Sylph

My fave Vogue, too! You think Carine is badly dressed? Yeah, I guess she does wear her Stylist label like a badge and wants to appear very experimental (note Patricia Field who dressed Sex & the City looks like a bag lady). However rough she looks, though, I don't mind giving her a free pass because her publication is so fun to read.

You've put it better: it's the stylist label. Too experimental, eccentric, attention-drawing in its own way. But I do love French Vogue. So much refinement & sophistication... And fun!

Now Kate Moss... there's an overhyped "fashion muse."

Although it's not really in line with the title, but how about telling us something about the most popular/best primetime soap operas in the last 20 years in Germany?

Totally random and OT...

LOL, thing is you get access to these for free; and I didn't make it to William Rest BTW because my best friend's best friend who's working for a label coulnd't attend due to preparations for her own show.

I know, I was just kiddin' with ya.

As a fan of Vogue et al., Sylph - have you ever seen pics of their (fashion) editors? I guess it's an unwritten rule to be dressed

Oh, yes, absolutely awful. Even the editor of my favourite Vogue international edition (French) is dreadfully dressed. More often than not. Simply appalling.

"Ecstatic" by Vonda Shepard

Just bought her "new" (well - it's 12 months old now, I guess, but legally purchasing one recording album per year is the highest standard I can put myself up to these days LOL!) "From the Sun" album which is so-so but the this song along "Downtown/Dirty Town" is great.

Yet you can go to Justin Timberlake fashion show!

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And you care, because?

So that I can and

It's really just another David plot, where they fail to explore his real motivations, leaving him on his little merry-go-round of mediocrity. There's only so much that you can blame your mum's serial killer boyfriend, for.

IMO, this show is one big bore. The majority of the storylines are either mediocre, bad, or out-of-character. Half the cast never really get used, while the other half are over used. It's in a rut.

completely agree with this.

Has David framed Gary for burgling Audrey's house?

Thanks, Huntress!

A question: how do the German writing staff credits go? Could you give a few examples?

When did you start watching this, Y&RWorldTurner?

Has it exploded?

Hollyoaks: it’s OK, we love it too


How has Channel 4’s teen soap become a rival to Corrie and EastEnders? Tim Teeman on a soapy trailblazer

Tim Teeman


It wuz robbed. Its stars did what was expected and turned up, spray-tanned and taped into barely-there dresses. But it wasn’t enough. Nominated in every category yet winner of not one, Hollyoaks was the Cinderella of the British Soap Awards on Saturday night. The big beasts, EastEnders and Coronation Street, emerged triumphant. The Chester-based teen soap, garlanded many times last year, was left — unfairly — gongless. Loudly and brashly, but mostly ignored because of its scheduling, Hollyoaks has been rewriting the rules of soap opera.

The crazy dream sequence, or warp-speed pastiche, that opens every episode of Hollyoaks serves as a warning, or invitation, that you are about to enter unfamiliar soap territory. The sequence will typically feature that episode’s main characters dreaming or imagining whatever plight they are facing — about to be dumped or accused of some heinous act — razzed up with a ridiculous pop song. After two minutes of this high-voltage surrealism, the episode begins: a maelstrom of romance, blackmail and adultery (and that’s just a quiet day in Hollyoaks village), spiced with a surfeit of teenage hormones.

In its trailblazing guise, Hollyoaks — made by Phil Redmond’s Lime Pictures — is continuing the tradition set by its older cousin, Brookside, which in the 1980s radicalised soaps by breaking on-screen taboos such as homosexuality, incest and rape, and featuring sensationalist plots such as the body-under-the-patio storyline and a helicopter crashing into the local petrol station. Like Brookie, Hollyoaks is filmed at Redmond’s HQ, with Lime’s offices doubling as college corridors.

From its birth in 1995 to fairly recently, Hollyoaks suffered by comparison: Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale were better resourced, better acted and better produced. The Channel 4 show, conceived as a British Neighbours or Home and Away, was a bratty upstart, suitable only for sneering at. Graham Norton joked about it at the Baftas and James Corden, who was in the show, said that he’d “rather die than go back. I can’t tell you the sheer disdain I have for the place and people”.

Parents may live in fear of hearing its demented opening theme (sure to usher in another half-hour of sexual and moral indiscretion) but Hollyoaks has arguably become one of our most daring, and under-rated, popular dramas. Those parents are probably enjoying the show over their children’s shoulders — just like the many twenty and thirtysomethings who find it compelling hangover TV when it’s repeated as an omnibus on Sunday mornings. Hollyoaks, as the awards nominations and growing critical recognition signals, has migrated from its teen moorings.

On June 1, the first episode under the regime of new series producer Lucy Allan goes out, which she promises will be heralded by a “small but noticeable” tweak to Hollyoaks’s distinctive opening titles sequence featuring the lead characters cavorting, gurning and pouting to an insane riff similar to the Roobarb theme.

Bryan Kirkwood, the outgoing series producer and the man responsible for the resuscitation of this once-dire show, is leaving with a suitably dramatic swansong. The return of the soap’s superbitch Claire to set fire to The Loft nightclub and possibly murder Warren, the chief male baddie, or Justin, the bad boy turned good, or Russ, the well-spoken teacher who fulfils little narrative function, or maybe someone else entirely, will play out to its explosive climax on May 29.

It will be good to have Claire back, even if her reign of terror this time is to be brief. As played by Gemma Bissix, she is one of Kirkwood’s favourite creations, responsible for drugging and attempting to defraud and murder her ex-husband Max Cunningham, menace his little brother Tom and, finally, kill Warren’s sister Katy (who was, admittedly, very annoying) by driving over a cliff. We saw Claire sink into the murky depths of the lake but, as in all the best soaps, she wasn’t dead and was last seen in killer red heels about to ensnare a businessman at an airport, not a trace of algae in her hair.

When Kirkwood took on the show three years ago, it was a dying embarrassment. He says that it had been left to drift. The eye-candy-with-no-discernible-talent quotient was high. The storylines — “people playing jokes in chicken outfits” — were inane. He began a ruthless cull of bad actors and sharpened the scripts and storylines with a new roster of writers. Now, each episode is a tightly packed firecracker of bitching, backchat and unpredictable plot. The beautiful people, acting quality improved, are still present: one actor recalls a Hollyoaks casting to be a riot of hair straighteners, barely-there tops and lipgloss.

“People want to lose themselves in someone else’s dramas,” says Kirkwood. “When I joined it, the show was in desperate need of being worked over. I found actors like Emma Rigby and Chris Fountain who were being criminally underused. Emma oozed star quality. There were a couple of mates, Max and OB, whose friendship I knew could become the heart of the show. I brought in families like the McQueens and the Valentines.”

Rigby, who plays teenager Hannah, went through a harrowing and explicit eating-disorders storyline, which — like everything on Hollyoaks — was incredibly melodramatic but still rang true, especially when she acquired a friend who starved herself to death. Now, to tie in with Kirkwood’s farewell, the writers have bought her and Fountain’s character together, although star-crossed lovers in Hollyoaks are usually accorded about five minutes of happiness before a passing psychopath or freak hurricane tears them apart.

Kirkwood’s tenure also saw a brilliant gay love story between teenagers John-Paul and Craig (“McDean” as they were known to fans), with kisses, bedroom scenes and all the emotional depth and insane complications of the straight relationships developing alongside it.

Kirkwood is proud that other shows are now aping Hollyoaks: EastEnders and Coronation Street are not only younger; the recent salty irreverence, glamour and pace of both bigger beasts are now closer to the Hollyoaks template.

“You hear incidental music creeping into the shows,” says Kirkwood. “In a recent episode of EastEnders, one character had a life-after-death fantasy sequence. It’s undeniable that we have had an impact on the bigger shows. People who slag off Hollyoaks haven’t seen the show for the past couple of years.”

But can Hollyoaks still shock us? “It’s harder to break taboos — there are none left,” admits Allan. “It has been such an intense year that I want to have some light, fun stories this summer, before we get darker into the autumn. I’m most excited by a week-long whodunnit plot in September. We have to keep on our toes. Our audience knows to stay on its toes. The stories we tell might be familiar and they might have a known end — the couple get together — but getting them there is the trick, and keeping all those twists fresh.”

This year, Hollyoaks excelled itself with a drawn-out plot featuring a psychopath called Niall, who, at the climax of his devious plan to destroy a family, blew them all up in a church before committing suicide on a Scottish mountain.

One of the stranger, but still transfixing, plots saw emo kid Newt stalked by a sinister character called Eli, who would mysteriously appear and disappear in a flash. In one episode it was revealed that Eli wasn’t real but a manifestation of Newt’s schizophrenia. It’s rare that soaps still shock, but that conceit did. The Hollyoaks problem, if it has one, is that it can be so action-packed and dramatic that its quieter times feel a bit dull. There are some great younger actors, such as Hollie-Jay Bowes, who plays Michaela McQueen, nominated for best comedy performance at the British Soap Awards.

Next Kirkwood will produce Hollyoaks Later, which goes out after the watershed. He hedges his bets, meaningfully, when asked if he wants to produce another soap. “I love soaps, they’re the bread and butter of TV,” he says. Kirkwood’s pride and passion saved Hollyoaks; lucky the next show that benefits from his golden touch. If his legacy proves strong and the supplies of spray tan remain consistent, there is no reason for Hollyoaks not to sweep the board at the British Soap Awards next year.

Hollyoaks, Channel 4, Mon-Fri, 6.30pm

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6260211.ece

Beautiful lyrics...

I just said the same to an e-mail buddy of mine, who also happens to be a tremendous AW fan. If I could go back in time and write for Lemay (forget about just watching the show, lol!), I would.

LMAO! Would he even consider you?

Harding had many, many problems with his subwriters and disliked pretty much all of them. Except for Douglas Marland.

The show is very directionless now, although I don't think this is because of Kirkwood's departure, the show has been aimless for quite some time (I'd say since late 2007). Directionless isn't always bad, as there can be some moments of strength. I think Anita's bullying story is very well done, from what I've seen, and the core families are still there if HO ever wants to focus on them.

So now half of his tenure sucked?

So, Huntress, none of these people who write for these soaps has ever been interviewed or something? No one is particularly famous?

I love B&B's music right at the beginning and right before the end of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vph0Xm2t7n8

I'm going to try to find that oboe music I like...

And on the subject of that telenovela, I was very surprised to read about it being in development, especially seeing as that kind of OTT drama is kind of a niche thing. I believe it was supposed to be called Beautiful Thing. Clearly it's been scraped. Googling it, there doesn't seem to be any reason why... unless I've missed it.

Wait, no. Beautiful Thing is Jonathan Harvey's play from 1993.

Hmm, good question, what did become of it?

I have no idea. It must be one of those much ado about nothing ideas that someone had and then — nothing. Perhaps JamesF knows something.

I believe he resigned to take a higher post at Lime Pictures, the production company that produces Hollyoaks. The late-night spin-off is only like five hour long episodes, so I guess he figured what the hell, it won't hurt him to be in charge of it.

He's a gifted storyteller, and I really wish Lime had asked him create an entirtely new program, but that's not to be I guess.

And did he get it? The higher post? It's sad such gifted auteurs have very slight chances of getting a new program on air. And sometimes, even when they do, the shows turn out to be total train wrecks (network interferences and all).

I wonder what happened to Jonathan Harvey's telenovela for talkbackTHAMES and BBC... I bet there is a bible or a pilot written, but nothing came out of it.

But how weird this all feels... He resigns as EP, then after a few months he comes back to head a spin-off or something? And when one says that he has projects "in development", that always spells "nothing will ever come out of it". Sadly.

I wouldn't say it sucks, just some of the polish that was there before is gone. Who knows how much of his stuff was changed or how much he cared by the end anyway.

But I really haven't had time to watch lately, but will soon.

Probably. They must have altered his projections. Even heavily.

I think like 2-3.5 months. Kirkwood's name should be gone in a month or so. I think that's when his storyline projections are up.

So, wait: even though he's still credited, it kind of... Sucks?