So how many years exactly have you been watching soaps and what makes you keep watching? What is your earliest soap memory?

I do remember watching Neighbours from a fairly young age. think I was about four years old. It was incredibly big at that time with the Robinsons and Ramsey's.

Soaps were always on in our house so I was subjected to them all at an early age but I'd say it probably wasn't until I was about ten in the mid nineties that I started watching EastEnders prominently.

I can remember the Emmerdale plane crash and Arthur's affair in EastEnders and rget both happened in the early nineties so I must have been a bit younger than ten.

I can remember when Corrie was on as a child as soon as the end music came on it was bed time ,no words were needed we just went upstairs,also remember when emerdale was about farming and when eastenders had cockney knees up around the piano that was in the vic pub ,long long time ago

I've been watching Corrie since my teens but I only got into EastEnders this year, from reading this forum.

It's funny own nowadays parents complain about their children being subjected to violence and raunch scenes but my parents had no qualms about us watching soaps when we were little.

My parents were (still are) protective worriers but they somehow thought watching soaps with adult content was okay

Since I was a nipper really, born into a family where soaps were always on everything from Brookside to Sunset Beach. First soap that gripped me was EastEnders remember Pauline smashing Arthur over the head with a frying pan and him going to prison. I remember Alf Stewart running the bait shop in Home and Away. Got into Neighbours, Emmerdale and others later.

Had to look this up. Emergency-Ward 10....it began in 1957😊

I'm not sure exactly, but I distinctly remember watching some on Tuesday so that's 5 days at the bare minimum.

Never heard of it

I suppose you're going to say you've never heard of Dr Kildare or Peyton Place either.

What's your earliest soap memory?

I don't remember a time when I wasn't a soap viewer. My grandmother was always a big fan of the soaps and I can recall watching Coronation Street with her when I must have been three or four years old.

I've heard of Dr Kildare but Peyton Place isn't ringing any bells.

That's exactly how I got hooked

Mom used to like the American soaps, I vaguely remember catching one or two of them. Were they aired during the day?

At some point or another we watched

Neighbours
Emmerdale
Family Affairs
EastEnders
Coronation Street
Sons and Daughters
Home And Away
A Country Practice
Flying Doctors
Prisoner Cell Block H
Crossroads (not for long though)

Ryan O'Neal and Mia Farrow were in it.

Surprised it's never been remade or rebooted

Funny that we do still love soaps after all this time, even if interest is dwindling the core fans still tune in every night.

I grew up watching Corrie in the days of black and white telly. Oh the joys of Annie Walker, Elsie Tanner, Ena Sharples etc I watched Brookside, EastEnders, Home & Away and Neighbours right from the start. I watched Brookside right to the end and gave up watching EE, Corrie, H&A and Neighbours when I got fed up them - H&A being very recently when the Morgans joined. I started watching Emmerdale in the late 1990s and continue to watch it to this day. I loved Dallas I forgot, I also watched Crossroads and thought David Hunter was rather yummy - I was about 6 at the time!

Before my time but their names do live on. I wonder what the likes of Violet Carson, Doris Speed and Pat Phoenix would make of Corrie today?

I'm 36 and can't remember a time when I didn't watch soaps.

I vaguely remember that Sons and Daughters used to be on before the Children's TV in the afternoon a couple of days a week and there was some other soap on the other days - I think it was American; the characters all seemed to be rich, didn't need to work and dressed in what I'd now call cut price Dynasty chic.

Bout 21 years

I'm 43 and I remember watching Corrie from an early age. My parents were also big on Emmerdale Farm, Crossroads and The Sullivans. My favourites though were the 80s days of Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. It was all so glamorous to me. I suppose one of my earliest soap memories is being on holiday the year that JR was shot, I had the tshirt and a big stetson. Everyone was talking about it!

ive been watching corrie regularly since late 2012/early 2013 so i'm still kinda new really!

i wouldn't ever watch 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 2000s episodes tho. i'm not interested in them at all. idgaf about the history of corrie, or who the characters were when it first started. i cant understand ppl who wanna watch it in black and white! that was yrs and yrs ago ffs!

i only watch 21st century corrie, from 2010 to present

i think its the characters that make me keep watching. i love all the comedy characters in corrie. my fave character in the whole show atm is Gemma Winter, i also love Tim Metcalfe, Mary Taylor, Beth Tinker, etc. and i'm happy Peter Barlow is coming back, but my fave character of all time is Kylie Platt!

my earliest memory? i dunno!

Corrie and EastEnders since 1989 when I was 9.
Brookside since 1995 or 1996
Hollyoaks since 2004.
Neighbours on and off since 1994
Emmerdale since this May

I started watching EastEnders properly from about 2004 onwards when I was 10. But I have distinct memories of watching it with my parents if it was on before that. My mum loves EE and so recorded all episodes from 1998 onwards on vhs. So i watched all of them as well as the current ones. I've also watched older EE on YouTube. And the only time I've missed it so far was during the summer of 2012 when I was fed up of it. My favourite storylines to date are 'stax', the secret Mitchell and 'who killed Lucy?' Up until live week.

Emmerdale I have watched from about 2006 and the first thing I remember watching was Sadie King getting shot and so it had me gripped. It's often underrated but is actually at present the strongest even if it's a bit OTT at times.

Coronation Street was something my nan being from up north loved. I remember watching it with her as a child when she came to stay with us in Wales. I would say it was my favourite soap. I watched it right up until last year when I realised I no longer enjoyed it. The show I was watching no longer resembled Corrie and with much regret I chose to give up on it. I am open to watching it again though depending on what I hear of KO's work.

Hollyoaks was something I enjoyed more for entertainment as a teenager. It was always sensationalist but it used to be done in a controlled way. I loved Max's wedding day, Silas and Brendan. Again I gave up on it last year when it became a parody of itself. I enjoyed it. But because it was so OTT I felt it was more sci fi than a soap. In its current state I would not return to it.

For a couple of years I also watched Pobl Y Cwm, and Rownd a Rownd as I could speak Welsh. But even being able to speak Welsh (and I know it sounds horrible) I couldn't stand listening to it all the time. It was a good way to remember how to speak it though. I'm often out of my depth speaking it by today

Started watching Corrie in 1971 or so I thought!!

My first memory was Valerie Barlow getting electrocuted with her hairdryer which I've just looked up & the date was 27th jan 71 so might even have been lats 1970 I started watching!!

I was 7 years old & we hadn't ever had a TV but my Gran got ill & needed looking after & offered to buy my parents either a TV or a dishwasher & with persuasion from my then 9 year old sister they opted for a black & white TV (me Dad begrudged the extra money for a colour license ) & from then on with persuasion from my Gran who was already a fan the whole family became Corrie addicts (though my sister who lost interest years ago will swear she never was now!!

As Andybear mentions above Hilda, Stan, Ena & Minnie, Annie Walker, little Lucille Hewitt, Len Fairclough, Ray Langton, Elsie, so many great characters!!
As an aside when I was 7 years old Ena Sharples scared the sh*t out of me!!

As you may be able to tell my interest in the show never waned (well maybe mid nineties when I was out every night) and from the late 90s throughout the 00s I doubt I ever missed an episode!!

Sorry Scrabs you probably didn't actually want my life story!!

I'll go with the easiest to answer, Iv watched pretty much the whole of Hollyoaks. There was a time I used to watch the omnibus hungover on a Sunday morn. I have missed weeks and episodes here and that and sometimes I'm only half watching but I know what's going on.

Emmerdale. Watched since I was a kid there is a period in my early twenties when I didn't watch much. Late twenties it was still sporadic
Eastenders Same as above. I can take it or leave it at times and can and do go weeks without watching.

Corrie can't really remember to be honest

Brookside. We didn't watch that in our house but if I was next door they always did 😀
When I was in my teens I used to be the only one watching TV as brothers had consoles and so I did watch brookside. I still remember Susana Farnham turning round and shouting at the kids😬

Family Affairs I can have watched no more than 20 episodes.

Neighbours and home and away was the fav as kids. It was always on cos we had to come in for tea when it was on. Don't watch either now!