Best British soap series

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.

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.

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...

Holby City (1999)

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

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.

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.

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

Doctors (2000)

Your regular appointment in Letherbridge. In a busy Midlands GP practice, the turbulent lives and loves of the staff and patients mean there's always humour and heartbreak.

Hollyoaks Later (2008)

Hollyoaks Later is a spin-off from the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Broadcast on E4 with a late night slot, the series began in 2008, and was an annual event for the soap until 2013, when there was a break, until it returned with a special episode in 2020.Each of the original series was shown over five consecutive nights. The late night airing allowed for more sexual content, "edgier" storylines, and stronger language. Each series is a stand-alone story, although each ties in with events on the main show at the time, with the producers often taking advantage of the later broadcast time to tie up loose ends on the more violent and controversial storylines.

Brookside (1982)

The everyday life and times of the residents, friends and enemies who live in a suburban street in Liverpool, England.

Coronation Street Icons (2020)

Narrated by Sally Lindsay, looks back at some of the iconic characters who have walked the cobbles over the years and finds out what the actors who played them think of their time on the street.

Echo Beach (2008)

Echo Beach is a British teen drama series that aired on ITV in 2008. Set in the fictional Cornish coastal town of Polnarren, it ran for twelve weekly episodes from 10 January to 21 March 2008. The show was created by Tony Jordan and produced by Kudos for ITV.

Take the High Road (1980)

The residents of the rural Scottish village of Glendarroch deal with issues ranging from crop failures and parish pump politics to infidelity, alcoholism and drug abuse.

Deutsch Plus (0)

The BBC's language learning series for German beginners.Nico Antonescu is a Romanian who goes to live and work in Germany, but doesn't speak German very well. He gets a job as a runner at the D-Plus TV station in Cologne.

Howards' Way (1985)

The BBC's answer to Dynasty, Howards' Way was launched in 1985 with an enormous 1 million pound budget. The main characters in the show were 'best boat designer in the world' Tom Howard, his boutique running wife Jan Howard, 'I'll have a drink' Jack Rolfe and a nasty man called Ken Masters. It starred Maurice Colbourne.

Eldorado (1992)

Eldorado was a British soap set on the sunny, Southern coast of Spain in the small resort of Los Barcos. The series was axed a little after one year of production due to initial ratings and media criticism over poor story lines and casting choices.The custom designed set is still standing (as of 2012).

River City (2002)

River City is a television soap opera, first broadcast in Scotland on BBC Scotland on 24 September 2002. River City storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch in Glasgow. The series primarily centres around the residents of Shieldinch, their houses, flats and apartments and its neighbouring streets, namely Montego Street and which encompasses a pub, bistro, community centre, café and various small businesses, in addition to a subway station and basketball court.The series was originally screened as two half-hour episodes per week. Today, one hour-long episode is broadcast each week - usually Tuesday evenings on BBC One Scotland, repeated Sunday afternoons on either BBC One Scotland or BBC Two Scotland. In Australia, River City is screened 11:00am weekdays on Seven's British-oriented multichannel 7TWO.

Albion Market (0)

Albion Market is a short-lived British soap opera, intended as a companion to Coronation Street on ITV.

Emergency-Ward 10 (1957)

The series was made by the production company ATV and set in a fictional hospital called Oxbridge General. Growing out of what was originally intended to be no more than a six-week serial (entitled Calling Nurse Roberts), the series went on to become ITV's first twice-a-week evening soap opera. Although somewhat cosily genteel by modern standards, Emergency - Ward 10 was the first hospital-based television drama to establish a successful format combining medical matters with storylines centering around the personal lives of the doctors and nurses. To this end, the series was also British TV's first soap set in the workplace.

Winter Solstice (2003)

Together (1980)

Residents of a sheltered accommodation block run by a warden go about their business.

199 Park Lane (1965)

199 Park Lane is a British television soap opera based around the residents of an exclusive block of apartments in London, and dealt with the intrigues of the Chelsea/Kensington set.

Family Affairs (1997)

Focuses on the lives of residents in the fictional London suburb of Charnham.

Hollyoaks: Let Loose (2005)

The prequel to Hollyoaks in the City, Hollyoaks Let Loose was broadcast between September and December 2005 and followed iconic Hollyoaks characters, Ben Davies (Marcus Patric) and Lisa Hunter (Gemma Atkinson) as they leave their hometown of Hollyoaks in Chester and head for a new life abroad. However, Lisa’s behaviour puts her and Ben’s relationship at risk. She wonders whether she was right to leave Hollyoaks when confronted with the responsibility of looking after Ben’s child. The series also touched on Lisa’s battle with self-harm.

Nancherrow (1999)

When Colonel Carey-Lewis dies, his irrepressible daughter, Loveday, inherits Nancherrow and fights to keep it alive so that her son Nat will eventually take over from her.

Compact (1962)

Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays.When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner.Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.

The Dealership (2013)

A look under the bonnet of an Essex used-car dealership. With money tight, can the customers give the dealers a run for their money?