Eastenders• Cockney accent – stereotypical working class dialect.• Graffiti – connotates a run down city, vandalism, yob culture.• Run down businesses – laundrette/café/ market – represents the

poorer end of incomes, self employed businesses.• Strong, dominant female characters – Janine/ Lauren – street

confrontation, no shame, not afraid to publicly express feelings, bitchy characters.

• Darren has social mobility – trying to improve his standard of living and employability.

• Vanessa and Jodie – previously middle class – trying to maintain middle class lifestyle without a steady income.

• Arthur – trying to earn a living as his middle class father has lost his job – doesn’t want to work towards better employment; wants money.

• Dysfunctional families – Butcher family – Mother in prison, daughter prostitute, son excluded from school, clever daughter.

Brookside

• Accent – from Liverpool; stereotypically working class area.• Channel 4’s first soap.• Economic threat – job cuts/ people on dole – usually associated with

working class.• Rape/Murder storylines.• Tolerance of homosexuals.• Youth culture – graffiti in houses

• Middle class suspicious of working class – living in same estate – supposed threat to lifestyle and possessions.

• Housing looks middle class – working class families aspiring for a better lifestyle.

• Aimed at a working class audience – can relate to issues discussed in the show.

• Decline in industry – reflects social problems at the time – sense of realism.

• Aim was to create a programme that reflected Britain in the 1980s.

Old Coronation Street• Theme music – northern brass band• Audience predominantly female• Strong female characters – Ena Sharples/ Barmaid. • Typical working class – spend a lot of time in the pub.• Shop – everything stored behind the counter – insecurities.

• The Tanners – loving family, hard up, bad reputation, single mother renown for her affairs.

• Son - Dennis Tanner – young, angry, ex-convict, thinks society is prejudice against him, unemployed.

• Stereotypical working class family – son and daughter unemployed, not allowed credit in the shop or pub, untidy house.

• The Barlows – working class family.

• Son – Ken Barlow – ashamed of being working class – snob at university where he has picked up other values – Ken aspires to get away from his working class background.

• Family are close – help each other (fixing bike in living room) – Ken is embarrassed by this.

• Terraced housing and cobbled streets.• Factory workers – mostly female & a homosexual – stereotypical.• Modernisation – decoration and neat.• Café & pub – stereotypical misé en scene.• Accent – Mancs.• Deals with current issues – financial issues and domestics.• Teenage pregnancy & immigration – current issues.

• Strong female characters – barmaids – Becky & Liz – gobby. Liz is an interfering and intimidating lady.

• Tolerance to gays – Young lesbians and a gay.• Ethnic groups running shop – stereotypical portrayal.• Tolerance to disabled as well.• Ken Barlow – never escaped his working class background.• Kevin Webster – Mechanic – working class.• Carla – Dominant business woman.

How soaps have changed:

• More teenagers actors, dealing with teenage issues.• Diversity in other cultures and sexuality.• Industrialisation offers job opportunities for women.• Aimed at a broader demographic audience.

How soaps have stayed the same:

• Dominant female characters still exist.

• Deal with domestic and personal problems.

• Deal with current affairs.

• Maintain their working class background stereotype.