Best European soap series

Kokkino Nifiko (2017)

Velvet (2014)

In 1950s Spain, the heir to a fashion house romances a beautiful seamstress who works for the company, despite the objections of his family.

Coronation Street (1960)

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

EastEnders (1985)

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

The Windsors (2016)

Comedy soap opera re-imagining the lives of the British Royal Family as you have never seen them before.

Return to Las Sabinas (2024)

Gracia and Paloma return to Las Sabinas to look after their father, Emilio. Gracia reunites with her childhood sweetheart, Miguel, who is now engaged to Esther. Paloma takes over the family's land and clashes with landowner Paca Utrera, who shares a terrible secret with Emilio and has a nefarious plan for the village. Young Óscar is found dead under strange circumstances. Manuela must investigate the murder with the help of Óscar's brother, Álex, who is a priest.

Casualty (1986)

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Emmerdale (1972)

The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.

F.C. De Kampioenen (1990)

F.C. De Kampioenen, was a long-running Flemish sitcom chronicling the adventures of a fictional local football team. It aired on the Belgian-Flemish channel één between 1990 and 2011, for 21 seasons with 273 half-hour long episodes, making it one of the most successful comedy programs ever on Belgian television. In 2009 a film had been planned, but has since been cancelled following complaints by the actors about the script. In 2012 the crew announced a new script was written and a movie will be produced. The movie is to be released in December 2013.The series relies heavily on stereotypical characters and farce for its humour. The story is mainly set around a few members of the football club who regularly visit the club canteen before or after a soccer training or match. The canteen is run by Pascale, who is in a relationship with Maurice. The football club is sponsored by the owner of a sausage factory, Balthazar Boma. Next to the field is an antiques shop, owned by the fraudulent Fernand. Most of the episodes are based on misunderstandings or dirty tricks from Fernand.

Hollyoaks (1995)

The daily soap that follows the loves, lives and misdemeanours of a group of people living in the Chester village of Hollyoaks where anything could, and frequently does, happen...

Sueños de libertad (2024)

Begoña Montes is a woman who lives trapped in a toxic marriage and seeks the long-awaited freedom in Spain in 1958.

Holby City (1999)

Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.

El nudo (2019)

Forever (1996)

Eighteen years ago, Susan and Michael Vincent travelled to Spain with a group of friends. She was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Martha. Newly released on parole from the Spanish jail, Susan comes back to Chicago to regain her children’s love and prove her innocence.

Tomorrow is Ours (2017)

The story revolves around the people of Sète, France. Their lives are punctuated by family rivalries, romance and scenes from daily life, but also by plots involving police investigations, secrets and betrayals.

Here it all begins (2020)

Maxime, Rose and Antoine immerse themselves in the life of a school that will train the future big names in gastronomy.

Red Rock (2015)

Starting on the day a long, dormant feud between two local families is brutally reignited, this continuing drama is based around a busy Dublin Garda station.On one side, the Hennessys, a local dynasty, whose name is above half the businesses in town. On the other side, the Kielys, who have turned petty crime into a cottage industry. Charting the life and dramas of a community about to be enveloped by a feud, through the eyes of those who police it, each episode will be a mix of 'crime of the week' stories and on-going serial arcs, following principle characters in both their professional and personal lives. A powerful and moving drama, Red Rock is a contemporary western, set in the shadow of Ireland's 'gold rush'.

Strawberries with Sugar (2003)

Morangos com Açúcar was a Portuguese Teen drama. It was broadcast daily on the Portuguese TV station TVI between 30 August 2003 to 15 September 2012. It has also been broadcast in Angola, Syria, Brazil and Romania.

Footballers' Wives (2002)

They're beautiful, they're filthy rich and they can have anything money can buy... so why are they hardly ever happy?... The makers of hit ITV1 show 'Bad Girls' invite you to join the wives of the Earls Park FC footballers as they discover the perils, both in the spotlight and out, of being married to their famous husbands - catfights... newspaper allegations... even murder... anyone who's anyone watches Footballers' Wives.

The Ladies' Paradise (2015)

Follow Teresa Iorio, a young woman who leaves her rural Sicilian hometown for Milan to find work--and much more--at a newly opened department store: The Ladies' Paradise.

Club 57 (2019)

When Eva and Rubén travel back in time to 1957, they try to go unnoticed until they find a way to return. Their plans change after Eva falls for Italian heartthrob JJ, and her actions begin to drastically alter the future.

Family (1991)

'Familie' is the longest running Belgian soap opera. The Van den Bossches originally had an electronics company, later a holding company that included a clothing chain and a sandwich shop. In the meantime, we closely follow the personal lives of the Van den Bossches and their entourage. Grandma Anna and all her children and grandchildren have been through a lot over time and it doesn't look like their lives will become calmer any time soon.

La Promesa (2023)

In 1913 Spain, a woman gets a job at the palace of La Promesa as a reward for saving the marquesses' son - but nobody knows that she has her own plans, which involve avenging her mother's death and finding her missing brother.

Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (1992)

Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten is a long-running German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL in 1992. The programme concerns the lives of a fictional neighborhood in Germany's capital city Berlin. Over the years the soap opera tends to have an overhaul of young people in their late teens and early twenties; targeting a young viewership.

Dream Team (1997)

Dream Team follows both the on and off pitch battles of Harchester United Football Club and the drama that follows them on and off the pitch. It follows the lives of the players, management, executives, and their wives and girlfriends as well as the football agents. The former Premiership club are currently in The Coca Cola Football League Championship (English football's second highest division) having been relegated from The Premier League at the end of Series 7 (the top league) which they were in since the shows begining. The fictional club is filled with trouble, fear, anguish, death, betrayl, blackmail, murder, corruption, affairs, deceipt, lying, theft, assult and scandal all round and thats just off the pitch, it seems that the drama on the pitch with battles for promotion or against relegation is the easy life. During the years, the team have been through many highs and lows both on and off the pitch, including many relegation battles that have gone to the wire, win

Sangue Oculto (2022)

Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (1990)

Goede tijden, slechte tijden, also known as GTST, is the longest-running Dutch soap opera, revolving around the lives of the families Alberts, Sanders, De Jong, Van Houten and Bouwhuis. It all takes place in the fictional town of Meerdijk.

Brzydula (2008)

Uli Cieplak - who is not very pretty, but hardworking and smart - finds employment in the renowned fashion house Febo & Dobrzański. Despite her unattractive appearance, with diligence she climbs the career ladder while secretly having a crush on her boss, Marek Dobrzański, the president of the company.

Life Is Life (2022)

Ana Margarida Rosa Lobo, a 70-year-old actress at the end of her career, discovers she has Alzheimer's and without explaining to anyone, she decides to end her five-decade marriage with Sérgio and move to another house to enjoy her lucidity while she can. This decision causes an upheaval in the professional and personal lives of her four daughters. Faced with this situation, the family will be tested to the limit and the four women change their way of looking at life, questioning their love relationships that they have also built.

Ouro Verde (2017)

Zé Maria Magalhães is an innocent young man who, suddenly, sees his dreams and family destroyed by a man's greed: Miguel Ferreira da Fonseca, a powerful banker. For 15 years, Zé Maria is forced to remain hidden, in a life of lies, in another country, imprisoned by the memories of the past, having to assume a new identity. Today, he is a great farmer, owner of the Ouro Verde empire, known as Jorge Monforte, and has become one of the richest men in Brazil. The course of time only fueled his desire for revenge, making him lose the sense of right and wrong and the ability to love. Fifteen years later, he returns to Portugal, ready to avenge the past and destroy Miguel Ferreira da Fonseca.