SEX, LIES AND SOAPS

PROGRAMME 5: SCHOOL YEARS

ACTIVITIES

Before watching

Do you watch, or have you ever watched, the children's serial Grange Hill?

• If yes: in your group, share what you've liked, disliked, laughed at or been irritated by in Grange Hill over the years. Jot down some of the storylines you can remember, and talk about how successful, entertaining, or informative they were.
• If no: visit the Grange Hill website (see Links) and see what you can find out about it.

With a partner, make a list of the schools and colleges you're familiar with from soap operas, and put them in order, with the one you'd most like to attend at the top. What are the features of this particular soap school you find appealing? How closely does it match your own experiences of school?

Making your own
If you were making a soap to be set in your school, what would it be like? Imagine you're a production company devising ideas for a new and completely original twice-weekly soap that reflects the realities of school life for British teens. The soap is to be shot on location in your own school. Without naming names or featuring any real teachers or pupils:

• Create a title for the soap
• Pick a class or year group to be the regular cast, with brief descriptions of four fictional characters who will feature regularly in the storylines
• Decide which locations around your school will appear regularly in the soap. The cloakrooms? The sixth form common room? The art room? The canteen?
• Create character profiles for three or four fictional members of staff who will appear regularly in the soap
• Come up with ideas for three or four storylines involving your characters in different aspects of their school lives
• Prepare to present your ideas to the commissioning editor for Channel X, who will decide which of your class's soap outlines to commission. Remember, your brief is to be original and to feature the sorts of storylines that aren't normally seen on-screen.

After watching

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.

American aspirations
Clip 1: O2.20 – 05.16

• Opens: 'But is life in the real Orange County a glamorous as it is on the soap?'
• Closes: '…making sure we get into a reasonable college that we want to go to.'

The Harbour School is based on one of the most exclusive Californian private schools. No wonder it's so appealing! But were you surprised to hear Meagan, Brendon and Danny talking about the importance of education and achievement? How far have you noticed those issues reflected in The OC itself?

Can you imagine a similar British soap set around a private school for children of the rich and famous? Talk about whether such a soap would be successful with a family audience, and why you think it might or might not generate interest.

The OC's Ryan seems to prove that anyone can change and improve, given a good education and caring home. Talk about how far you think this would be the case in the British education system.

Why are British soap kids so unambitious?
Clip 2: 08.58 – 10.58

• Opens: 'EastEnders fan Jade doesn't like the way soaps portray teenagers...'
• Closes: '...people stay in their class.'

Teenage soap fan Jade comments on the negative role models offered by teen characters in 'rubbish jobs', like Gus the road-sweeper. Do you think that they inevitably have a negative effect, or can they inspire viewers to strive harder?

Pick two or three of the soap teens you've seen in the programme – for example, Stacey Slater, Gus, Sarah Lou, or Rosie Webster. Try writing the last school report they would have received before leaving school. Think in terms of their on-screen personalities and academic abilities as well as where they've ended up. Do you think they are living up to their potential?

Grace Dent suggests that, in British soaps, teens tend to stay put and remain within their social backgrounds. Do you feel this reflects the real lives of the school leavers you know? How many soap characters can you think of who have 'risen above their station'? What has happened to them?

How much do you notice people's social class in soap opera? Could you identify the class of particular families in Ramsay Street, Hollyoaks Village, or Coronation Street?

Why don't we see soap kids in school?
Clip 3: 11.45 – 14.19

• Opens: 'The real problem with it is...'
• Closes: '…she'd be a very dull teenager.'

Go back to the ideas for your own school soap you planned before watching the programme. What sorts of problems would you need to be careful of when casting and scripting your soap? For example, you'd probably have to cast non-professional child actors who can only work a certain number of hours per week, and you'd have to get your educational facts right so you don't mislead the audience. Talk about all the difficulties you might encounter in making your soap seem realistic.

Tony Jordan says he can't show EastEnders teen Bradley at work in the City. Make a list of possible reasons why not. How often can you remember seeing soap characters 'on location' at work outside their regular environments? Talk about what impact this has on the possible range of storylines and themes in soaps. Are you convinced by the different ways soaps try to get around the problems?

Drama is entertaining – education isn't!
Clip 4: 16.24 – 18.13

• Opens: 'There's some really relevant stories to be told in school...'
• Closes: '...but if you're someone watching it, it's good.'

Grace Dent says it's not good TV to show a parent's meeting about option choices. Can you prove her wrong? With a partner, pick a school-age soap character you know well (Michaela, Amy, Ruby, Squiggle – the choice is yours), and either script or role-play a meeting between the teen, her/his parent or guardian, and form tutor. See whether you can make your meeting realistic in terms of what's being discussed, but add some drama too, to make it interesting for the viewer.

Here are 10 statements made by viewers about school scenes in soaps. Discuss them with a partner, and choose the five statements you most agree with.

• School storylines are hilarious because they're so unrealistic
• Although it's very artificial, it does make you think about your own school experiences
• It's fun spotting the tricks they use to make it look real
• Soap producers have no idea what school life is really like
• If they showed the boring reality of what happens in school, we'd all turn off
• They could be more helpful by showing characters really thinking about their course-work, exams and future options
• Teachers are always so stereotyped and strict – and there aren't ever enough of them
• American schools seem so much better than British ones
• They only ever show the exciting bits, like fights and bullying
• School kids are always so horrible and mean to each other in soaps – we're not really like that!

Now write a list of bullet-point guidelines for soap producers, explaining how they could improve the ways school life is represented in soaps.

The Australian experience
Clip 5: 18.30 – 20.47

• Opens: 'In Australia there's a lot of pressure...'
• Closes: '...and he pulled through.'

What do you think of the ambition and hard work of the Neighbours teens? Are they convincing, inspiring, or just a bit too keen to be true?

What are the advantages and/or problems of showing troubled characters being successful against all the odds, like Boyd?

Sometimes soap producers deliberately develop a storyline to reflect an issue in society – like the stress on Australian students taking their Year 12 exams, in Neighbours. Do you think these storylines can sometimes help you to discuss bigger questions – for example, is academic success really still so important; should university be for everyone; is formal education more important than life skills, or are they just entertainment?

Think of an educational issue you would like to see developed in a British soap like Hollyoaks – for example, the reduction in coursework for GCSEs; complaints about too much testing in schools; or the debate about faith schools. Do you think soaps could have a valuable role to play in helping young people to think about and understand these issues?