TV soap opera genre: Coronation Street and Klan

There is no single ‘hero’ in soap operas and the wide range of characters in ‘soaps’ offers viewers a great deal of choice regarding those with which they might identify. The question guiding a soap story is not 'What will happen next?' but 'What kind of person is this?' (Geraghty 1991, p. 46), therefore soaps are regarded, as particularly open to individual interpretations.

The soap opera ‘reality’ is constructed in such a way, as to be completely parallel to what is happening in the world outside the TV screen. For instance, if it is Easter in the UK, you’ll find that it is also Easter in Coronation Street. Som

e Polish TV viewers will probably watch the Christmas episode of Klan, where the Lubicz family shares the wafer, and only then proceed to do the same with their own families.

Klan, a Triplan production, is aired on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays on the first programme of the Polish national TV. It appeared for the first time in 1997 and has since gained an enormous popularity. According to statistics , between January and April 2000 Klan had an average of 8,8 million viewers.

Let us, perhaps, take a closer look at the instances of the soap opera genre mentioned in the title. Coronation Street is a Granada production which is broadcast nationally in the UK. First shown in 1960, it is the longest-running British TV soap opera, watched by about one-third of the British population, especially by people from lower socio-economic groups (Livingstone 1990, p. 55). It offers a “nostalgic perspective on northern industrial

Some topics in this essay:
, Gazeta Wyborcza, British TV, Street Characters, Coronation Street, January April, Tuesdays Wednesdays, Klan Lubicz, Warsaw University, Street Granada, soap opera, coronation street, soap operas, soap opera genre, lubicz family, gazeta wyborcza, opera genre,