A Soap opera is an open ended narrative with story lines spanning many episodes. They depict real life situations in an over dramatised on going series capturing audience who relate to the experiences and who enjoying following a characters life. The name soap opera comes from the original serial dramas on the radio that had soap manufacturers such as Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor and Gamble and Lever Brothers as their sponsors. They were created to replicated the over the fence gossip by women in terraced back to back houses.The Radio soaps were broadcast in the day time on week days so that mainly housewives would tune in and they soon became the target audience.
The BBC became associated with these radio soaps and still broadcasts the longest running radio soap 'The Archers' on BBC four which has been runnning since 1951. It attracts roughly 25% of radio listeners at that time in the evening and still tops over 5 million listeners. 'Coronation Street' was created in the 1960's changing the face of UK television by laying bare the nitty gritty of normal life. The BBC created their own competative Soap Operas however they did not come close to the phenomum that Coronation Street created. However, archives from alot of the BBC's early Soaps are missing including United! and 199 Park Lane. After creating 'Coronation Street', ITV created 'Crossroads' in 1964. The series was popular, however the bad filming and unbelievable acting meant it was subject to much scrutiny and a drop in ratings by the 1980's meant that it was cancelled in 1988.
 | Clara, Lu 'n Em was the first ever Radio Soap Opera,beginning on June 16, 1930 at WGN Chicago and continuing until 1945. |
