WRITING- TV SOAP OPERAS

First, what soap operas are.

In UK, soap operas are serialized program usually dealing with sentimentalized matters that is broadcast on radio or television.

They are called soap opera because soap companies often sponsor them.

It is said that this is the intension of soap companies which want to advertise their products to women, but the true reason is that there was a story of a soap company in soap opera in America.

This is watched by women than men and more by those in lower socio-economic groups because women have to be in home due to taking care of their children.

Second is the most famous soap opera in UK.

The most famous program in TV soap opera is East Enders.

East Enders started in 1985.

It is very long running TV soap.

The story lines focus on domestic and realistic life of the people who live in the fictional city of Walford in the East End of London. The characters tend to be mainly working class

The program makers took the decision that show was to be about ‘everyday life’ in the inner city ‘today’ and regarded it as a ‘slice of life’.

Producer Julia Smith declared that ‘we don’t make life, we reflect it’.

This program purse ‘documentary realism’.

And last is the differences of soap operas between UK and other countries.

The difference between American’s soaps and England ones is that American soaps are supposed to be more unrealistic, or unnatural and the characters are more glamorous, British soaps are supposed to be more realistic.

On the other hand, India’s soap operas focus on the conflict between love and arranged marriage.

Soap operas’ trend is different from each country.