Soap characters never seem to realistically match up with their locations do they? Positive discrimination or just daft casting you decide?

Most ethnic diversity? home counties hertfordshire in five's Family Affairs or rural yorkshire in Emmerdale. Yeah riiight. Yarkshire dales posse on da' farm aight? shout out to the kings hemel hempstead

vibrant homosexual population? coronation st's Manchester the home of canal street after all...not likely! rural yorkshire or suburban liverpool are where its at!

Where else would you find a broad range of white middle class people than the east end or greater manchester? Huh? Has any of these people been there lately. I say lately, i mean within the last twenty years...

And, of course rich beautiful people all congregate in a Nottingham service area? That could be put down to the all-new all-cancelled crossroads' camp factor or something, but i'm not so sure.

Dont get me started about grange hill moving from Grange Hill northeast London (a real place no less) to a nondescript suburb of liverpool without comment.

Sorry to correct you but the tv show Grange Hill was supposed to be in an inner London comp. It was nothing to do with the place Grange Hill, which is in Hainult Essex.

damn, thats disappointing. Just a coincidence then. Quite why lots of children with noticeable estuary english are doing in merseyside is likewise glossed over.

To be fair ive met people that think Walford is a real place.
Made near Watford, set in east london; between WALthamstow and stratFORD. "Yes of course its a real place." duhh...

But sadly there is a real place in Stratford called Albert Square and about 10 years ago they changed the name of the pub to.............yep you've guessed it, The Queen Vic

Er...I'm confused! What are we all talking about here?!

I think they are trying to say that people can only stay in one place...???

Am I wrong?

Are they saying everyone in Emmerdale has to have a Yorkshire accent and everyone in Eastenders has to have a cockney accent?

That you don't get gay people in suburban Liverpool or the Yorkshire Dales because gay people all congregate in Manchester?

Is that what you mean by people not matching their supposed locations?

I'm not suggesting that. People can move about, each town is not full of stereotypes. Soaps dont seem to reflect their supposed locations.

I am saying that there would be more gay people typically in manchester than the dales.

Or ethnic minorities in inner london or manchester than say suburban hertfordshire and the dales. The way East London is these days, you be lucky to see that many speaking english never mind in a cockernee accent.

Visit the East End or Salford or the Dales and then see how accurate they are...

But not all parts of East London are like that at all. As you can see by my profile, I live in East London and I would say virtually everyone round here speaks English as their first language and, no we dont have cockney accents because that only applies to a very small area of East London.

When they show the tube map outside the station, Walford seems to be slotted in between East Ham and Barking. Thats nowhere near the East End, its virtually suburbia!!!!

what's the name of the black guy that was seeing robbie's sister?

he drinks round the inner city asian part of the eastend - he's such a knob. kisses his biceps wearing vests and saying to the barmaids how much he bet they'd like his python...purlease!!!

elliottm

You're not the only one to notice........... Stu the gardender mentions him loads.... the pub is next door to Jarvis cockers house.

Speaking of Gus from EE's, hes in this months Company magazines list of Britains 50 Most Eligible Bachelors'

Mind you, the required standard cant be that high, PJ from BB3 is also in there

be cool y'all!

The soaps which are overwhelmignly white middle class seem to be set in inner city areas. Stretch any kind of credibility they might have. I'm a soap fan im not having a go. its just something that bothers me.

Anyone think the set-up is strange in Emmerdale????

Steph is Alan's daughter, and Tricia's mother???
Well, i think she looks old enough to be alan's wife, let alone his daughter, and yet she is supposed to be tricia's mother, and she looks old enough to be her grandmother!!

Strange, that one!

Not as strange as big Mo in Eastenders! She had Viv who in turn had Kat, Lynn, Little Mo and Belinda.

Talk about Age Concern!

Yes, I have pondered about that one too!!!

Talking about how soap start never match up in their locations: why on earth would Ken Barlow live in a shabby house in Coronation Street which is only worth around £30,000 after all the years he has been a school teacher? Not only that, but Dreary had a job too. Strange.

True!

Even more weird then-- why did Matt and Charlie Ramsden move to Corrie St. when she was on at eachers wage, and him on a doctors??

Oooh, i can't wait til next week when i can start my not - so -true - to - life thread!!!

Ignoring the age thing for a moment. The fact that prim and proper Alan Turner could have dodgy geezer-ette Steph as his daughter takes a major suspension of disbelief. Thats soap for you, eh?

Very true. Ive often wondered about that one myself. He's posh and she's just...well...common!

Moving aside though, what was that blue THING he was driving last night in Emmerdale? (the scene where he demanded money from Mack before whilst he was driving past) it was horrible!

Emmerdale is desperately in need of new casting directors!

Mmmm.......true. Alan driving a blue spaceship on wheels!

Yep! I'm not sure what the most recent successful casting they made was, maybe Bob? After the novelty soap competition winners had their disastrous stint, casting has been particularly poor - that new family are particularly unispired, I think!!

Yeah, just what i was thinking when i posted.

In terms of new cast members, i quite like Debbie. She is perfect as Charity's daughter.
She had me in stiches the way she was twisting paddy and emily around her little finger (before she found out about charity).

She has a lot of depth to her character and plays it well.

Yeah I like Debbie too! She's a pretty little thing too!