Sometimes it feels like I'm watchin natural everyday dialogue. I'm assumin actors improvise some of the lines around their script. If not then wouldn't their scenes come across as 'robotic' remembering pages & pages of script word for word? .

Not if the writers are good at doing 'naturalistic' dialogue and the actors are good at learning and delivering it.

If both sets are professional and talented it will work.

I'm sure the actors might ad lib the odd thing if they forget a line. It is better to do that than have to stop the take and start again. But most of it is scripted. Writers tend to get huffy if their dialogue is changed by actors who are generally not qualified to do it, i've interviewed a few and they've talked about it to me.

Some actors such as Danny Dyer, Shane Richie and June Brown (EE) have said that they change up some of the wording a bit, because they know their own characters best so some lines may not exactly "fit" with the character. An example with this would be June Brown; she's religious so sometimes puts in a quote from the bible during a conversation with another character on-screen.

Natural dialogue is all scripted though. It's just mastered by good writers and good actors.

It doesn't seem like they're remembering lines at all in a lot of scenes (for example; tim & sally, steve & lloyd). Do the actors rehearse for a handful of scenes at a time? (say a weeks worth).

Would they come into work & do all their scenes 1 after another in 1 day for example. If thats the case then maybe thats why they're comfortable reciting dialogue because its based around their current 'position' within the storyline .

Remembering lines isn't too bad. They have a lot of time to learn them at home and with the other cast members in the scene. Natural conversation was surprisingly the easiest for me, because I felt like I was actually in that situation and what the other person was saying allowed me to remember my own lines, too.

Don't forget that it's not live, so if someone forgets their lines, they just read through them again and do a second take.

You also don't just have to learn your own lines, You need to learn the lines of the person you are sharing a scene with, Otherwise you don't know where you are supposed to come in etc

That is a mistake several 'Newcomers' to acting make. They learn purely their own lines and non of the others

No good actor should ever seem as though they are remembering their lines. If they aren't good enough to remember and deliver their lines in a natural way (so you believe they actually are the character just saying what they think as they think it) then frankly they shouldn't be paid to do the job.

Generally they at most rehearse once before shooting (this is termed rehearse/record) but more likely they just go straight in recording straight away. They are expected to have learnt their lines and blocking (where they need to stand) from the script first.

Matt di Angelo Tweeted about a line he ad libbed last year. It was very minor dialogue, but shows at least that it occurs & gets on screen.
I can imagine some major actors In EE ad lib. Could you honestly imagine Danny Dyer or Shane Richie sticking rigidly to the written word.

There often isnt much time to learn lines, generally the night before and then coping with all the rewrites and the changes in the morning. Soaps have such a fast turnaround there isnt the same amount of time as on other scripted drama. You've also given one of the reasons why going off script isnt generally acceptable - its not fair on the other actors apart from anything else

I struggled to even remember 1 line in a school play! . I think Bev Callard who plays Liz quit for that exact reason, the stress with filmin relentlessly. Despite her difficulties she makes Liz a very believable character. Others like Jai in ED for example seem 'un-natural', u can tell he's 'actin' (or at least he thinks he is..).

Its also blatantly obvious a lot of the younger cast are readin from a script. Maybe its because the older cast are more assured in themselves through life experience. They know how to be 'personable' with the viewer if that makes sense.

I think you can tell sometimes the lines have been written for the character when they use words or phrases that seem to jar with their natural flow or their accent.

This is the reason why soap acting is such a different beast to film acting etc, and why good soap actors deserve far more credit than they are often afforded by so called 'proper' actors!!

Exactly. It isn't fair on the other actors, not getting the correct 'feed' line can really throw them off.

Re stuff staying in. As one writer i talked to about it (not a soap by the way), the problem can be that if the writer isn't on the floor that day, it might not get noticed if it isn't a major difference and by the time the writer sees it to object in editing it is too late to get it refilmed. So they're stuck with it. But the writer can be majorly ++++ed off about it. As he termed it, you spend hours or days slaving over a script, getting the 'tone' and 'beat' just right and then some 'jumped up, unqualified actor that has never studied writing in their life' ((his words) completely changes the meaning of the scene by thinking they know better.

Now that is more the case of an actor deliberately changing it rather than just covering for a forgotten line but the principle remains the same. Writers have studied their craft and are paid because they are good at it. Actors have studied their craft and are paid because they are good at it. They shouldn't presume to think they know better than somebody else in another 'department' and people will get upset if it reguarly happens.

It is a matter of professional pride. Think how a writer would feel if viewers were moaning about an awful line and saying that writer is crap because their name is on the credits but actually an actor has written it?

As i understand it most of Dyer's ad libs are usually the cockney rhyming slang rather than actual dialogue content. It doesn't change the meaning of scenes.

Yes, it is a completely different 'type' of acting and requires a different skill set to something like a film or 'major' drama serial.

There they get loads of rehearsal time and multiple takes but must also keep it 'fresh' - even after say 30 takes which must be incredibly hard.

Soaps are expected to do it immediately with at most a few minutes of rehearsal (and usually not that) and to do it right as they just don't have the time for multiples takes.

Oh! This reminds of the time that Alun Armstrong from New Tricks once slagged off the writers and said the actors occasionally wrote their own scripts....one of the writers responded on twitter with the below...OUCH!

"A New Tricks I wrote and directed airs on Monday. I can tell you EXACTLY how much of it the actors wrote: not a comma," said Julian Simpson on Twitter.

"The following week, Sarah Pinborough's episode is on. I directed that too. Cast contribution to script? Big fat zero."

"I was going to be writing today, instead I'm just going to hand the actors a pad and pen. I wish I'd learned this 15 years ago," he added, before noting: "Worth saying that I get on phenomenally well with the New Tricks cast.

"Just don't appreciate actors speaking out of turn and they know that."

I'm going to only address the bib. Do you understand what actors are? If you understand that then everything else will be answered in this thread.

Yes, i remember that, it resulted in Armstrong and Redman leaving didn't it?

A more famous if funny example would be Joey being sacked from his Soap Opera in Friends after speaking out of turn about the writers. Again i think he inferred that he wrote his own lines.

I think in the last few years there has been an increase in the actors adlibbing when they are acting with children/ toddlers,,,I remember when I was younger a child actor would do something and the actors would just ignore them but lately it seems the actors respond to the child and then carry on...one example of someone I think is good at doing this is Masood with Kamil

Ray Meagher and Lynne McGranger have said a lot of the phrases Alf and Irene use are stuff they have added in that just became normal to their characters after a while.

It's all scripted. I'm sure on occasion they may forget a line and ad lib to not stop the take or if a baby or animal plays up they have to slightly adapt to that situation and carry on with their lines.

What I loved about the TV show Friday Night Lights was as long as the actors stuck to the jist of the scene they could ad lib and move all they wanted to and the camera followed them. Its the only TV show I have seen like that and whilst you do get a slight camera shake it's more realistic.

I remember reading how Curb Your Enthusiasm was mainly ad lib, and how the British cop show Suspects was loosely ad lib too. I actually enjoy the concept, it makes scenes feel very natural.

Curb your enthusiasm was phenomenally successful because many of the actors were also comedians who just used off the cuff funnies. Hilarious.