I stopped watching as a result of the baby swap/SIDS death storyline which I personally didn't agree with.
But I watched other soaps for a bit longer before quitting watching a few years ago as I was getting bored by them, having watched for many years and seen the same storylines repeatedly rehashed - there's an adage among writers that there's only 7 basic plots anyway and that every narrative will be a variation on one of these - I found that once I knew this I couldn't "unknow" it
I occasionally wonder about dipping back in but I think I'd be confused and I can't be arsed.
However, I can understand the appeal to many and I do appreciate the economic and "training ground" aspects.
I once read in a magazine about a job I'd not heard of until then - character archivist - the job was to maintain accurately a "file" of character details like dob, cv, relatives (inc those only mentioned) etc in order to maintain a realistic and accurate history of the characters. It honestly sounded like my dream job! And frankly at the time I knew I could do a better job than whoever was doing it on a couple of the soaps I watched at the time - very annoying when it's "forgotten" that a character has already had their appendix out, or been married (even if briefly) etc 😂
As a wannabe writer (yea yea aren't we all) and also when I was studying the media aspect of my degree I am still very impressed by the quality and quantity of writing.
2 hours a week - which is a long feature film - is a LOT Of writing, writing for tv/film/radio also has the constraints of regulation (for decency, time slot etc), timing (which I believe is pretty much to hr second - I can't begin to imagine how you know how long a piece of script will take in performance time to the exacting standards here, I wrote a few short scripts again as part of my degree and we had time rules - min and max - and wow the amount of editing needed to get it right!)
Some incredibly writers started out on soaps and went on to even more success - Jimmy McGovern started on brookside off the top of my head.
And they do get people talking and thinking about big issues.
I was doing my nurse training when Todd carty came in as a HIV positive mark fowler. I certainly noticed that character changing people's perceptions and views on HIV and AIDS.
They've also led to great uptake in certain health screening programmes and have contributed to more open and accepting attitudes on things like gay marriage.
They both reflect and influence wider society.
It's not just informing people of the existence of social issues, it helps them to relate to and sympathise Possibly even empathise with people going through those issues. Which can break down bigotry and prejudice, as well as being informative.
Snobbery of any kind is limiting, there's value in just about every aspect of life to deny that is to live a very narrow minded and restricted existence and cuts you off from learning and possibly enjoying things you have ruled out (and I can be guilty of this on occasion too but I'm aware of it - eg I won't watch breaking bad as I don't like watching things that remotely sympathise with drug dealers having seen too many loved ones lives destroyed and in one case lost as a result of drug addiction)
I know plenty of very well educated, very intellectual people who love soaps, sitcoms, cheesy pop music and daft panel shows. They still also enjoy opera, lectures on physics, economics etc, Chekhov, ba jin, Tolstoy etc
"because it's on so much" 2 hours out of 168 a week is not that much.
Personally I think there's far too much bloody sport on telly! But again there's a lot of people enjoy it and that's why it is.
I'm also not really a fan of wildlife programmes - but admittedly that's likely due to being made to watch them as a child.
There's a good variety on uk tv, it's certainly better than in many other countries!
We only really see the very best of USA tv, my family over there are forever moaning its crap.
When I lived in Europe (which generally I loved) there was an awful lot of folk music and folk dancing programmes and programmes like a whole hour on whittling!
Tons of ads too in other countries.
Here we have excellent period dramas, crime dramas, news and current affairs shows, quiz shows and irreverent comedy.
"If Whisky is from Scottish, let's not even get started on the TOTAL DROSS which is the appalling "River City".
If you haven't ever seen it, count yourselves lucky." Haha! So true! It's filmed near me and can be...interesting...in an almost "it's so bad it's good" way.
"Can you name any quiz shows, documentaries, dramas that are shown as much as eastenders and have run for as long as eastenders and are made by the BBC?" Soaps to tend to be on more frequently than other shows but off the top of my head programmes like news night, panorama, dispatches, question time, mastermind, uni challenge, casualty, dr who...