On a slippery soap
Lisa Holdsworth, a writer, producer and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain regional representative for Yorkshire, writes for DQ about the importance of continuing drama on television and why the falling number of soap writing opportunities is bad news for the drama industry as a whole.
It’s been a tough few years for soap writers. It started with the shocking cancellation of Holby City by the BBC in 2021 – and it seems there has only been bad news since then, with the BBC also axing Doctors and River City.
Casualty, Pobol y Cwm and Hollyoaks have all seen a reduction in their weekly episodes, resulting in a significant loss of work for writers, cast and crew, while ITV has announced that both Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be reducing their episodes from 2026, with similar cuts to their writing teams. Only EastEnders (pictured above) seems unscathed, but the fluctuating viewing figures must be making those working at Elstree nervous.
Every time a soap has been axed or has reduced its writing team, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has been there to support the writers. And as a representative of the WGGB, I have sat in too many Zoom meetings watching those writers try to process losing their livelihoods with little notice. Reactions range from understandable anger to deep distress – while those spared the axe mourn the loss of colleagues whom they have often worked with for years.
Only someone who has been to a soap story conference can understand the trust and comradeship that typifies a great writing team. During your time writing on a soap, you will find yourself exchanging deeply personal life stories in pursuit of new storylines, because the conference table is a safe place where confidences are kept and there is no judgement, so long as it’s a good story.
There’s also a degree of friendly competition. Believe me, there’s nothing as invigorating as seeing the whole story team lean forward because you’ve just pitched something really juicy – or as humbling as pitching to nothing but tumbleweed. So breaking up those well-established teams feels personal.
During this period of upheaval on the soaps, the WGGB has repeatedly argued that the producers and executives should offer the outgoing writers opportunities on the broadcasters’ other shows. The answer has been some half-hearted promises, networking events and the “opportunity” to write shadow scripts on schemes that result in frustration but not script commissions.
It is hard to express how insulting and patronising this response has been. After all, these writers are not apprentices who have come to the end of their training; they are experienced TV dramatists who have been writing some of the UK’s most loved shows for years – tried and tested writers with many, many TV hours on their CVs. As the meme goes, they have a very particular set of skills they have acquired over a long career.
Soap writers need an extraordinary deftness to structure compelling episodes around multiple storylines, with tones veering from the deeply emotional to the farcically comedic; a sharp ear for dialogue, so that each character in the huge cast has a unique and consistent voice; inventiveness paired with pragmatism, as episodes are subject to last-minute changes due to budgetary and scheduling constraints; and the thickest of skins, as there’s no time for gentle script edits with notes coming from every direction while you are turning over drafts to tight deadlines. Soap writers have to call on those skills week after week, juggling multiple episodes.
Isn’t that everything commissioners and producers should be looking for in a writer? After all, some of our best dramatists got their start on the soaps, including Sarah Phelps, Jimmy McGovern, Sally Wainwright, Tony Jordan, Kay Mellor and Frank Cottrell Boyce. The beloved Russell T Davies credits his love of Crossroads for his career. And while I’m not in the same league as those stars, I owe my 25 years of TV writing to the steep learning curve I experienced as part of the Emmerdale writing team.
So why do these experienced professionals feel like they have been consigned to the scrapheap? I had a heartbreaking exchange with a writer (WGGB member) who had fallen victim to the cuts about the “stigma” of being a soap writer and how their multiple hours of television wouldn’t be considered valuable experience by development executives. I wish I could have reassured that writer, but it really does seem our industry has collectively turned its nose up at soap writers in favour of a handful of overworked auteurs.
While we are haemorrhaging veterans, we are also limiting opportunities for the fresh meat our industry needs. The soaps have historically been the incubators of TV talent for the UK industry across all the departments. And while I really don’t wish to be latest doom-monger sounding the death knell for UK TV drama, I do find it hard to imagine how the industry will attract the bright, fresh, diverse voices that the execs claim to value without the soaps.
It feels like the industry as a whole is neglecting lower- and mid-budget television in pursuit of the accolades and clout that comes with producing high-end television, even though big budgets and BAFTA nominations do not guarantee big audiences. It certainly won’t ensure the future of our industry. Without the entry-level opportunities, the financial stability of a regular gig and the hothouse on-the-job training of the soaps, we will lose existing talent without replacing it with new talent. It almost goes without saying that this will have a catastrophic effect on the already woeful diversity in our industry as the ladder is pulled up once and for all.
So I urge producers, broadcasters and showrunners staffing up their next writers room to take advantage of the unparalleled talent and experience that is out there. And not to dismiss someone as just a soap writer.
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