Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Star
The days of new soaps launching every few years on UK TV are long gone but there was a period in the past when the schedules were littered with homegrown soaps of varying quality. Some lasted five minutes, others lasted for years, yet we rarely hear or see much of them these days. Here's a few I've come across over time that I thought I'd share.
Together
ITV daytime soap set in a sheltered accommodation block of flats. It ran for a couple of seasons and boasted a pre-Brookside Phil Redmond as part of it's writing team. The second series was broadcast live and was repeated last year on Talking Pictures TV, a lesser known digital channel.
The Cedar Tree
This show was super tame in that cosy "afternoon viewing with your granny" kind of way but I still find it quite compelling. It was sort of a daytime soap version of Upstairs Downstairs owing to the fact that it was created by a writer of that classic drama. Watching it, there's also some obvious comparisons to Downton Abbey in that it features a father figure trying to deal with three daughters - the feisty one, the quiet one and the other one, there's a sardonic mother in law and a slightly racy aunt who lives down in London. It was so well received that it was due to move to primetime but the wheels fell off before this could come to fruition (possibly owing to main cast members leaving including the father, who was subsequently recast, a rare move for a main character in 70's soapland)
Gems
Predating The Bold and the Beautiful, this was a kind of mid-80's bargain basement UK version set around a fashion house in London's Covent Garden. It ran three times a week at varying intervals between 1985-88. Michelle Collins aka EastEnders Cindy / Corrie's Stella is one of it's more famous alumni.
London Bridge
Starting as a late night drama, it later became a twice a week teatime soap which apparently regularly beat Hollyoaks in the ratings, despite the fact that it was only shown regionally. The axe fell in the late 90's. Simone Lahbib of Bad Girls fame was among the cast as was Sunset Beach's Ben Evans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvQpRqJDs0
Together
ITV daytime soap set in a sheltered accommodation block of flats. It ran for a couple of seasons and boasted a pre-Brookside Phil Redmond as part of it's writing team. The second series was broadcast live and was repeated last year on Talking Pictures TV, a lesser known digital channel.
The Cedar Tree
This show was super tame in that cosy "afternoon viewing with your granny" kind of way but I still find it quite compelling. It was sort of a daytime soap version of Upstairs Downstairs owing to the fact that it was created by a writer of that classic drama. Watching it, there's also some obvious comparisons to Downton Abbey in that it features a father figure trying to deal with three daughters - the feisty one, the quiet one and the other one, there's a sardonic mother in law and a slightly racy aunt who lives down in London. It was so well received that it was due to move to primetime but the wheels fell off before this could come to fruition (possibly owing to main cast members leaving including the father, who was subsequently recast, a rare move for a main character in 70's soapland)
Gems
Predating The Bold and the Beautiful, this was a kind of mid-80's bargain basement UK version set around a fashion house in London's Covent Garden. It ran three times a week at varying intervals between 1985-88. Michelle Collins aka EastEnders Cindy / Corrie's Stella is one of it's more famous alumni.
London Bridge
Starting as a late night drama, it later became a twice a week teatime soap which apparently regularly beat Hollyoaks in the ratings, despite the fact that it was only shown regionally. The axe fell in the late 90's. Simone Lahbib of Bad Girls fame was among the cast as was Sunset Beach's Ben Evans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvQpRqJDs0
