Yahoo News 10 lessons other soaps could learn from Hollyoaks
You've already seen the lessons that we reckon the other soaps could learn from Coronation Street and EastEnders, but now we're really throwing down the gauntlet by suggesting that the soap bosses should be keeping a close eye on Hollyoaks too.
Hollyoaks may be the youngest and most niche of the big four soaps, but there's no denying the big successes that it's had over the years. Read on to find out how the other shows could pick up a few tips...
1. Not having boring weeks
One thing you can never accuse Hollyoaks of is being dull. While the other soaps can occasionally fall into the trap of having "quiet weeks" where not much happens, Hollyoaks jam-packs so many storylines into the show that there's always something huge going on.
While the frenetic pace can be mind-blowing at times, you can always guarantee that you'll tune in and be entertained all year round. Hollyoaks also makes sure that just as one huge storyline reaches a peak, there's always a half-dozen more waiting in the wings to rise up afterwards.
Never is this more obvious than during the summer. The other soaps can often fall into their famous "summer lulls" where they effectively shut up shop for six weeks, but Hollyoaks counteracts this with their action-packed "Six Weeks Of Summer" storylines, where the stakes get higher than ever. The point of a soap is to be good all year round, after all.
2. LGBT diversity
One of Hollyoaks' biggest strengths is undoubtedly its commitment to LGBT+ representation. The show has featured countless positive portrayals of lesbian, gay and bisexual characters over the years, and Hollyoaks is the only one of the soaps to currently have a trans character as part of the regular cast.
Hollyoaks also doesn't define its characters by their sexuality. Show boss Bryan Kirkwood recently explained how the team work hard to make sure that a character's sexuality is the fifth or sixth most interesting thing about them, ensuring that LGBT characters rightly play a central role in big, blockbuster dramatic stories.
At a recent RTS event, EastEnders scriptwriter Pete Lawson admitted that the other shows could learn from Hollyoaks. He said: "I think Hollyoaks is brilliant at both bisexuality and gender fluidity. With a younger audience, I think there's a totally different attitude. So I think Hollyoaks does it really well – and we haven't quite got there yet.
"We're not brilliant at having characters who go: 'I am bisexual, I love men and women'. We do much more: 'Oh, I'm not a lesbian anymore'."
3. Spreading out their big stories
It's fair to say that the big players like Warren, Sienna, Ste and the McQueens are never short of story material, but Hollyoaks also spreads out its big plots much more evenly than the other soaps do. While we're often moaning about the bigger soaps neglecting half of their casts, Hollyoaks is much better at making sure that most of the characters get their chance to shine.
While Hollyoaks does still have a couple of characters who are in desperate need of some attention (Esther and Kim, anyone?), this year alone we've seen massive stories for every single family in the show, whether it's the Osbornes, McQueens, Lomaxes, Donovans or Lovedays. No easy feat with such a big cast.
4. Shocks and surprises
All of the soaps pride themselves on having jaw-dropping moments these days, but Hollyoaks is arguably the best at avoiding their biggest storyline twists from being ruined before they hit our screens. Whatever they do to clamp down on unauthorised leaks from the set, it certainly seems to work.
Hollyoaks also usually manages to avoid the pitfalls that we often see in the other soaps, where their "shock twists" are actually pretty predictable and get easily guessed in advance by eagle-eyed fans on Twitter.
From Ryan Knight being Amy Barnes's real killer, to Nathan Nightingale being unexpectedly killed off on Valentines Day, Hollyoaks keeps the big surprises coming – and long may it continue.
5. Developing strong young characters
You'd have to be worried if Hollyoaks wasn't good at this since it's produced with a young audience in mind, but the show has a long history of creating and developing strong pre-teen and teenage characters, then throwing them straight in at the deep end with big storylines.
One fantastic recent example was Alfie Nightingale and Jade Albright's teen cancer storyline. One minute nobody had heard of young actors Richard Linnell and Kassius Nelson, the next they were winning two prizes at the British Soap Awards after a year of tear-jerking scenes.
In fairness, the younger characters aren't quite so crucial on the other soaps, but they're still important to help hook in that next generation of younger viewers who'll hopefully grow up as soap fans and keep the genre going strong.
6. Not shying away from big issues
All of the soaps are great at exploring big issues, but Hollyoaks seems to have much more freedom when it comes to raising awareness and breaking down taboos. One good example is that it's still the only soap to have told male rape storylines – one with Luke Morgan in 2000, and again more recently with John Paul McQueen in 2014.
In an interview in 2015, Hollyoaks boss Bryan Kirkwood admitted that he'd wanted to explore a male rape storyline during his time in charge of EastEnders, but was told by higher-ups at the BBC that he wasn't allowed.
Speaking at the time, he revealed: "It was a story I felt passionate about for many years. Daran [Little] and I, when I was in EastEnders, wanted to tell it and were told in no uncertain terms we couldn't.
"So fast forward a few years, I'm at Hollyoaks and I feel passionately about it. Rape of female characters has become a staple over the years yet male rape or the sexual abuse of men isn't a conversation we have, ever."
7. Making the show look fantastic
One key advantage that Hollyoaks has over the other soaps is that it's filmed on single camera rather than multi-camera. Although it means that the scenes take much longer to shoot, the end result is higher production standards.
This difference in shooting explains why Hollyoaks looks so different to the other shows, with its filmic style putting it more in line with TV dramas. The directors also have more freedom to experiment with different techniques and tricks, meaning that the show often looks more picturesque than your everyday episode of EastEnders or Corrie.
8. Spotting the next generation of stars
Soap stars often announce that they're waltzing off to crack America, but it seems that they have the best chance of success if they've come from Hollyoaks.
Over the years, a number of Hollyoaks stars have gone on to great success, including Nathalie Emmanuel, Emma Rigby, Ricky Whittle, Barry Sloane, Roxanne McKee and Emmett J Scanlan. Others like Will Mellor have stayed closer to home and become popular faces on British telly too.
9. Listening to fans
Hollyoaks fans are a vocal bunch and there are numerous examples on record of when viewers have had a genuine impact on the storylines. Die-hard supporters of McDean campaigned for months for John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean to get their "sunset ending" in 2008, which was later cleverly acknowledged on screen when the supercouple kissed in front of a sunset picture as they bowed out together.
There was a similar scenario when John Paul left again this year, with producers hinting that he'd end up making his way back to Craig thanks to an unexpected phone call during his final seconds on screen. Still keeping the McDean fans happy years later!
Hollyoaks boss Bryan has also been brutally honest about how the show will pull a storyline if the audience hate it. In a 2015 interview, he explained: "It's always difficult when a story or a character don't quite spring to life in the way you'd hoped and we occasionally have to make very difficult decisions quickly to kill a story and come up with something better."
10. Thinking outside the box
Being a Hollyoaks fan doesn't just end when the credits roll. The show's digital team have come up with some innovative new initiatives over the years to involve viewers in exciting ways. For example, when the Gloved Hand murder mystery was at its height, fans were able to hunt pages from the unknown killer's diary online, as well as in various newspapers and magazines. Once put together, the pages spelled out the name of the next victim. That's certainly a new way to get a spoiler…
Other fun online stunts to keep fans on their toes have included the #HollyoaksExpress hunt for clues, which invited fans to search online for hints to who'd be leaving the show that night.
