In a world of ever-decreasing attention spans and lifestyles outside the outdated concept of the nine-to-five working day, television executives have a fight on their hands to retain their audiences and keep producing programmes that make people tune in on a regular basis. There is one unlikely candidate on our viewing schedules that has concocted the perfect formula, and that is Hollyoaks.
Over a decade now, I've dipped in and out of the show with varying degrees of interest. After school and college it formed my after-dinner viewing, while a snapshot of university life would depict a scene of my housemates in front of the programme, sprawled on sofas underneath a 'Girls of Hollyoaks' calendar. But as I entered the working world of nine-to-five Monday to Friday, I found myself behind a desk, travelling home or doing something else until gradually the show slipped down my list of priorities until it barely registered at all.
But the key to Hollyoaks' longevity is its ability for its audience to pick up where it left off. There are no wholesale changes to the cast with a plane crash or train wreck writing off half of the actors, so you'll always recognise the characters. Its storylines begin slowly but build momentum into a snowball effect over months and months, reaching a climax which has avid fans and casual watchers gripped in unison.
I write this as I watch a week's worth of episode back to back, after having barely watched Hollyoaks in recent years. But I'm right back into the drama, fixated by a tapestry of threads interwoven into each other, encompassing blackmail, deceipt, affairs and murder - 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' appears to be the motto, finding something for everyone. It's twenty five minutes of pure, sheer, unadulturated guilty pleasures - and no matter how long I leave it until the next run of episodes I watch, be it weeks, months or years, I know I'll be returning to a familiarity that can't be found elsewhere.
Cue Hollyoaks theme tune *dow-down-dowedy-dow-dow-dooowwwwn*
Over a decade now, I've dipped in and out of the show with varying degrees of interest. After school and college it formed my after-dinner viewing, while a snapshot of university life would depict a scene of my housemates in front of the programme, sprawled on sofas underneath a 'Girls of Hollyoaks' calendar. But as I entered the working world of nine-to-five Monday to Friday, I found myself behind a desk, travelling home or doing something else until gradually the show slipped down my list of priorities until it barely registered at all.
But the key to Hollyoaks' longevity is its ability for its audience to pick up where it left off. There are no wholesale changes to the cast with a plane crash or train wreck writing off half of the actors, so you'll always recognise the characters. Its storylines begin slowly but build momentum into a snowball effect over months and months, reaching a climax which has avid fans and casual watchers gripped in unison.
I write this as I watch a week's worth of episode back to back, after having barely watched Hollyoaks in recent years. But I'm right back into the drama, fixated by a tapestry of threads interwoven into each other, encompassing blackmail, deceipt, affairs and murder - 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' appears to be the motto, finding something for everyone. It's twenty five minutes of pure, sheer, unadulturated guilty pleasures - and no matter how long I leave it until the next run of episodes I watch, be it weeks, months or years, I know I'll be returning to a familiarity that can't be found elsewhere.
Cue Hollyoaks theme tune *dow-down-dowedy-dow-dow-dooowwwwn*
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