Sylph

What makes you say that? A big problem I have with all British soaps is that no matter how good a particular episode is and how excellent the dialogue pretty much always is, usually after two months of great storytelling comes a period of two years of absolute, inimitable dreck: yes, you can watch day-by-day, but there's just nothing in there, just sporadic episodes or scenes which are superb and then fifty other episodes of... Blah. Sad.

Yes, I've read about that mysterious woman story. But I just cannot believe it that any soap I touch seems to be crap — I so want to watch something intriguing and compelling, but turn out — such a soap does not exist. Or it does — but it's in Greek. LMAO! at that potato phobia!

So any hopes it might become watchable? Green card/visa issues.

This would be a literal, unpolished translation, with mistakes probably... The last sunset My last evening with you It's strangely turbid, like a lie How will it help me whatever I drink How will it help me one kiss and one cigarette I want to put you in one embrace This summer will be lost in the rain And the dream you saw won't come true — the two of us together This summer will be lost in the rain And the dream you saw won't come true — the two of us together The last sunset My last evening together with you I want the sea to get the form of you You left so suddenly And I remembered our first night And the tears came again, in the darkness This summer will be lost in the rain And the dream you saw won't come true — the two of us together This summer will be lost in the rain And the dream you saw won't come true — the two of us together And the dream you saw won't come true — the two of us together... So sad... And the video... Greek videos suck. Sorry, I had to say it. Such a beautiful song, ruined with this awful, awful video. Something much more sophisticated and elegant was needed. Same goes for her song I Am Here.

Who is Gavin Blyth?

A soap should be like this Greek song... Full of longing and dreams that did not come true...

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It is so much fun to see the otherwise phlegmatic Alvin lose it!

Thank you!

Is there a "biography" of Sydney Chase somewhere?

Toni Braxton - Melt

Probably not. BTW, I keep forgetting, who's the head writer?

Well, it got fantastic ratings.

No one is criticising you and I have no problem with it being youth-centred. But, I do like my soaps set in a town with feuding, filthy rich families. And that's something a soap with such a nice title isn't offering me. Yeah, they are a total dreck, those two... British soaps are, as it seems, in a crisis once again. They all need a new EP.

But as it turns out, when these talented, one-of-a-kind soap opera writers leave the soaps, they rarely achieve anything worthwhile. I really haven't watched those shows, but from reading the synopses, they seem nothing special. And kind of disappointing. It's just a traditional drama with little innovation. As for dramedy, I actually detest that word. There's tragedy, drama and comedy. And drama by definition inludes tragic and comedic elements. So the term ends up redundant. Boy, did that new move plummet or what... I totally share this view. I'm so not a die-hard fan like Y&RWorldTurner, but I really appreciate how he (Bryan) turned it from an idiotic soap into something truly watchable and worth someone's time.

It would be splendid, but it would never work. Especially since Darran Little's arrival totally flopped. Bevan is now writing for Packed to the Rafters, a dramedy. Why on Earth did he decide to go back to Home & Away for only six months is beyond me...

Smells like teen spirit Hollyoaks was dismissed as a bit of a joke 18 months ago, but now with Bryan Kirkwood at the helm the show looks set to clean up at Saturday's British Soap Awards Stephen Armstrong Soap operas and gameshows are broadcasting's only true inventions. You can usually gauge the creative health of the medium by the ideas in each genre. Over in the US, the rise in drama has been driven by long-form quasi-soaps like Desperate Housewives. In the UK, that same level of plot complexity, hyper-real scripts and slightly camp dramedy is suddenly at the heart of Hollyoaks - the idiotic teen soap that has just undergone a curious rebirth. Over the past 18 months, Hollyoaks has scored its best ever ratings, with an average of 4 million per episode and a peak of 4.5 million - inching closer to Holby City but still a little short of mainstream shows like EastEnders (7-8 million) and Coronation Street (9 million). Suddenly, the show that was a bit of joke is being taken seriously by the industry and critics alike - Hollyoaks was the only soap to be nominated in every single one of the 15 categories at the British Soap Awards. "It's transformed itself, after years of being rubbish, into something lovely and delicate and clever and fun," says Russell T Davies, executive producer of Doctor Who. "They've got better storylines and a broader range of characters," adds Gareth McLean, Guardian writer and Radio Times soap columnist. "The stories all used to be about chlamydia or one identikit blonde stealing another identikit blonde's boyfriend - and you just didn't care. Now you've got families like the Valentines - the soap's first black family - and the McQueens - neighbours from hell with a touching story about a young guy coming out. It's finally reflecting today's Britain." Killing spree Much of the credit for this lies with the show's producer Bryan Kirkwood (pictured, right). Kirkwood, 31, joined the show in January 2006 straight from the Coronation Street writers' room where he'd worked on Richard Hillman's killing spree and Peter and Shelly's bigamous marriage. When he arrived, it's fair to say the Hollyoaks awards cupboard was a fairly dusty place - one win in 2005, two in 2006. He set about changing the show from the ground up, losing half the writers' room and some 15 cast members. "Hollyoaks used to have a reputation for blonde blandness," he says. "I don't have a problem with really good-looking actors, but I do want them to be able to act. We replaced the departing writers with some strong talent from the Liverpool theatre scene because a soap is only as strong as its storylines. I want to make Hollyoaks credible and cool like The OC and Dawson's Creek. That's where I see its future." For him, the sheet of nominations are actually overdue. "It feels like I've been knocking on this locked door for the past 18 months, and everyone has only realised how good we've become in the last two weeks," he says with a wry grin. Kirkwood's route to Hollyoaks was unusual. Born in Scotland, he moved down to Brighton when he was eight shortly after his mother died: "It was the defining moment of my life really. My little brother Graeme was five at the time, and it was an awful thing to happen but we have decided to take whatever positives out of it that we can and be as successful as possible." He left college after his A-levels and worked in PR for six years before deciding he hated his job and needed to do something else. He quit and went to Australia to plan his next step, then came back to the UK and sent a begging letter asking for work experience in Coronation Street's archive. "I just loved the programme," he recalls. "I remember watching it, sitting on my granny's lap. The theme tune to the show brings it all back. She loved Coronation Street and Crossroads. I remember my grandad ripping the mickey out of her constantly about that 'dull rubbish' she was glued to." He worked his way up through the ranks, constantly banging on the writers' room door with ideas until he was storylining the show. When Phil Redmond sold Mersey TV, it became Lime Picture and Corrie's Carolyn Reynolds and Tony Wood moved over to run the company - taking Kirkwood with them. "I'd known Bryan a number of years both when I was at Network Centre and when I was on Corrie," says Wood. "He just never stops working. I promoted him twice - both times beyond what others thought were his abilities and he stepped up to the plate every time. He's got a very strong eye for story, but he knows that character is important as well - otherwise you're just a runaway train screaming from big bang to big bang." Kirkwood is at the helm in some fairly stormy seas. Soap operas are having to struggle twice as hard as other dramas to keep their audience's attention. "The genre is vulnerable in the new climate," Wood acknowledges. Younger viewers are already illegally downloading episodes, despite careful cross-scheduling on supporting channels like ITV2 and E4. Last week Emmerdale tried to recruit the online community by showing possible solutions to its Tom King murder mystery on YouTube. Ten different murder scenes were shown, with users invited to say which they thought the most likely - with the actual solution revealed on Thursday night. Series producer Kath Beedles says the results were promising. "We got an average of 8.6 million, with a peak of 9.1 million and a 47%," she says. "EastEnders averaged four million with a 20% share. We had three confessions on ITV.com, and they had 30,000 hits in five hours, while the YouTube films had something like 20,000 viewings. On our Who Killed Tom King website, we had around 1.5 million people using it in some way. It's certainly going to be part of our strategy in the future." Meanwhile, Coronation Street is continuing the policy of celebrity casting established by Tony Wood when he put Sir Ian McKellen into the show - although he insists it started by accident when he signed up Status Quo to stop them ringing and begging. Next month comedian Sean Hughes is in the soap playing Eileen Grimshaw's love interest, taking up the comedy slack left by Peter Kay and Roy Hudd. "I certainly see a role for online," Kirkwood agrees. "We've got a very strong proposition and it helps us get constant viewer feedback on storylines and characters. At the end of the day, though, a great soap is about writing really good characters and good stories. You have to get that right before you can do anything else." Kirkwood's classics Coronation Street "I'm paraphrasing Paul Abbott here but he remembers being really annoyed when he got a Jack-and-Vera storyline, then realising that taught him more about story than any blockbuster yarn." The Muppet Show "I'm still amazed at the strength of characterisation, that you could focus kids' minds so that they absolutely believed these puppets were real people." Dynasty "For the sheer scale of the story and its unashamed soapiness." Moonlighting "The greatest TV romance. It should never have been consummated. It's a sign that you shouldn't always give in to the audience." http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/21/mondaymediasection4

So in the end... And this is what I hate about British and Australian soap operas... Who the hell is creating the storylines? In this case, I'm guessing Bryan Kirkwood, of course? This is a mess, but strangely it works.

Sure, I agree. That's why I love it. Although... I'm not actually watching it at the moment, no story really caught my attention. That woman who runs is has to go.

Or... And here's a shocker for you: he might try to run Emmerdale!