SEX, LIES AND SOAPS

PROGRAMME 2: BAD BEHAVIOUR

ACTIVITIES

Before watching

Below is a list of some of the forms of bad behaviour frequently seen onscreen in films or TV drama. You will probably be able to add a whole load more. In groups, pick a soap you are all reasonably familiar with. Try and make sure each group picks a different soap. Look down the list and see how many of the behaviours in the list have appeared in storylines in your chosen soap. Some may have appeared more than once – if so, tick for each storyline you can recall; some may not appear at all.

Download printable version of this list [PDF, 36KB]

• Under-age drinking
• Truancy
• Alcohol addiction
• Under-age, or otherwise illegal, sex
• Drug addiction
• Bullying
• Sex with an inappropriate partner
• Murder
• Joy-riding
• Rape
• Drug dealing
• Fighting
• Smoking
• Recreational drug use
• Offensive language
• Gang violence
• Organised crime
• White-collar crime e.g. fraud
• Petty crime e.g. shoplifting, graffiti
• Kidnap
• Racist crime
• Gun crime

When you've gone down the list, compare your findings with other groups who have been looking at different soaps. Do you notice any common patterns? Which forms of bad behaviour seem to feature most regularly in soaps? Which ones don't feature?

Try and work out some reasons for your findings. Then watch the programme to see how far your ideas matched those of the producers and teenagers interviewed about bad behaviour in soaps.

After viewing

To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.

The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.

Why do people behave so badly in the soap world?
Clip 1: 02.43 – 04.39

• Opens: 'There is a lot of pressure on TV …'
• Closes: '…but then again, it kind of is.'

Even if you never watch soaps, you'll almost certainly have heard about some of their more dramatic moments. Talk about where you get this information from – e.g. magazines? friends? radio? – and the ways the storylines are described. What do newspapers, magazines and other media gain from coverage of soap stories?

Hollyoaks makes two-and-a-half hours of TV a week – as much as a feature film. What are the advantages of using such large writing teams? And what might be the downside?

Do they get it right?
Clip 2: 07.14 – 09.34

• Opens: 'Brighton pretty much is Hollyoaks by the sea…'
• Closes: '…there are consequences to everything, binge drinking included.'

Have you or someone you know ever been in the same situation as either Stacey Slater, Kayley or Mel? How accurately do you think the scriptwriters have represented their situation?

Under-age and binge drinking is currently rising, especially amongst teenage girls, and it is a source of concern for the Government. Imagine you are the script team for a soap opera (you can choose which) and you have been asked to develop a storyline for one of the regular characters that tackles these issues and will really have an impact on a teenage audience. In your group, map out your ideas for the storyline and any additional support you might want to provide. Present them to the class as a report, to the executive producers, that explains how and why you think your storyline would be effective.

What don't they show?
Clip 3: 10.45 – 13.10

• Opens: 'I find it slightly unrealistic that…'
• Closes: '…it's a bad thing.'

When discussing violence or sex, soap producers often say they don't believe their shows really influence people, yet they avoid showing behaviour like smoking and recreational drug use on screen in case young people are influenced.

How easy is it to raise the issue of recreational drug use in a family soap convincingly, without over-dramatising? Create a new character for EastEnders who is a regular user of recreational drugs and will eventually become a friend of some of the teenage characters in Albert Square. Write some notes about the following:

• How you will introduce and develop this character over five or six episodes
• The ways other characters will respond to his/her drug-use
• The kind of person this character is, how the drugs affect him/her, and whether drugs will be part of the storyline, or just part of everyday life.

You will need to approach this very carefully – check out the BBC's editorial guidelines (see Links) to make sure you don't cause offence or get complaints from adult viewers. Compare your ideas with others in the class. How easy is it to make this sort of story feel 'real'?

Do soaps glamorise violence?
Clip 4: 13.23 – 17.45

• Opens: 'Us two are brothers.'
• Closes: '…you can't switch it and say everybody's doing it.'

Laurence and Ashley have adopted Grant and Phil Mitchell as their role models. How typical do you think this is of boys of this age? Is it something they will grow out of? Is their behaviour something to worry about or are they just playing to the camera?

With a partner, role-play a conversation at parents' evening between the boys' form tutor, worried about their aggressive behaviour, and their mum. How would you explain their behaviour to each other?

Here are some points of view discussed in this clip. See if you can work out who said each one and whether it implies that soap violence does or does not lead to real violence.

• It's 'heightened reality': about eight murders a year – the police should set up an office in Albert Square!
• People wouldn't watch the programme without the violence
• It's more like The Sopranos than a soap!
• The timing is completely ridiculous
• The Mitchells reflect a particular type of geezer, they didn't create him
• There's absolutely no doubt that violent TV creates violent people
• It's only telly!

Should the baddie always get punished?
Clip 5: 19.50 – 22.25

• Opens: 'But how far should soaps go…'
• Closes: '…so unlikely in a situation like that.'

In the Hollyoaks storyline shown here, the two baddies Andy and Sam meet very different punishments – one by gruesome death, the other by prison sentence. Which is more satisfying to the viewing audience? Why do you think this is so?

Does it matter that, as the Brighton students point out, Sam's sentence was highly unlikely, or that he actually escaped in a later episode?

You have been invited to take part in a live radio debate on soap entitled 'Keep it right or keep it real?' Should soaps 'keep it right' by showing bad behaviour punished – or should they 'keep it real', by showing that sometimes life is unfair and bad people get away with doing bad things?

Decide where you stand on this question and prepare a short speech to contribute to the debate. Make a list of examples from recent soap episodes that you could use to argue your point of view. Your teacher will act as the chair of the debate. When the speeches have been heard, your class should take a vote and see whether you as a class prefer your soaps to have a strong moral message, or to be messy and unfinished, like the real world.