Is watching soaps working class?

[crochetmonkey74]

Just as I say really. I'm an avid soap watcher, grew up very poor and on benefits, now comfortable and in a job where there are a lot of middle class people. At work someone said this as a sort of barbed joke but a lot of people agreed . What do you think?

I watched them when I was younger, but simply outgrew them and am bored rigid by them. Think it's more to do with age and what your friends watch? Don't know any adults who watch soaps. Sort of lower middle class I think.

@inheritancetrack

I watched them when I was younger, but simply outgrew them and am bored rigid by them. Think it's more to do with age and what your friends watch? Don't know any adults who watch soaps. Sort of lower middle class I think.

I agree with this. I stopped watching them about a decade ago not because I am m/c but because they became tedious and unrealistic. I am watching Classic Corrie currently, though. And if Classic Neighbours appears I’ll be all over it.

The Queen Mother apparently tried to find out who shot JR when she met Larry Hagman during his promotional tour to the UK at the time. He was tight-lipped!

@ClariceQuiff

I once read that the Queen is a fan of Coronation Street .

My boyfriend at uni had a lovely step mum who was extremely posh. Her own mother had a title. They were avid Brookside fans.

When Coronation Street started in 1960 on ITV it was seen as a very working class soap , but the actors were not really as they were portrayed , a few were actually quite wealthy by then , but just knew the types they were meant to be playing.
I found the ITV drama about how it started and was created by a young gay guy fascinating and Jessie Wallace played Pat Phoenix in it ( Elsie Tanner ) one of its more iconic characters.
They had trod the boards in theatre and knew their trade and made it realistic. People actually bitched about each other , for example , and had proper back stories to their characters.
I only watch Eastenders now , a loyal fan since it started , I consider myself to be WC , but it's a bit of escapism and I love the Mumsnet thread too ! It's not real and sometimes it's very silly and annoying , but I would miss it if it stopped to be honest.
Lots of people I know don't watch any soaps now , they prefer Netflix or tv dramas

I don't know any under 60s that watch soaps.

But Brooke was great back in the day. Eastenders was massive in the begining. Did that den and Angie Christmas episode get 25 million viewers, they couldn't have all been working class!!

I grew up obsessively watching, at various times, Neighbours, Home and Away, Cornation Street, Prisoner Cell Block H, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Broadside, Eldorado (Marcuuusss!) Hollyoaks. On other MN threads I am the living epitome of the derided middle class so on that basis I'd say No.

(I do listen to the Archers now though).

Brookside, not Broadside!

yeah, they're all having a bit of a thin time of it, EastEnders especially.

I think they've all faced difficult decisions between e.g. keeping characters and storylines that'll help retain their established boomer audience (knowing that this content will be a turnoff for younger viewers and that this audience is set to decline for obvious reasons) and going with ones that'll help them win more younger audiences (knowing that this content will lose them some older viewers and that they'll never be able to replicate their historic success amongst younger viewers because viewing habits have changed so much.

Nah, my late husband was so-called "aristocracy" and he loved the soaps. Mainly eastenders and hollyoaks. And brookside back in the day.

Also "class" is all utter bollox

I think so. But Eastenders used to be very good, IMO, and tailed off around 2000s. DH was a lifetime viewer of Corrie and we watched it together but then gave up as it got worse about 2010 ..also it's just too time consuming, something like 4 episodes a week! Only works if you watch TV v regularly. Now we just tend to watch about 1/2 hours most evenings and do one box set at a time.

I think Saturday evening viewing is much the same. I think the demographic for The Wall, Ant and Dec etc is probably majority working class. With the exception of Strictly, which lots of my posh friends watch

@FleetwoodRaincoat

I think Saturday evening viewing is much the same. I think the demographic for The Wall, Ant and Dec etc is probably majority working class. With the exception of Strictly, which lots of my posh friends watch

Blind Date was the 90s version of Saturday night trash TV.

You can’t compare audiences now to 20 or even 10 years ago. With fewer channels, no streaming etc there were still mass audiences for things like soaps, which meant there was obviously going to be a broader class demographic across that audience.

Princess Diana watching Eastenders in, say, 1985 is very different to the Duchess of Cambridge watching it now. It was a cultural phenomenon for a start, there were only 4 channels and she was a young person who would have liked to have kept up with the trends of the time.

I'm middle class and watched several soaps. My flat mate at uni and I used to pause our studying to catch up on Corrie. Stopped watching them 3.5 years ago when I met my partner and we had other things to do in the evening. My mum still watches some.

I would say I’m middle class and I love to watch Corrie! I don’t have much time to watch tv (a one year old, currently pregnant, very hectic job) but I like to try and keep on top i f Corrie! My brain is in top gear all day and I multi task all day too so when I get an hour or so in the evening, most of the time I like to totally switch off and watch something that takes no effort to engage with!
I’m 34 and I started watching it with my mum when I was about 7, so I guess there is also a certain element of nostalgia for me too.

Yes I'd say so.

I guess you only need to look at the characters on the shows to see where the shows are placing themselves.

Ian Beale was never rushing off to a Shakespeare play in my experience.

That being said I'm from a WC background and my parents never watched any. I only got into EE when at university as we all watched it there for some reason.

But now I'm old and boring and probably count as MC and I don't know anyone bar an elderly aunt who watches soaps.

But equally I don't know anyone who'd give it a second thought if anyone in my friendship circle said they watched a certain soap? Was out last night with school mums (all much more classy than myself) and there was no TV viewing snobbery. But everyone was talking about what they'd watched recently and it was basically all Netflix.

So I think it's more people don't watch live TV anymore. Which really I guess is what drove the University Eastenders love as it was always the same time and we all ate dinner while it was on.

I think it’s just not so much of a thing anymore! When I was growing up pretty much every adult woman I knew watched Corrie and most of the teens watched Hollyoaks. Nowadays I think the closest thing is stuff like Love Island- you’re still following the same group of people very closely, lots of drama etc, the main difference is that it’s “real”

I do wonder if there was a North/South divide with it though? Cos I grew up in the North East and nearly everyone watched Corrie, I don’t remember many people watching Eastenders

@sweeneytoddsrazor

We are most definitely working class and never watch soaps. Although I did like the Sullivans when we came home for lunch from school

Used to love the Sullivans ❤️

What defines someone as middle class?

Genuine question

I'm working class and grew up watching soaps. My favourite was Brookside. But I haven't watched soaps for about 5 years now. I got bored of them and couldn't be bothered.

Absolutely not. I'm incredibly working class and don't watch soaps. I also don't put my Christmas decorations up early, go on all inclusive holidays or like Pandora jewelry. Therefore, these are not WC things either.
I do watch the news every day, have been on holiday to Cyprus and occasionally wear a denim jacket. It is therefore safe for you and your colleagues to conclude that doing these things makes one working class.

Definition of MC in RL: working in a profession, teacher, doctor, solicitor etc.
Definition of MC on MN: meeting a set of arbitrary criteria invented by people who were once WC and have now been to university/made a bit of money/ married someone with a good job and want to underline how superior this makes them.

I would say so but no judgment. Not exclusively though - I know some mc people who used to follow Coronation Street and other soaps (not anymore though - not sure why)

[quote Chocolattay]@crochetmonkey74

The are both proud Northerners which I think is where the dislike of Eastenders come from My dad always said “Get these cockney wankers off my telly!”

Eastenders is my favourite though and the only one I watch. The others bore me.[/quote]
Your parents sound charming. You must be very proud.