The impact of TV drama cutbacks on soaps is “a real tragedy”, according to critically acclaimed writer Jack Thorne.
“It feels like we’re killing ourselves a little bit,” the BAFTA-winning screenwriter and playwright has told Sky News.
Those who watch the soaps will know Christmas means Turkey trimmings with a side-order of high-drama.
While it is, of course, all kicking off on the cobbles and at The Queen Vic as you’d expect at this time of year, off-camera it’s been quite the tumultuous time for those working on a number of long-running dramas.
Two years after the end of Holby City, this year the BBC axed Doctors and cut the number of Casualty episodes.
“Holby was a bastion of great writing,” Thorne insists, “and the lack of those shows is going to be a problem for our future.”
“It’s a really, really hard time being a writer in this country… and I think that’s going to be a real problem, it’s been something that’s been growing for a while.”
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The BBC cited increased production costs as the reason Doctors had to go. After 24 years, the very last episode aired in November.
Elisabeth Dermot Walsh who played the scheming Dr Zara Carmichael admits she was gutted for both cast and crew.
“So many people got their first breaks particularly on Doctors, from writers to camera assistants, through to the assistant director department, to producers,” she says.
“There was room in our process to have new people all the time and be training them up… how do people step up a level if they’re not given the opportunity?”
As well as acting she’s now turned her hand to podcasting, hosting Chicken Soap For The Soul.
Reflecting on her time on the long-running soap, she accepts “it’s actually very unusual in an actor’s life” to work on one job for that long, but still feels “it was such a loss”.
“Obviously this is a bad time for television and the industry but we were hardly costing a fortune to be made… we weren’t at the expensive end of proceedings, so we had hoped that we would survive… it was a very important project for the Midlands.”
“There is not much television made in this area… so the people who were on the show when it was cancelled have had to leave the region or leave the industry really for now.”
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In a dramatic plot twist, at the start of this year, the producers of Hollyoaks were told budget cuts meant plans were afoot to reduce its number of weekly episodes.
It found an original way to explain losing 20 characters – an explosion and a time jump by one year.
Daniel Kilkelly, soaps editor for Digital Spy, says “fans know that nothing is certain anymore”.
“The fact that they still have Hollyoaks in their lives, just a bit less often, I think they’re relieved over that.”
Kilkelly says ultimately the challenge has proven to be a real showcase of the writing talent.
“By September the new look show was on air… I think it just shows the creativity behind the scenes and the passion people behind the scenes have for the soaps to just make it work, which we saw during COVID as well.”
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When it comes to relying on soaps as a talent training ground, Thorne fears what’s happening is “hugely short-sighted”.
“It’s not the fault of Channel 4 or the BBC or ITV because they’re being starved of funds… you need for the industry to be self-perpetuating and unfortunately, at the moment it feels like we’re killing ourselves a little bit.”
