Religion in the soaps

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Religion in the soaps
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Where did it start? (1)

• The longest running soap opera is the BBCs The
  Archers. It was first broadcast on 1 January 1951
  and has been broadcast 5 days a week ever since.
  There have so far been 17,600 episodes and an
  estimated 6 million listeners.

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Where did it start? (2)

• St Stephens Church plays in key role in village
  life and family occasions and religious beliefs
  are frequently covered. Recent issues have
  included rural drug addiction, interracial
  relationships, badger culling, family break-ups
  and civil partnerships.

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Coronation Street (1)

• Coronation Street (Corrie) was first broadcast
  on ITV on 9 December 1960. To date there have
  been over 8,500 thousand episodes. The show is
  about a working-class community in the fictional
  northern town of Weatherfield. On 17 September
  2010 it became the worlds longest-running
  television soap opera still in production.

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Coronation Street (2)

• Coronation Street has been widely criticised for
  underrepresenting members of different faith
  communities and for trivialising religion.
• The programme makers are seen by critics to be
  playing safe because they are afraid of
  offending religious believers.

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Coronation Street (3)

• Religious weddings and funerals are portrayed,
  but the show tends to concentrate on moral
  dilemmas rather than religious ones. Recent
  storylines have included murder, abuse, unwanted
  pregnancies and transsexuality. Religion is
  generally kept in the background and the
  religious views of the characters are implied
  rather than explicit.

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Coronation Street (4)

• There was a significant backlash against a
  religious wedding episode in 2009, where ITV
  received a large number of complaints because,
  while filming the traditional wedding of Tyrone
  and Molly, the makers hid the Christian cross in
  the church behind some flowers.

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Coronation Street (5)

• The vicar of the church used for filming, the Rev
  James Milnes, claimed they had hidden the cross
  because of political correctness so that people
  would not be offended. He said it took away
  the very thing that makes it a church (Daily
  Telegraph, 14 January 2009).

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Eastenders (1)

• EastEnders has been prepared to engage in
  religious storylines. In 2001 Dot Cotton gave
  morphine tablets to her dying friend Ethel
  Skinner in a case of assisted suicide. After
  Ethel died, Dot became guilt-ridden and prayed
  I only did it because I loved her . I am
  scared. I have committed a crime, but have I
  committed a sin, an unforgivable sin? She
  reported the matter to the police, but no action
  was taken.

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Eastenders (2)

• One of the most notorious storylines occurred
  when Christian preacher Lucas Johnson attacked
  his wife and murdered a love rival. So many
  complaints were received from viewers that the
  BBC responded by saying the matter wasnt
  religious

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Eastenders (3)

• Lucas is certainly not intended to be
  representative of Christians. He is a very
  damaged and dangerous individual who has created
  a twisted version of the Christian faith in his
  mind to hide behind and to convince himself that
  his actions are acceptable.

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Eastenders (4)

• There have been further concerns raised over the
  character of Dot Cotton.
• The editor of the Sikh Messenger, Dr Indarijit
  Singh, accused the BBC of an anti-religious bias
• Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly
  from the Bible and it ridicules religion to some
  extent.

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Neighbours (1)

• Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia on 18
  March 1985 and is syndicated across the world. To
  date there have been over 7,000 episodes.
• It is based on the residents of Ramsay Street and
  the Lassiters hotel complex in Erinsborough,
  which is a fictional suburb of Melbourne,
  Victoria.
• Religion has been largely limited to weddings etc.

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Neighbours (2)

• However, over its 31 seasons it has covered a
  large variety of social and moral issues
  including abortion, adultery, alcoholism,
  gambling, imprisonment, incest, marital
  breakdown, pregnancy, prostitution, sexuality,
  stalking, surrogacy and teenage pregnancy.

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Hollyoaks (1)

• Hollyoaks was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23
  October 1995. It features a youthful group of
  characters mostly between 16 and 35 and takes
  place in a fictional suburb of Chester. To date
  there have been more than 4,060 episodes.

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Hollyoaks (2)

• With a largely young audience, Hollyoaks has been
  seen as an ideal vehicle for dealing with serious
  issues, many of which are affected by religious
  teachings. However, this has inevitably led to
  critical backlash.

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Hollyoaks (3)

• These issues have included abortion, alcoholism,
  bisexuality, cancer, child abuse, drug addiction,
  HIV, homelessness, homophobia, homosexuality,
  incest, interracial relationships, pupil/teacher
  relationships, racism, rape, religion, self-harm,
  STDS, suicide and teenage pregnancy.

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Conclusion

• All of these soaps do tackle moral and ethical
  issues in their storylines and many charities
  have praised soaps for helping viewers to gain a
  greater awareness of real-life problems.