I know all soaps have had good villains but which soap is best at creating good villains?
I think it's hollyoaks as they have some really creepy and scary viillains like Silas and Patrick, complicated villains like Sienna and Brendan and also there are people like Claire and Mercedes.
Emmerdale I haven't watched that much of but it also seems like they create good villains.

Without a doubt Hollyoaks.

Some of HO's villains can even be arguable if they are actual villains like Mercedes, Brendan, Clare, Grace, Trevor, Will and Sienna because they're so complex and have many layers.

Then there's Patrick, Fraser, Silas who have been evil to the core and really interesting to watch.

The only other soap I feel has come close is EE with Ronnie, like most of HO's villains we are seeing what's made her how she is because with HO wether you like the characters or not there is always an explanation to why people are the way they are like with Grace - people don't like her but she is a complex character and I am a big Grace fan.

EE Ronnie is a pretty weak villain, compared to the likes of Tony, Stella and Trevor.
Will was an awful Villain, as is Grace, Clare was ok.

Emmerdale's Killer Cameron was an amazing villain, likewise Corrie's Richard Hillman and Alan Bradley. I've never watched Hollyoaks and I don't remember villains in EastEnders when I watched it, there might well have been some, I just don't remember - shows how much of an impression the programme made on me! .

Hollyoaks

I woud say Hollyoaks - Warren Fox, Brendan Brady, Silas Blissett, Clare Devine (her original stint was pure evil), Niall Rafferty, Mercedes McQueen and so many more!

Eastenders - When they get it right they really get it right! Phil Mitchell in the 90's was extremely layered in my opinion, Steve Owen was amazing, Dan Sullivan became an unexpected villain but a enjoyable one (only one to ever get one over on Phil?) Archie Mitchell and Michael Moon and not forgetting the amazing Janine Butcher. Quiet a hard task seeing as 98 percent of the residents are immoral!

Coronation Street - Hell yes... in the past... Alan Bradley, Charlie Stubbs and hopefully Tony Stewart are amazing. They do bad boys best because we could have any of them on our own street. Apart from Richard Hillman they churn out crap killers every year or so after the last killer killed!

Neighbours - Apart from Izzy Hoyland and Paul Robinson I have never had an interest.

Home and Away - Went through a phase of killing, explosions and shocks didn't it? I wish I had watched it!

Emmerdale - The last bad guys I liked were Chris Tate, Nathan Wylde, Sadie King, Steph Stokes and Rosemary Sinclair. Charity Macey and Cain Dingle are great as is Declan Macey but I can't help feel there is something missing and no not Kim Tate, the show wouldn't do her justice in it's current state. Cameron Murray was over hyped but decent out seemed to gloss over how bad the show really was once he left.

Hollyoaks wins in recent years for me as Eastenders have relied on past baddies to entertain us.

Hollyoaks, forgot the latest lot I.e Brendan etc. look back at the likes of Rob, forget his surname but hooked Lucy on drugs. And Toby as well. They have a great way in the past of writing brilliant villains

Hollyoaks and Corrie

I think Coronation Street has the best villains. They are quite realistic whereas the Eastenders ones always have to be so dramatic and overdone.

H&A had some great villains about ten years ago, starting with Angie Russell, then Sarah Lewis and Zoe McAllister, the serial killing lesbian psychopaths! It was amazing when, months after Zoe "died", they showed a glimpse of her working in a Sydney hospital, then we didnt see her for months again as they built suspense

I think Emmerdale do good villains who physically look the part like Ross Barton, Cameron Murray and Cain Dingle. The car jacking and car thefts were brilliant. However turning Debbie Dingle into a villain was embarrassing. She's such a tiny creature and she used her Dad's reputation and help. Without him she wouldn't have got away with it.

Eastenders villains are terrible. They very rarely physically look the part and are just ridiculous.

In Coronation Street Tony and Rob are great villains. Tony is big and well built and looks scary. The actor who plays Tony plays a criminal very well indeed. Tracey is doing well with Tony and Rob as a part of a criminal group.

I don't watch Hollyoaks.

I agree.

Corrie and Emmerdale. To name a few:

Cameron Murray
Jez Quigley
Richard Hillman
Cain Dingle
Kirsty Soames
Tony Gordon
Frank Foster

In the 80's and 90's (to some extent the early 2000s) EE had the best villians.
HO do have some great villians as someone said people like Brendan and Sienna have so many layers to them they're complicated and not panto like.

I wouldn't include Will in your list as he really became evil by the end.

I also think John Stape and Tony Gordon from Corrie were exceptional villains and in John Saape's case, it's arguable whether he is actually a villain.

For me, it is eastenders.


They have had great villans, think of (when I started watching in 2009), Archie Mitchell, Lucas Johnson, Carl ( Cant remember his surname, but is max's ex-wife Kirsty's, ex boyfriend) and plenty of others.

Carl White

Hollyoaks 100%

I think EE are going to make Ronnie a villain, but I wouldn't class her as a fully fledged one yet.

Archie, Lucas, Mad May... isn't it strange no one ever just calls her May...

Half the cast are psychotic, crazy, unrealistic villains that it lessens the Impact of a villains on the soap.

Doctors obviously!

I jest of course! It has to be Hollyoaks expecially with Silas and Brendan who are my two most favorite soap villains of all time from any soap

Eastenders has had a few good villains. Stella, Mad May, Den, Chrissie, Trevor, Janine, Lucas, Archie to name a few.

However I think the soap that produces the best and most rounded villains (i.e. anti-heroes or tragic villains) is Hollyoaks. It's hard for an audience to sympathise with a villain so much and characters like Sienna and Brendan have accomplished this. They're trying to mould Trevor into this category as well but I don't know if he'd truly fit in this category. You can't ignore Clare (in her first stint up to her leaving at the airport) and Silas here, both were great villains with gritty story lines.

Silas on Hollyoaks was so brilliant. Clare was too on her first stint.

I disagree. Ronnie is showing how a villain is created and it's very interesting. It's difference of opinion really.


Hmm. I can see what your saying cause he was a very vile person at the end but the way he was created into a villain and his reasons for doing what he did is what in trying to say, where as other soaps hardly have explanations to why characters just turn evil.

Corrie:
Frank Foster
Kirsty Soames
Mad Maya
Lewis
John Stape
Tony Gordon
Rob Donovan
Hollyoaks:
Clare Devine
Brendan
Silas
Paul Browning