledon.



One of my all time favourite Soaps was The Newcomers (1965). Thanks to the BBC purge in the 1970's practically nothing survives of the 430 episodes.

[Mark O]

Castles

Taff Acre



both short lived unfortunately.......

[Ian K McLachla]

I used to enjoy the 1960s soap Weavers' Green which Anglia made. All the episodes of this soap still survive in the archives. I would like to see Network release it all. It has an interesting cast including Megs Jenkins, John Moulder Brown, and Eric Flynn

[wadsy]

name='Ian K McLachla']I used to enjoy the 1960s soap Weavers' Green which Anglia made. All the episodes of this soap still survive in the archives. I would like to see Network release it all. It has an interesting cast including Megs Jenkins, John Moulder Brown, and Eric Flynn

& Georgina Ward.



One of the first I can remember seeing was Compact, or was that



classed as a TV series rather than a Soap ?

[Bernardo]

For the nostalgic; the spin-off film from Emergency Ward Ten is scheduled on Film 24 in the next few days. Compare and contrast with Holby City and report your findings (-:

[Gerald Lovell]

name='paul revere']Nowadays it's all Corrie, Eastenders and Emmerdale, the big three soaps. There was a time when a less ratings driven schedule could accomodate a handful of more quirky and off-beat examples of the genre. Remember Granada's Albion Market which ran for exactly a year and one hundred episodes, August 1985 to August 1986. Then there was Gems, Thames afternoon soap set in the fashion world, a kind of downmarket Howard's Way without the boats. And talking of boats, who could forget the much maligned Triangle. Angels was a grittier hospital-based serial which launched a good many careers. Less gritty was ATV's Genral Hospital. From STV came High Living, Garnock Way and Take The High Road.

Families spanned two continents while Eldorado briefly flew the flag down Spain way. Lesser known and even shorter lived were London Bridge, the ecclesiastical Revelations and Liverpudlian offering Springhill. The two most serious pretenders when it came to rivalling the big hitters were Crossroads with it's legendary wobbly sets and hard hitting Brookside which often went where others feared to tread. Those were the days.

Ah, I remember HIGH LIVING too. It was somewhat disconcerting to hear its theme music being used in Dawn of the Dead (1978)!