The "foreign soaps" topic

[Sylph]

Thank you!!!

It's just difficult for me to pinpoint who does what (except for the episode script, of course). The whole confusion in my head occured after I read an interview with a story editor who came up with the Who Shoot Phil? story. I would've never thought that a story editor invents stories – I thought that responsability lies with the story producer.

I've also seen several soaps credit people as storyliners, especially in Australia. But in this case, I don't know who has the final word. I would guess an EP, who oversees the storylining team.

And if we consider the day-to-day production and weekly developments, I really have no idea who might be the person who writes outlines (I don't even know if they exist) and who assigns scripts to freelancers.

A mess.

[dannigold]

I found this on the EE creative process

What does the Script Editor do?

The Script Editor devises the best way to tell a story. For instance, if Billy needs to buy a house, the Script Editor must find the most exciting and plausible way for him to buy that house.

What are the considerations?

Taking Billy's house as an example, the Script Editor must ask: Does this story make sense? Is Perry (Billy) available for filming both in the studio and the lot (the Albert Square set)? Is the house story the main story? Is there a strong ending to the story?

Who writes the scripts?

Three or four writers write their first drafts. The Script Editor makes notes on these. After this, the writers produce a second draft, then a third and so on until the script is ready to show the Executive Producer.

What's the Executive Producer's part in the process?

The Executive Producer suggests ways that might improve the story, which the Script Editor then passes on to the writers

Series story producer

Responsibilities

In charge of the story department at EastEnders. Basically, it's their job to work with the writers to come up with the storylines on the show.

Series Story Editor

Who's behind the storylines?

The Series Story Editor develops the ideas that turn into the stories you see on the television.

What does the Series Story Editor do?

The Series Story Editor creates the story document which the writers turn into episodes. The document is read by the Executive Producer, Script Editor and Producers. Finally, the writers come to a commissioning meeting to discuss how each episode will work.

How does the brainstorming process work?

A group of core writers, the story department and the Executive Producer sit in a room once a month and vaguely plan what's going to happen over a four week period.

[JamesF]

Interesting! The British method does seem to be very flexible between shows and even time periods. If you compared the credits of EE in the 80s to now, the positions involved would be largely different. And I guess the descriptions fit with what I already knew -- the EPs have a huge amount of power in the running of stories. Matthew Robinson, John Yorke, Julia Smith, Louise Berridge, Kathleen Hutchinson and Diederick Santer all had very distinct styles.

With regards to Australia, I remember the Neighbours method being fairly straightforward. The EP directed the overall tone of the show but was not someone who got too involved in storylines themselves. The script producer/story producer drove long term story with a team of storyliners. They would then have weekly meetings to break the story into blocks and then into episodes. Each episode was given to a storyliner to devise the strict scene breakdown which after being checked was sent to the freelance scriptwriters.

As far as I know Home and Away worked differently. They didn't give breakdowns as such to scriptwriters, just episode synopses and constraints.

[Sylph]

Thank you, dannigold and James!

I think that interview that I have seen those explanations you posted somewhere, danni – the interview with that story editor I mentioned was a part of that series.

I've noticed that a guy named Martin Sterling joined Coronation Street's staff. Here is a short biography:

Born in Manchester in 1962 and resident in Norfolk since 1976, Martin became a professional writer in 1993 following a successful banking career. His first book,

Keeping The British End Up

, was published in 1987 and he subsequently co-wrote (with Gary Morecambe)

Morecambe and Wise: Behind The Sunshine

(1994),

Memories of Eric

(1999),

Cary Grant: In Name Only

(2001) and

Martinis, Girls and Guns: Fifty Years of 007

(2002). His first play,

A Test Of Compassion

, was performed in 1990. As a journalist, Martin's contributed to publications ranging from

The Times

to

Woman's Weekly

and has interviewed major celebrities as diverse as Dame Judi Dench, Ben Affleck, Pierce Brosnan, Rowan Atkinson and the late John Thaw. A familiar voice to BBC Radio Norfolk listeners for more than a decade, Martin has also made numerous national TV and radio appearances, including several guest slots on Gloria Hunniford's Open House show. He has worked as a storyline writer on ITV's

Coronation Street

since October 2004.

James, is Simon Crowther, Kim Crowther's husband, Corrie's worst scrtipwriter?

[dannigold]

I think those interviews are out of date now execpt for the series story producer one; because Diederick Santer removed all of EastEnders producers when he took over last year.

[JamesF]

Simon Crowther is not brilliant. It's hard to determine given the uninspiring stories at the moment. Jonathan Harvey is definitely the only one with a distinct voice.

[anita30]

Ok you know the soap i am loving an that is because of youtube and that is "Hollyoaks" because of the John Paul and Craig storline but I also like Justin and Becca one two. I love how they are not afraid to take risks at all.

Eastenders was one I use to watch when I lived in England and I loved the Mitchells. I finally caught up with the storyline of the return of the Mitchells. That was great as well.

[Sylph]

As part of Channel 4's new talent month, we're offering you the chance to write an episode of HOLLYOAKS.

But this isn't a fan-fic initiative, this time it's for real.

For the very first time, this is your chance to put words into the mouths of the HOLLYOAKS cast and see your work come to life on screen.

This competition is designed to seek out the best new writers in the UK. To do that, we're asking you to script four scenes, based on an old storyline. From this, we'll pick out our favourite. The winner will then be given exclusive access to HOLLYOAKS' storylines, be commissioned to write an entire episode and work with the production team to see this magically transformed on TV.

Whether you're a fan, an established writer or just looking to take your first tentative steps into the TV industry, this is a unique opportunity to make a name for yourself.

[Andrew]

Blanche and actress Maggie Jones are so funny, no character like that will never be seen in an american soap!.....

[dannigold]

Mad May returns to 'EastEnders'

EastEnders actress Amanda Drew is to reprise her controversial Walford role as warped Dr 'Mad' May Wright.

The 38-year-old actress will resurrect her sinister screen counterpart after almost a year's break. Viewers last saw May tangled in the midst of Albert Square's baby abduction storyline which led to her character's exit from the soap.

Last year, BBC bosses made the decision to substantially re-write and re-film the ending to the storyline due to events surrounding Madeleine McCann in Portugal. The climax episode still attracted almost 200 complaints.

The plot saw May and husband Rob Minter (Stuart Laing) attempting to steal Dawn Swann's (Kara Tointon) baby via a forced caesarian and came to a head with Drew's character being arrested and subsequently sectioned.

Now, May is to return to the Square when she overhears Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord) talking about Dawn and baby Summer.

Speaking of her comeback, Drew told The Sun: "May is a gift of a role for any actor because of her complexity. I am so excited to be playing her again.

"It would be a shame to give too much away but she has changed in many ways."

Executive producer Diederick Santer added: "It's great to have Amanda back. Dr May is a hugely popular and exciting character, brilliantly performed by Amanda, and I'm sure viewers will be keen to see what she gets up to and how she's changed."

A spokeswoman for the show this morning told DS: "There are no current plans for Stuart Laing to reprise his role as Rob Minter."

Drew has already begun filming at Elstree Studios, home of EastEnders, and will re-appear on screen in early summer.

[JamesF]

The BBC have gone live with their website for Out of the Blue, the Australian beach soap to replace Neighbours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/outoftheblue/

Looks like an interesting premise but not anything particularly original. Good to see some familiar faces in Maggie Dence, Clayton Watson and Diane Craig though the rest are unfamiliar to me.

[dannigold]

I found some scripts for Eastenders on the BBC website, if anybody is interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/tv_drama.shtml

[Ben]

I remember reading an extensively long interview last year with a couple of guys who used to work on Eastenders; they were talking about the storylining process, and how the show changed how storylines were developed. As far as I can remember, the old process involved the individual writers being assigned stories. The changes implemented did away with that, and now the writers each pitch their own ideas. This is why last year (I haven't been paying attention to the credits this year) a weeks worth of episodes were written by one writer. This process also allows writers to pick and chose which blocks they want to work on. It's been a success; it allows the writers the opportunity to write for characters/storylines that they are interested in, instead of being given something they didn't care for.

I wish I could be more detailed, but I can't remember the site that I read it from. Damn.

It's always interesting how new "viewer" opinion differs from long-time fans. The David/Gail saga has had it's moments. For me, the show is a total yawn-fest, coupled with out-of-character behaviour. I thought the fall, that you mentioned, was laughable, purely because those stairs would have to be the smallest set of stairs in any soap, yet she manged to sustain a whole heap of injuries, which seems to have crippled her!

The show also has a lot of characters on the back-burner, and a whole heap of dull characters on the front-burner. Thankfully, the dull characters have now all been axed! The new producer is cleaning house. What else is going on? Well, the only decent storyline is the Maria/Liam/Carla/Tony quad. Tony's a bad ass, who manipulated Carla into excepting his marriage proposal - he's a bit of a control freak. Maria is pregnant with Liam's baby, and is about to learn some devastating news.

Everything else is blah. With Dan's help, Leanne manipulated Paul into setting Valandro's on fire, so they could collect the insurance money. Now Paul's called the cops, dobbing himself in. It's not looking good. The babyswitch plot continues with no sign of direction or resolution; Becky moved in with Roy, and got back together with Jason; Claire and Ashley have money woes - they're going bankrupt. How that's actually possible is a mystery, seeing as they're situated next to a cafe, as well as the new developments - money shouldn't be an issue. Oh, and Jason killed some bats on Tony's orders...

On a totally different note, I'm loving Home & Away right now. The Sam/Johnny blackmail has been awesome. And how great is sexy Jazz?

[dannigold]

Steve Frost reflects on his time in charge of Corrie

"My initial thoughts on taking the job were mostly fear," he admits. "Complete terror that this is such a huge and cherished part of British TV, that nobody controls the show and that the viewers own it and if you mess it up you'd probably be torn to shreds I think."

His favourite word seems to be "evolve," and what he's enjoyed most is seeing characters evolve. "I think I've most enjoyed working on storylines which have seen great characters evolve and develop," he says. "Tracy killing Charlie was a fantastic storyline and a very fun moment, something we all enjoyed doing. But in a way it saw the end of two characters, Tracy and Charlie, who'd been fantastic characters, so what's enjoyable for me... .

is to see the growth and development of younger characters who evolve through stories. The David Platt story has been fantastic. The place the Platt family has now in the show is great, that evolution's been very exciting. The small stories with Becky - not a major story, but moving in with the Croppers, becoming part of that family, Becky quietly discovering them as surrogate parents and them a surrogate daughter. I like to see new characters grow as you watch them, in real time - it's very exciting."

Which of the characters that he brought in is he most proud of? Frost says, "It's hard to single one out. I obviously think Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) has been absolutely terrific. I've loved everything she's done and she's brought a new dimension to David as well, which has been fun." He reveals that the Connor family were seen as a direct replacement for the Baldwins: "When I arrived on the show I was faced with a big task, which was effectively replacing the Baldwins. Mike Baldwin was dying - his death was being scripted and shot as I arrived, so that was out of my hands, and I was faced pretty much with how to replace the Baldwin family who'd been at the centre of so much in the Street for so long. I feel that the Connors - Michelle, Liam, Carla, Ryan - they've all been marvellous in different ways. They've very quickly bedded into the Street and given us the drama the Baldwins used to."

A character he's very proud of is Becky Grainger. "I didn't introduce Becky, she was in the show already as a minor character when I arrived," he says, "but I'm just delighted at the way Kate [Kelly] has been able to take that character on and make her grow. Becky has suddenly taken her place on the Street, and with Roy there's comedy, drama, things we never imagined, but she feels like she should be there forever, which is fantastic."

What about his favourite exits from the Street? Perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't mention the departure of Vera Duckworth. "There have been several exits which I've loved. I think John Savident's exit as Fred was rather marvellous. His keeling over in Audrey's hall had a certain poetry about it which I loved. But I do think the crowning moment was Tracy bludgeoning Charlie brutally whilst lapdancing in the living room. It was all so extraordinary and yet so marvellous, I loved it. As for arrivals, again there are several, though I think Tina having coffee spilled over her by David was a quiet but significant moment."

And which storyline would he have loved to do? "I would love to have flooded the Street," he reveals. "It would have been great to see a natural weather disaster on the Street. We keep talking about it, thinking, 'can we tank the Street can we fill it with water?' I really fell in love with the idea of somebody in a rowing boat coming round the corner by the Rovers - it would have been a view of the Street never seen before and probably never seen again, but it proved a little bit difficult to pull off. One day, though, I think it will happen because it would be marvellous."

To sum up, he says, "It's been an honour and a privilege to be part of Coronation Street. I've enjoyed it, and I hope very much that you've enjoyed itand continue to enjoy it for hopefully another 48 years at least."

[dannigold]

Diederick Santer interview

Will we ever meet Bianca's partner Tony when he emerges from prison?

"Well we've heard so much already about Tony and we are building up a picture, aren't we? I think we would all be interested to see him!"

The Masoods have been in the show for a good few months now - would it be fair to say that we've not really seen a lot of them at all?

"I would say we have seen them lots. But over the next few weeks and months there are even more stories coming for the Masoods. Masood himself returns from Pakistan shortly but before he does Zainab and Shabnam have some very big moments."

Jake Wood should be back with you at some point in the next few weeks - can you give us any clues as to where Max has been? Will he come back a new man? Or will he be back for revenge?

"Well Max has been experiencing 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness - a B&B in Hastings. Whether he's changed or after revenge, that's for the audience and Tanya to work out."

Jack's a pretty complex character and was drafted in via somewhat of a whirlwind - where is his character headed?

"We've only just scratched the surface with Jack. Who knows the exact circumstances of his departure from the police force? And is his motive for wanting to be with Tanya entirely sincere? All will be revealed."

What can you tell us about Suzy Branning?

"Viewers will soon notice that Suzy Branning is never far from her large pink handbag - but what exactly does it contain?"

Can you tell us a little more about Archie Mitchell? What's Larry Lamb like in the role now he's begun filming?

"Archie is charming, attractive and very confident - he's an old school London type and 100% Mitchell. I've only seen a handful of scenes that Larry's done so far but I think he's giving a mesmerising and multi-layered performance. I'm really excited about him."

What do we learn about the Mitchell sisters from their father?

"Archie will give us a real picture of what the girls' life growing up was like. However, his memory of it and Ronnie's are a little different."

If I've done the maths correctly, it won't be long before Diane Parish is back with you...

"Diane as Denise will be on screen in a few weeks. She walks into some pretty shocking chaos involving Chelsea, Patrick and her no-good ex, Lucas."

You said not so long ago that you haven't finished with Bradley and Stacey - can you elaborate?

"Bradley and Stacey are the couple that everyone wants to be together. However, there is so much water under the bridge it would take quite a lot for Bradley to give Stacey another chance. I do think though that, at some deep level, they do care dearly for one another... But that is all I'm going to say for now."

You managed to keep Mad May's return under wraps for weeks - how excited are you and the production team about having her back?

"Oh, it's thrilling to have Amanda back. I had a secret meeting with her in January - at which I pitched the idea and to my delight she loved it and was really keen! It's great having her back and I hope viewers will feel the same."

EastEnders is becoming well acknowledged for its decisions to take a step outside the box, as it were, and try controversial storylines like Jay's stabbing and The Vic raid - what's next?

"I'd like to think we take risks of all kind - for example the hugely successful Dot episode. As regards the grittier issues - we've got some interesting and thought provoking stuff in the pipeline."

What's the latest on EastEnders moving to HD filming?

"No decisions have been made but we are still busy doing tests, many of which look absolutely fantastic."

And what about the set move?

"Again no decisions yet, but it's still a strong possibility."

And also on the cards...

- One pregnancy, two possible fathers - and even when the father finds out, will he want to be part of their life?

- Memories come flooding back for one Walford resident and another who's not entirely sure why they're there...

- And one resident don't realise the dramatic consequences which lie in store when he makes a new acquaintance...