ence at the moment.These audiences of British soaps enjoy this realism because they can see their favourite characters experiencing problems that they are facing or have faced. “ What the reviewers identify as realistic on the soaps is their concern for social issues: breast cancer, sterility, foster care and so forth.”( All For Love, A Study in Soap Opera, Peter Buckingham, Secker & Warberg 1984, p.178) These storylines are what the audience perceive to be realistic and when the programme makers cover issues such as rape and teenage pregnancy, it is often labelled “gritty realism”. However it is not often commented the fact that several of these terrible things all happening within a small time frame to one family, which is commonly found in most soaps, is actually quite unlikely and therefore unrealistic.This usage of several dramatic storylines simultaneously, may be unrealistic but it is absolutely necessary to maintain the audience, which is after all what the programme makers are there to do. If these programme makers decided to make a completely realistic soap opera of an average street in a working class area. Nowadays they would find little interaction with neighbours, rare chance meetings with friends on the street or the pub on the corner, and nowhere near as much drama.There have been some interesting discussions by feminists about the storylines in Soap Operas, “ As a rule, only those issues which can be tolerated and ultimately pardoned are introduced on soaps. The list includes careers for women, abortions, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, alcoholism, and divorce, mental and even physical cruelty. An issue like homosexuality, which perhaps threatens to explode the family structure rather than temporarily disrupt it, is simply ignored.” (Feminist Television Criticism, A Reader, Charlotte Brunsdon et al, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997 p.39)This omission of an issue such as homosexuality ...
