I think Soap Opera is serious stuff. So serious I want to get a phD in it. Yes, I AM serious!
What other Art form is seen by millions and deals with: incest/ porn/ rape/ murder/ homosexuality/ drugs/ disaster/ adultery/ lust/ rage/ revenge/ teens/ pregnancy/ abortion/ o blimey, you name it!
I don't care what your politics / religion / ethnicity / ethos / job is. If you're human, you love a cliff-hanger. Soaps make us long for the story to continue. For the characters to get justice. For the annoying evil characters to get their comeuppance. For that trashy girl to be found out by her chump of a boyfriend for cheating on him with his rat of a best friend. And so on and so on.
When I was a kid I wasn't allowed to watch Soaps. Except the superb American programme called Soap, which was excellent satire on the whole genre and is now on Cable at 4 in the afternoon - why not prime time BBC? Please? Pretty please?. So as soon as I was old enough I developed an unhealthy appetite for it. Loads of it. The worse the better. Crossroads was my first love - camp as Christmas. Then Sons and Daughters. Then Coronation Street. Then Eastenders. Before long I was in love with Santa Barbara, the worst soap ever, which had precisely two sets and two plots. Bliss. Pobol y Cwm is the oldest Soap in the UK, made in Welsh for the Welsh - even I couldn't stick it. Take the Highroad, reputedly the Queen Mum (RIP)'s favourite was dull dull dull: not quite as dull as Pobol y Cwm, mind. My favourite subtitled soap ever was Agony from Pakistan - incomprehensible, emotive, cheap, irresistable. I'm not sure what country Dancin' Days was set in, but BOY that was hilarious. However, a straw poll (amongst those I know who admit to watching rubbish) proves that everyone loves The Bold and the Beautiful - TOTAL trash! It even has spiritualist mediums (a bloated Liz Taylor lookalike) and classic sub-plots like Priest in Lust (see Neighbours currently for the most fervid of these I've ever seen - phew!).
Mail me if you think you've seen the Worst Soap in the World Ever. Head it "no, I've seen worse Soaps than you..." I'm an expert and I've heard great things about Mexican Soap but sadly haven't seen it for myself. Any descriptions of plots / acting / dialogue / sets would be gratefully received.
Okay, Acorn Antiques doesn't count but it is hilarious.