And, indeed, what were they trying to achieve with it?

The first episode is on YouTube here and it's surprisingly engaging.

Would a soap with supernatural elements, strong use of flashback, montages and time freezes work today? I think it'd be a quite interesting idea for a niche soap for Channel 4 or 5- combining traditional drama with a Twin Peaks style "dark" element.

As a wider question- what did you think of Night & Day as a soap?

i remember it had Ray quinn in and the young blonde receptionist from waterloo road

I really enjoyed it! I was sorry to see it go!
I remember it was moved from tea-time to late night broadcasts.

To answer your first question, I think that they were hoping to recapture some of the youth audience that they lost when Home and Away moved to Channel 5. The new Crossroads was quite youth oriented but the reputation of the original still lingered over it so I think that ITV hoped to attract younger viewers with the slicker and sexier Night and Day who would in turn discover Crossroads.

Would it work today? I think it would have worked back when it aired originally had it been aired on Channel 4 or E4. ITV are pretty shambolic when it comes to scheduling "youth" shows like when they aired Echo Beach on a Friday night when most of their target audience would be out rather than at home watching TV. The pilot holds up quite well and I think it would work today too on Channel 4, E4 or even Channel 5.

What did I think of Night and Day? I loved it. It's one of my favourite British soaps. It had a great cast, interesting storylines, unique filming style and a cool soundtrack. I only wish some channel would repeat it today.


Dancing on Ice Ray Quinn and Christine Tremarco?? Are you mixing it up with Brookside or maybe Springhill?

Didn't channel 4 try something similar with "springhill" ?

They did but I think it only aired once a week and in series format rather than being a continuing all year round soap like Night and Day was planned to be. I think that Springhill actually went further down the whole supernatural and religious route than N&D did in the end. Russell T Davies (Queer As Folk, Doctor Who) and Paul Abbott (Shameless) were part of the team behind the creation of the show.

I guess it didn't even work then... though I was a big fan.

The surreal elements were really fun and inventive

Not as an early evening thing, I loved it when they were using up the episodes late night

Something like Night & Day would have worked then.

The problem was ITV didn't know what to do with it.

They should have known a show like this would be a cult show and not a general teatime soap with the appeal of Home and Away (which they were using N&D to replace).

The correct marketing and time slot is all it needed. Not rocket science, especially for people who work in TV and are supposed to know about these things. But for some strange reason they treated what was essentially a British Twin Peaks, like a British Home and Away. And they wonder why it flopped.

IMO it should have been on Channel 4 or 5, and in a later time slot.

Night and Day was excellent. Been watching some of the later episodes online and it holds up well.

I definitely think it could work today as a cult hit. Alas, they didn't have catch-up TV back then so having a later slot killed it off. It definitely fitted a later night slot; the surreal atmosphere worked better at night. 9pm or 10pm would have been all right.

What I liked about Night and Day as well is that it had an intriguing overarching concept (teenage girl goes missing), whereas all of the other soaps are simply just a bunch of people and their lives so when your favourite character leaves you can just switch off.

Having a much smaller cast worked well because you got to 'know' the characters. The characters were also all strongly linked and had close relationships with each other whereas in other soaps, the families don't have a strong link. I can't think of any examples of families who are friends in Hollyoaks.

Yes it could work. Like others have said, maybe not at tea time, but with the right promos I think it could work. If Waterloo Road and Dr Who work, then theres no reason why this can't.