Brookside (television Program)
''Brookside'' is a British television soap opera, set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003. Originally intended to be called ''Meadowcroft'', the series was produced by Mersey Television (now renamed Lime Pictures) and was conceived by '' Grange Hill'' and '' Hollyoaks'' creator Phil Redmond. ''Brookside'' became very successful and was often Channel 4's highest rated programme in the mid-1980s, with audiences regularly in excess of eight million viewers. Initially notable for its realistic and socially challenging storylines, from the mid-1990s the show began raising more controversial subjects under the guidance of new producers such as Mal Young and Paul Marquess. It is especially well known for broadcasting the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television in 1994, as well as a domestic abuse storyline resulting in murder. It also had the first openly gay chara ...
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Soap Opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.Bowles, p. 118. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. BBC Radio's ''The Archers'', first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running current television soap is '' Coronation Street'', which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960, with the record for the longest running soap opera in history being held by '' Guiding Light'', which began on radio in 1937, transitioned to television in 1952, and ended in 2009. A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Alber ...
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