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Compact

Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays. When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner. Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.

Compact

5.0 N/A
Footballers' Wives

Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006. The show began with a multi-lateral focus on a variety of different types of relationships explored; however, from the third series onward, the primary focus was on a complex love triangle between Tanya Turner, Amber Gates and Conrad Gates.

Footballers' Wives

5.3 N/A
Eldorado

Eldorado was a British soap opera that ran for only one year, from 6 July 1992 to 9 July 1993. Set in the fictional town of Los Barcos on the Costa del Sol in Spain and based around the lives of British and European expats, the BBC hoped it would be as successful as EastEnders and replicate some of the sunshine and glamour of imported Australian soaps such as Home and Away and Neighbours. A co-production between the BBC and independent production company Cinema Verity, Eldorado aired three times a week in a high-profile evening slot on the mainstream channel BBC1, filling the slot vacated by Terry Wogan's chat show Wogan, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.00pm. In spite of a high-profile advertising campaign on television, radio and in the press preceding the launch, the programme was not initially a popular hit with viewers and critics. Ratings improved with a radical overhaul, but it was eventually cancelled by the new controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob.

Eldorado

5.4 N/A
Hollyoaks Later

Hollyoaks Later is a spin-off from the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Broadcast on E4 with a late night slot, the series began in 2008, and was an annual event for the soap until 2013, when there was a break, until it returned with a special episode in 2020. Each of the original series was shown over five consecutive nights. The late night airing allowed for more sexual content, "edgier" storylines, and stronger language. Each series is a stand-alone story, although each ties in with events on the main show at the time, with the producers often taking advantage of the later broadcast time to tie up loose ends on the more violent and controversial storylines.

Hollyoaks Later

5.0 N/A
River City

River City is a television soap opera, first broadcast in Scotland on BBC Scotland on 24 September 2002. River City storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch in Glasgow. The series primarily centres around the residents of Shieldinch, their houses, flats and apartments and its neighbouring streets, namely Montego Street and which encompasses a pub, bistro, community centre, café and various small businesses, in addition to a subway station and basketball court. The series was originally screened as two half-hour episodes per week. Today, one hour-long episode is broadcast each week - usually Tuesday evenings on BBC One Scotland, repeated Sunday afternoons on either BBC One Scotland or BBC Two Scotland. In Australia, River City is screened 11:00am weekdays on Seven's British-oriented multichannel 7TWO.

River City

6.1 N/A
Families

Families was a daytime soap opera produced by Granada Television and created by Kay Mellor. It followed two families; the Thompsons, based in Cheshire, England, and the Stevens, living in Sydney, Australia. It was produced and recorded at Studio 6 at Granada Studios in Manchester. The link in the storyline was businessman Mike Thompson, who walked out on his family on his birthday and flew to Australia to be with his true love Diana Stevens, whom he had left years earlier. Unbeknownst to Mike, Diana had given birth to his son Andrew and as complications ensued over the abrupt life changes for both families, Andrew travelled to England, where he met Mike’s daughter, Amanda, by his English wife Sue, and they fell in love, not realising that they were half-brother and sister. This plot line was somewhat similar to the opening storyline of the popular Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters which had successfully aired on ITV daytime since 1983. It was broadcast twice a week at 3.20pm with the first episode broadcast on 23 April 1990. Both episodes were also repeated on Thursday 10.40pm in the Granada TV region as part of Granada's "10.40-extra" strand. After two years, stories involving the Thompson and Stevens families—and the UK-Australian crossover angle—had run their course, with several characters either dead or left for pastures new. In their place came the wealthy Bannerman family, who were introduced during the summer of 1992, as they moved into the Thompsons' Cheshire mansion from a suburb of Manchester. In addition, some of the remaining Australian-based characters were re-located to England.

Families

3.5 N/A
General Hospital

General Hospital is a British daytime soap produced by ATV, which ran on ITV from 1972 to 1979. It was modelled after the American drama of the same name. In 1975, after 270 twice-weekly episodes, General Hospital was given a primetime slot on Friday evening. The move saw the episodes double from 30 to 60 minutes, with each being more self-contained, while on-screen medical procedures, including detailed scenes of surgery, became more prominent. In a fictional Midlands town, the series follows the romantic and professional lives of its doctors and nurses. While the location and the characters names had been changed, in most other respects, General Hospital was almost identical to its predecessor, Emergency - Ward 10, a deliberate attempt to recreate its success.

General Hospital

NR N/A