New soap to replace Neighbours next year??

[CG Wendy]

From DS

UPDATED: Liverpool soap lined up for BBC
Friday, June 29 2007, 13:01 BST

By Joanne Oatts, Media Correspondent and Kris Green, Soaps Editor

Updated: June 29 2007, 14:39 BST

A new Liverpool-based soap opera from the co-creator of Brookside is being considered by the BBC for 2008.

TV and film producer Colin McKeown, who worked on Coronation Street and was one of the original creators of Channel 4’s Brookside, is in talks with the broadcaster about a pilot series.

The as yet unnamed soap is, which is being executive produced by former Brookside writer Jimmy McGovern, is believed to be being considered for the Neighbours slot, which will become vacant when the Australian soap moves to Five next year.

The show, being produced by McKeown's LA Productions, is to be shot on location in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool. If the 20-week pilot series gets the go-ahead, it is likely it will air next summer.

McKeown told the Liverpool Daily Post: "I think this is a great opportunity and we are very hopeful that we will be given the programme. It will mean a lot to Liverpool, particularly in the year that it is celebrating European Capital of Culture, to be the location of a soap that reflects the changing face of our major cities."

A BBC spokeswoman, however, told DS today: "The BBC is currently looking at a number of options to replace Neighbours. A decision has yet to be made."

Sounds good. I would love to see a soap based in Wales that wasn`t Welsh speaking - or even a soap based in Newcastle.
;D

[RitaLittlewood]

I thought they were going to replace it with All Saints. That's what it said the other day. Juanita watched than in 2001. I found it boring. I'm sure that's not all year round though. I didn't see it listed last year in the schedules.

Anyway don't believe anything written in the Daily Bog Roll. There's not enough real news so they make things up. I could give you a whole list of things I emailed them about last year which were all lies. Make my dad crack up. LOL!

Patsy

[sallywebster]

I heard about All Saints as well Patsy, but thats more of a Holby/Casualty type show apparently (not that ive ever seen it).

Why must they replace it with soaps - there are enough soaps on as it is. Saying that I may watch if its set in Liverpool!

[sootycat]

I read that All Saints was going to be for the mid-afternoon slot ( Maybe replacing Murder She Wrote ?? )

It's due to air weekdays from mid-July.

I also read thet the Liverpool one was going to be about football.......if so, count me out. !

[RitaLittlewood]

Well I'm sure we can all do without Murder She Wrote for the zillionth time. LOL!

There's too many soaps and if this one did happen and the Daily Bog Roll are right for once I think it will flop.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

Yeah I agree - it will probabaly flop. Very few new soaps survive these days.

[RitaLittlewood]

All Saints begins on the 16th July at 2,35pm.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

Are you going to watch?

[RitaLittlewood]

Nope. I found it boring when I saw it at Juanita's in October 2001. I just found a website and I was right about it not being on while I was there last year. Series 9 started the 28th Feb and I left on the 25th. www.australiantelevision.net/as/allsaints.html BBC are starting from series 5 from 2002.

All Saints – Opening Night
Monday 16 July
2.35-3.20pm BBC ONE

Fresh new summer viewing is in store with this exciting medical drama series from Down Under, screened every weekday on BBC One. All Saints is set in a Sydney hospital where the busy nurses and doctors do their best to save lives and help the injured, while coping with the stresses and strains of their own personal lives.

On Ward 17 it's business as usual as one of the nurses, Bron, heads off to help her friend, Lyle, through the "opening night" nerves caused by the première of his play. But the best-laid plans go horribly wrong when an earth tremor buckles the tracks and the train they are travelling on crashes in a tunnel at high speed. Trapped in the damaged train carriage with a group of schoolchildren, Bron tries to treat the wounded while attempts are made to free them and the other injured people from the wreckage. Meanwhile, Mitch cuts his leave short to come in and attend to the victims and Terri is thrown into confusion at his unannounced return.

Ben and Scott attend the accident and Scott is thrown by the extent of the carnage. When he learns that a woman sandwiched between two carriages has no chance of survival, Scott elects to go against one of the rules of the job.

Meanwhile, trauma team surgeon Luke crushes his hand in an accident at the train crash site. As he's rushed to hospital, he's forced to face the fact that he might never be able to operate again.

Bron is played by Libby Tanner, Lyle by Alex Jones, Mitch by Erik Thomson, Ben by Brian Vriends, Scott by Conrad Coleby and Luke by Martin Lynes.



Patsy

[eithne]

All Saints has been aired in Ireland for the past 3/4 years on Friday nights at 8pm at different times of the year. I caught a few of the early episodes and wasn't impressed, but recent ones I've seen have been okay. It isn't addictive though, and would basically be described as an Australian version of Casualty. It is perfect for daytime TV though IMO.

As for a Liverpool based soap replacing Neighbours I doubt it will last. Crossroads, Family Affairs and Night and Day were all new soaps in the past few years which were axed. Hollyoaks is the "newest" soap still on air and that started in the mid 90's I think. Even Brookside got axed. Soaps just don't get the same ratings they once did.

Also I read an interview on DS where the five programme buyer said the timeslot for Neighbours hadn't been decided, but was likely to be 5.30 - meaning the new soap would have a major challenge on its hands, especially if there is no gap between Neighbours on the BBC and Neighbours on five.

[CG Wendy]

5.30pm time slot Monday-Friday is a difficult time slot to fill....especially for a soap.
Too racy and it will be pulled PDQ. Yet if it was too boring, then it would be switched off in droves. There has to be a middle ground surely.

[sallywebster]

I would have thought Neighbours would go at 6.30pm on Five to make a soap hour from 6pm with Home and Away. Then again we'd have Home and Away first look on Five Life at 6.30pm and I cant see them putting that up against Neighbours. Also Hollyoaks on C4 at 6.30pm. Perhaps it will be 5.30pm afterall.

Family Affairs lasted 8 years so was hardly a flop - it didnt do that badly for Five really. Five just didnt want it anymore I dont think. Soaps and dramas on major channels though like BBC and ITV tend to flop these days which is why they make spin off's from exisiting dramas like The Royal and Holby. its a risk BBC are taking if they make a new soap.

[RitaLittlewood]

And they used the excuse for Craproads on people not being home at that time of day. They may got for something entirely different unless they're planning on moving Doctors.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

They could put Doctors at 5.30pm and have a repeat the following day at 1.40pm. Then they would only have to fill 2.10-->2.35pm.

[RitaLittlewood]

Maybe they'll bring back that play thing the occasionally put on.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

Ive only ever seen Doctors a couple of times and never all the way though but find it boring drivel.

[RitaLittlewood]

Me too. Usually when I'm bored and when Diagnosis Murder has been on. I just leave it on between that and Neighbours.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

I think ive only actually seen it twice, and wasnt really concentrating on it. It was just on in the background. Makes me laugh when it wins awards and they go on about it should have an evening slot.

[RitaLittlewood]

I wish I'd known about the one with Mark Eden last year. Trust them to show it when I was nearly 10,000 miles away. Grrr!

Patsy

[Nick]

i have never seen Doctors..is Christopher Timothy still in it..??


about 6 years ago I was visiting a friend in Ealing Hospital in West London...I left Cleo in the car (It was winter) after I took her for a walk in a field opposite the hospital where it goes under a viaduct that carries a railway...up an hill and at the top there are some houses..'Hello' I thought this looks familiar...it was the area where they did the outside filming for Family affairs before they built their own outside lot and it was featured on the popening credits

[RitaLittlewood]

No. He left.

Ooh. Were you in them? Or end up on the cutting room floor?

Patsy

[Nick]

No they had already been filmed..thats how i recognized the area lol

but i prob would have ended up on the cutting room floor knowing my luck

[RitaLittlewood]

Awww. One day stardom will beckon.

Patsy

[sallywebster]

You arent missing much in not watching Doctors, Nick, by the sound of it!

[sootycat]

I enjoy Doctors, sounds as if I'm in the minority here. ;D