and when different showrunners come in and out, the characters seem - to morph into people that you don t recognise, so i think it s about having people that. are willing to be consistent, that care about those characters, that think about the audience. i and i still think there s - something fantastic there, but there is a lot of competition. you know, we re going to have to accept that we re not - going to see the viewing figures that den and angie got again. . but that doesn t mean - that they can t have success. yeah. and with autumn coming, which i think is a big time for soaps as they start, you know, sowing the seeds for those christmas storylines, daniel, what can we look forward to this year? what do you know about any big stories coming up or what we should be watching? well, the big one is emmerdale turns 50 in october, and they have announced that they will have a big storm storyline. so, a deadly storm will hit the village and various characters will be in peril. so some
who ran the pub, had been in it for ages. i thought he was wonderful. and i remember going up to him saying, you are so lucky! it must be wonderful to be in a programme with so much security! and through gritted teeth, he looked at me and said, it is that very security that makes us feel insecure. and he was absolutely right, because you can never agree. i mean, my character years ago, thank god, you know, i was on a life support machine in birmingham general hospital, having been knocked over by a bse ridden cow. iwas. my character bought an aeroplane, an aeroplane. i said to the producer, does it crash? because. i didn t care, but, you know, no mileage for me as an actor if the things going to plummet into the ground! fortunately for all of us, he or she said, no, it doesn t crash. you re all right. thank god, yeah! i want to get on with phil onto sort of the actual process of putting soaps together. but, daniel, just before we do that, what kinds of numbers, briefly, do the
saying, you are so lucky! it must be wonderful to be in a programme with so much security! and through gritted teeth, he looked at me and said, it is that very security that makes us feel insecure. and he was absolutely right, because you can never agree. i mean, my character years ago, thank god, you know, i was on a life support machine in birmingham general hospital, having been knocked over by a bse ridden cow. iwas. my character bought an aeroplane, an aeroplane. i said to the producer, does it crash? because. i didn t care, but, you know, no mileage for me as an actor, the things going to plummet into the ground! fortunately for all of us, he or she said, no, it doesn t crash. you re all right. thank god, yeah! i want to get on with phil onto sort of the actual process of putting soaps together. but, daniel, just before we do that, what kinds of numbers, briefly, do the big soaps get these days? and how much of it is linear viewing? they get between about 3
same with grange hill, same with hollyoaks and i think now it s time to really go back and look at what s going on. but i think, finally, what i d say is that everyone should look back to the archers. the archers came about as a collaboration between the bbc, birmingham council and the department of agriculture, you know, and that was bringing together something that would actually teach people more about how food and land was worked and everything. that s the way forward, and i think the bbc would be primed to work with all the other public services, like the nhs and agriculture and education, and that s how you ll fund it. charles, an idea for a soap, or is itjust more archers? well, thank you, phil, for putting it so clearly. and at my age, i m quite happy going out there and saying the lines and getting a cheque at the end of it. fair enough. i love a bit of honesty. daniel, emma, if you were creating a soap now, would you have an idea for one? iwell, if you want big charactersl
creator of three of the biggest british soaps of all time grange hill, brookside and hollyoa ks. daniel kilkenny is soaps editor for entertainment news website digital spy. tv critic and soap fan emma bullimore is here, and charles collingwood, who s been farming, flirting and digging into his wife s venison pie for a whopping 47 years as brian in the archers. welcome to you all and thanks for coming on the show. phil, if we start with you, all the big soaps eastenders, coronation street, emmerdale have seen huge drops in audience numbers in recent years. you ve criticised soaps for not tackling big social issues like they used to. do you think it s the end of the road for them? i think in the current climate, it looks quite pessimistic, but i believe that they shouldn t be, because you have to go all the way right back to the cave drawings and people have always had this insatiable desire for storytelling. and, you know, you can run all the way through history, through the greek