The "foreign soaps" topic

[dannigold]

Interview with Dominic Treadwell Collins, Eastenders story producer

Each week we'll be asking people from all parts of the media industry - from channel controllers to catering staff, directors to digital technicians - to tell us about themselves and their job.

This week it's the turn of the man who could (and wants to) make Julie Andrews appear in the Queen Vic, the master of what occurs in Albert Square, EastEnders story producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.

Name

Dominic Treadwell-Collins

Job Title

Story producer, EastEnders

Age

30

Lives

London

In the role since

January 2007

Responsibilities

I'm in charge of the story department at EastEnders. Basically, it's my job to work with the writers to come up with the storylines on the show.

Best thing about your job

Playing God with the cast of EastEnders.

Worst thing about your job

I never know what time of year it actually is.

First thing you do in the morning when you get in

Turn on my monitor so I can look in on the Queen Vic, make a cup of tea, check my emails and then have a cheeky look at Digital Spy.

Question you have been asked most this week?

"Where is Ian?"

Favourite Eastenders character of all time?

It's a toss up between Dot, Pat and Peggy. I do love the Beales as well. And I adore Ronnie and Roxy. So, that's a fair few already. You've really got to love all your characters to do this job.

Which celeb (dead or alive) would you most like to write into Eastenders, and what would their character do?

Julie Andrews. And she could do anything. She's Julie Andrews.

Toughest storyline to write this year?

The Stella storyline was tricky because we had to build up the suspense whilst also being careful not to show too much torture of Ben. We also had to get her psychology absolutely right. It paid off though, I think.

Any downsides to working in TV?

Everyone you meet has an opinion on what you do. I sat next to someone at a wedding last week and, when I'd told her what I did for a living, she proceeded to tell me how much she loathed EastEnders and started pulling it apart. I nodded, excused myself to go to the loo and never came back. I eat, sleep and breathe 'Enders so sometimes it is nice to have a break.

First TV job?

Coming up with ways to kill people on Midsomer Murders.

Biggest achievement to date?

Winning the soap award for best storyline on Family Affairs. It was a little soap and we hadn't won any awards before. That night was absolutely fantastic.

Anything you wish you'd done differently?

Not really. I've been really lucky in my career so far, touch wood.

Dream job/company/lifestyle?

Do you know what? It's this. I grew up near Elstree Studios and used to poke my nose through the gates like Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and dream about working on 'Enders. And now I'm here.

Best media jolly/event you've ever attended?

Barbara Windsor's 70th birthday party. Incredible.

If you could create a soap of your own, what would it be about?

Actually, when we get stressed in the office we turn to our fictional behind the scenes soap which details the lives of people who work in the script and story department here. It's actually far more outrageous than 'Enders and would have to be broadcast very late at night.

[Sylph]

Thanks, Danni, for the interview! Here's a photo of him:

[Sylph]

“Neighbours” revamp fails to win viewers

Saturday, October 13 2007, 09:00 BST

By Beth Hilton

Neighbours has failed to win back viewers in Australia after its much-hyped relaunch in July.

Producers gave the 22-year-old show a revamp to halt a fall in ratings, including new scripts, a new family and a return to "heart-wrenching family drama". Its famous theme tune was also re-recorded.

However, the soap has not attracted a substantially larger audience, despite cameos from celebrities such as Emma Bunton, Michael Parkinson and Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

It is now averaging about 801,000 viewers a night on Network Ten, just 3% more than prior to the relaunch. Rival soap Home and Away attracts an audience of over 1.4 million for Seven.

A Fusion Media analyst said producers Fremantle Media and Ten would not be happy with the ratings, telling Australia's Daily Telegraph: "At the time [of the relaunch], they were hoping for 900,000 to a million viewers." However, he added that Neighbours' audience share was "good" given its "tough" timeslot.

But the show is unlikely to be axed in Australia because of the large financial contribution it receives from Five in the UK. The channel paid around £300 million for the rights to the programme - which draws nearly six million viewers in its twice-daily slot on BBC One - in May this year.

Ten insisted it is standing by the show, saying it will take time for the changes to filter through and audience numbers to start climbing.

Neighbours will be shown on Five's main channel and digital service Five Life from 2008.

[dayslover]

The soaps in the Netherlands are not doing fine.

- Goede tijden slechte Tijden (which is almost 20 years old) scores around 1 million vieuwers, but 1 year ago it scored more then 2 million vieuwers. They tried to get people back wachting the soap, but it's not a succes. Last friday the soap had 800.000 viewers. A new all time low.

- ONM (that exist like 15 years) is doing worser then ever, 2 years ago it was scoring like a all time high with around 1 million viewers, but now it only has around 300,000 people watching, with all time lows around 150,000. But the Network isn't worry about it, and they ordered 2 more years for the soap.

[dannigold]

At least we finally have an answer, to what his job actually is.

[JamesF]

Oh I'd forgotten Dominic came from Family Affairs and it's interesting because that show was always a slightly more outrageous, soapier version of EE. The interview with Santer was interesting as well and highlighted how he's dragging the show back up -- it's not afraid to be a soap anymore. With Louise Berridge (and to an extent John Yorke), it had these outrageous pretensions of treating soap like it was a dirty word and even the dialogue was ridiculously stilted.

As far as Neighbours is concerned, I will never understand the Aussie audience and I just think that they expect shlock from their soaps. A preview for Home and Away this week was something like "Which person they trust...is the NEW Summer Bay Stalker?" I mean that's the third time they've recycled the storyline in as many years and it's pulling in great numbers. Neighbours still isn't perfect but the story surrounding Susan running down Bridget Parker has been incredibly well written -- a story of bad things happening to good people. Miranda's reaction has made it all the more uncomfortable to watch.

[Sylph]

I think I mentioned it a few times, but perhaps some time ago, when he was just story editor.

[JamesF]

OMG tonight's episode of Corrie was one of the funniest I have ever seen and it's probably no coincidence that it was written by Jonathan Harvey. The character stuff alone was funny with Sally wittering on but the end of the episode with Sarah's wedding dress was just brilliant. If I can find any clips on You Tube I'll be sure to post.

[Huntress]

Four of the five German daily soaps are currently featuring homosexual couples.

On Marienhof, Sülo (Giovanni Arvaneh), a Turkish guy who has been involved with many women during the last few years, has fallen in love with Mischa (Matthias Beier) despite being married to psycho Constanze (Julia Dahmen).

On GZSZ, Franzi (Jasmin Weber) has fallen in love with Paula (Josephine Schmidt), the wife of her ex-boyfriend's half-brother. When their secret affair comes to light, all hell breaks loose.

On Alles was zählt, ice-hockey player Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew), another Turkish character, has grown feelings for Roman (Dennis Grabosch), a gay figure skater. Of course, this doesn't go all too well with Deniz's father Marian (Sam Eisenstein) and Nina Sommer (Nathalie Thiede), who is hopelessly in love with Deniz.

[Sylph]

[YRBB]

HOME & AWAY has been brilliant lately. Obviously the stalker storyline has been done before, but I am really enjoying it.

By the way, does anyone know where I can watch CORRIE/EastEnders online?

I get to see episodes of that latter so rarely and Corrie I have never seen and I really want to!

[sacndal_01]

The reason Home & Away can deliver such trash night after night is because the audience is mainly made up of teenagers who prefer the daily shock/high drama storylines to the normal, 'everyday life' storylines the show delivered when I was growing up. When I was younger H&A would have the occasional big storyline, just like any other soap, but you treasured it and would count down the days to it because you knew that if it was a big event it was going to something absolutely amazing (eg Chloe's rape and reveal of her rapist, the flood in which Tom drowned, Gypsy being kidnapped etc). Nowadays, the H&A audience has been groomed to expect these storylines and if they don't get them, they complain that the series is boring.

It all goes back to around the 2003 season (if I remember correctly) when Coral Drouyn took over the reins. Don't get me wrong, Coral is a fantastic writer and she managed to get the show back to the top of the ratings, but she did it at the expense of long time viewers. It suddenly became The Sutherland's Show and there seemed to be a never-ending line of car crashes and daily 'Who will die?' episodes. Then Bevan Lee returns and brings in some 'stability' and he's canned with viewers saying the show had become boring. So, Bevan leaves and in comes Coral's prodigy, Dan Bennet and we're back to having the horrific shock and awe storylines rammed down our throat night after night. Forgive me for that rant but H&A died for me when that happened and I have been bitter about it ever since It just wasn't the H&A I knew and grew up with anymore.

Similar thing for Neighbours although their problem's started back in 1995. That was a horrible season and I don't think they've ever truly recovered. I watched Neighbours religiously until about a year ago when I just got tired with the stupid storylines - and it seems that the Australian public has agreed.

I tuned into the re-launch in June or whenever it was but it just didn't do anything for me, sadly. The show needs a serious rocket shoved up its....if it intends to stay on air (and a true, well done revamp wouldn't be hard to do at all). Yes, the deal with Five in the UK will guarantee some future, but I don't doubt that if the ratings fall below what they currently are (which is another issue) and Ten is offered a better series, they will axe it. It's not a Ten production, so they could very well axe it and leave Grundy/Fremantle Media to produce the series until the contract with Five runs out. Hey, they just dumped Gretel Killeen as host of Big Brother and that took b*lls!

[Sylph]

I would be grateful if someone explained what's the deal with that kid that shows up in Ian's and Jane's life and where is Ian?

[sacndal_01]

His name is Steven Beale. He's the son of Cindy Beale and Simon Wicks - although he thought he was Ian's son until 2002 when he found out that Simon was actually his dad. He then left Walford and moved to New Zealand to live with Simon but has obviously returned to cause as many problems for Ian and Jane as possible.

Ian's back now, isn't he? I know

[JamesF]

Well firstly, I don't think anyone could rate Coral Drouyn as a writer as highly as she does herself. But I do agree that she is talented. She managed to strike a balance of the sensational stories such as Angie Russell's reign of terror and the community stuff but her biggest talent was that she was just as preoccupied with motivation as set pieces. The intricacies of plotting were her forte.

On the downside, she started the pretensions of grandeur that H&A has had for the past 5 years and it really is a show that is stuck up its own arse. One of the major problems I have with the show over Neighbours is that even when it is doing the most ludicrous stories it has absolutely zero sense of humour about itself -- it's unbelievably earnest. At least when Neighbours was doing the outrageous stuff with Izzy Hoyland or Rob Robinson, there was an element of self awareness. The best example would probably be Kirsty falling in love with her sister's rapist and them becoming one of the show's great supercouples with "a love that would never die" and teen fangirls crying into their TimTams. Whereas I found it shlocky and distasteful, there was the feeling that H&A thought they were doing something terribly, romantic and even gritty.

I completely agree with you that it isn't the show I grew up with either. It's fun to catch odd episodes of but as much as I try, I can never get into it on a regular basis like I did in the 90s.

Neighbours I've watched forever through the thick and very, very thin. It's a show that usually goes through cycles of two great years followed by two horrendous ones -- 2003-4 were just brilliant IMO and then the wheels fell off. I'm enjoying the revamp so far. I think the cast has become a bit ungainly and there are still plenty of things that need ironing out but with Libby returning I'm quite enjoying its direction.

I think sacndal_01's pretty much summed it up. I've not watched regularly for the past couple of weeks but the last I saw, Steven had Ian locked up in a dingy flat somewhere. Lucy asked Steven to get rid of the gun Craig gave her but he ended up taking it to finish Ian off. Lucy and Jane followed him and when he was talked round, Jane kind of goaded Steven into shooting himself. There was a struggle for the gun and Jane was shot. I'm not sure what's happened since but I know they're trying to write Steven as damaged goods as opposed to totally evil.