UK Teatime Soaps In 2023

EastEnders - though I haven’t checked out Corrie or Emmerdale for ages, and Jane never watched Hollyoaks.

Good things about EastEnders: it does to keep up to date with and reflect contemporary issues, and I like or am sympathetic to most of the characters (including murderers come to think of it). I also like quite a lot of the acting of the current cast surprisingly.

Bad things: the infamous tin-ear for comedy, and the occasional ham-fisted handling of big social issues. And sending a character on a tedious self-destructive arc (currently Jack Branning)

happened to see a full episode of emmerdale and coronation street at my grans last week. latter seemed much better than the former, or at least funnier. new (or not, havent seen in more than a decade) corrie intro/titles dreadful tho

* have never watched Hollyoaks

I gave up watching Corrie about four years ago and I don't miss it at all. EastEnders is just better in every single way. I don't watch it religiously, but when I go back, I always feel I know the characters, who they are, why they are the way they are. Corrie always feels as if the writers just throw a storyline at whoever happens to be around at the time - I believe Stephen (always a peripheral character brought back when Audrey needed something to do) is back from Canada and is somehow now a serial killer for reasons. Can't work out if Phelan evil type or Hillman/Stape caught in over his head type, and I don't care.

Never really watched Hollyoaks, though Emmerdale always seems decent and I did get quite into it for a bit.

Should say "throw a storyline at a character, then forget about it when the storyline is done". I never really forgave them for having Kevin forget that he lost his son. Also, unless they've improved things massively, Jane Danson is the only cast member who can actually act.

Haven't seen an episode of Eastenders for about 20 years, the old Sean Lock gag about the fastest a human being can move being the time it takes him to switch off a radio when he hears the opening bars of the Archers applies to me and Eastenders, I literally cannot bear to look at it.

When my mum was still alive I used to have to watch Emmerdale with her when I visited her, it's always been pretty boring despite the multiple murders, unwanted pregnancies and car/plane/helicopter crashes etc.

Hollyoaks I haven't seen an entire episode since the character Ellis was a cute 8 year old, I have however seen the last one minute of it virtually every weekday for the last 20 years as it's on just before Channel 4 news.

Coronation Street was another one my mum watched and my sister watches it whenever I'm up visiting her, so I'm voting for that despite the multiple murders, unwanted pregnancies and car/plane/helicopter crashes etc.

contemporary viewers in the age of Netflix and on-demand viewing habits

Watching EastEnders does feel different from watching Netflix for me. There’s an element of personal long-time investment in the series that keeps me watching. And it forms a useful psychological role in marking that the evening has started (though I do sometimes watch it on iPlayer as well) . And I quite like that I haven’t completely lost touch with scheduled mainstream tv.

Voted Emmerdale as it is the only one I can bear to watch these days. I was very into Hollyoaks 2000-2005, as evidenced by my contributions to the thread on the topic. These days I catch the odd 5 minutes before C4 News and can't stand even that. back in the days when I watched it the characters seemed so much more relatable. This might be just because I have aged and my tastes have changed, but I think maybe there has also been a change to the tone of the writing.

I believe Stephen (always a peripheral character brought back when Audrey needed something to do) is back from Canada and is somehow now a serial killer for reasons.

I don't watch soaps at all (I only watch TV for the nature documentaries re-runs of Top Of The Pops) but suddenly the latest cover of that soap magazine they sell in my local Tesco Express makes sense.

Are these on at teatime now? Or has teatime got later?

I finish work between 5pm and 6pm most days, by the time I settle down with dinner it's 7pm-8pm, that's "teatime" to me at least. I would consider these different from Doctors, Home & Away and Neighbours (Australian obviously but very much part of the UK tradition of soaps), or even Casualty/Holby - I feel like these are the four "main" ones.

But Hollyoaks is finished by the time to sit down for your tea.

not if you watch it on E4!

(I do not watch Hollyoaks regularly any more)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

none of them are ever getting the viewers back, are they?

Hollyoaks is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a Brookside crossover, complete with returning characters Sheila, Bobby, Billy, Barry, Sinbad, Tinhead and Nikki. Mick Johnson has been in Hollyoaks for a few years playing a different character but today they revealed he is in fact the same character but using an undercover alias (!) which makes no sense because the Jacqui Dixon actress is also in Hollyoaks but not playing Jaqui Dixon.

I thought it was terrible. Sue Johnston in particular seemed very wooden, Phil Redmond made a sanctimonious cameo, and someone actually said dialogue along the lines of "let's not mention patios" - it was obviously going for campy nostalgia but it was just embarrassing.

Even before this, Hollyoaks has become a parody of itself in the past year. They've currently got two characters who have come back from the dead, other regular characters living side-by-side with people whose children they've used in human trafficking, and Tony who was supposed to be infertile having a dozen kids to a dozen women. It's not even so-bad-its-fun silly nonsense like late-era Brookside or Sunset Beach, it's just really bad. I'm not regularly watching but every time I tune I'm shocked that this is still on air.