February 1984 Marxism Today 37

BROOKSIDE Christine Geraughty

Soap opera is a despised genre. Mention pushes it further, to question why the want programmes that tell the truth and Crossroads, Triangle, Angels or Emmerdale fictional affairs of Ken, Deirdre and Mike show society as it really is.' What is Farm and back come words like 'boring', Baldwin should capture the imagination interesting about Brookside then is that it 'humourless', 'unbelievable', 'contrived'. and the headlines, or challenges the shares the Left's general criticism of soap Its makers either refuse to acknowledge patronising criticism of the audience which opera, articulates the realist aesthetic which that they work in the genre — 'it's an is implied in the ready dismissal of soap lurks behind such criticism and offers the hour's drama a week, with all the operas as 'escapist' because they deal with possibility (although I think Redmond advantages of a cumulative tradition,' said personal relationships. would deny it) of a progressive soap opera. one of Coronation Street's producers — or In such a situation it was encouraging to Certainly, Brookside is different from the admit it with a resigned awareness that it hear that Channel 4 was prepared to invest other serials in its format, the stories it will win them no professional kudos. On £3m in a twice-weekly soap opera, deals with and the characters it represents. the Left, serials are seen as at best mildly produced by Phil Redmond whose com- Serials such as Angels, Coronation Street and addictive rubbish; at worst as a distraction mitment to the serial format had been Crossroads are very much based on the from the serious issues which have to be apparent in his work on Grange Hill and notion of a community — a street or a tackled. It is a common criticism that by Staying On. Redmond was keen, however, shared place of work — in which each concentrating on the personal world of love, to emphasise Brookside's difference from character has a place. Stories often depend marriage and the family, serials ignore the the other British serials. It would deal with on disagreements and quarrels between 'real' world of work, trade unions, personal problems but it would not be 'a characters but at times of celebration or unemployment and class. 'Ugly social romanticised interpretation of life but will distress the serials offer us a resolution issues are reduced to the level of private, be a reflection of contemporary Britain through a community response which is family melodrama,' (my italics) writes Carl with a sharp edge, tackling issues of un- generated across family, age or class Gardner in City Limits on how Coronation employment, feminism, motivation and divisions. When it started, Brookside Street handles unemployment. No one divorce.' In another interview, Redmond resolutely set itself against this approach argues that 'people will accept and actually and presented us with a number of families which were clearly delineated in terms of 38 February 1984 Marxism Today class and whose men, at least, were strongly marked and the departure of Lucy ing and maintaining the family relation- mutually antagonistic. There is no com- has left a gap which has been filled by more ships. The public world of work and mon pub where the characters meet 'natur- attention being given to the activities of unions is represented as being exclusively ally' — Redmond argues that this would Damon Grant, Gordon Collins and their male and the women are presented as be unrealistic — and there is little oppor- almost exclusively male friends. supporting their men rather than challeng- tunity for the exchange of gossip and This change in the range of stories and ing them. information across the family boundaries characters would seem to be an attempt to The strongest relationships within which is so characteristic of other serials. win over a new audience for Channel 4's Brookside are within the families. One effect There is some evidence that this decision serial. Soap opera is one of the few TV of this is that there is little sense of women has caused difficulties in that the families genres for which the audience is assumed to sharing common experiences across the in Brookside seemed to be living their lives be women. It is seen as women's fiction barriers of class and family. Serials are built in parallel rather than sharing common which men may watch but not really get on gossip and conversations and it is experiences. The introduction of Alan as involved with. Brookside has been concer- striking how rarely the women in Brookside a character who is equally at ease with ned to win new viewers and Redmond has talk to each other. Their most intimate the Collins and the Grants and a greater said that the programme gets a good conversations tend to occur within families emphasis on joint activity — the jumble response from young people. Nevertheless — mother and daughter or between sisters sale in support of the factory workers, the combination of a realist aesthetic and a — and only the middle class Heather is for example — are indications of a change search for new audiences has meant that seen to have a close woman friend. There is in approach. Brookside has lost some of the pleasures and some evidence that the programme is try- Brookside probably signals most clearly possibilities which other serials offer, ing to change in this respect but at the its difference from other serials in the type particuarly to their women viewers. moment there is little of the casual inti- of story it is willing to take on. It has Women characters are central to soap macy that marks the relationship between consistently tried to use issues like strikes, operas. They are not peripheral to the Mavis and Rita in Coronation Street or Jill redundancies, unemployment and union stories; they are not mysterious, enigmatic and Barbara in Crossroads, that sense of activity as a source of stories and character or threatening as they so often are in being down among the women where it is motivation. Brookside began with Bobby thrillers and crime series. They are the possible to look at the male world from a Grant's involvement in a strike at the norm by which the programme is female perspective. And while it may be factory and recent stories have centred on understood and every soap opera has at its more realistic to show the nagging Marie, the fight to prevent the factory's closure. heart women characters who are strong, endlessly washing the children's clothes, it Such stories have been handled with independent, living their own lives, mak- is hard to see what pleasure women are considerable complexity and Bobby's role ing their own decisions in a way which being offered in such representations. as an able shop steward who could take on makes the men seem clumsy and inept. It is revealing to compare Brookside with a full-time union job has been both The women handle the complex web of Angels which has just finished a twice supported and criticised by characters relationships that make up a soap opera weekly run on BBC1. There is a tendency within the programme. In addition, with a care and intensity which recognises to assume that because Brookside is on Brookside, even after the first flurry over the importance of close relationships and Channel 4 and centres on working class four letter words had died down, has taken celebrates the undervalued skills of women families it will automatically be the most a more open approach to stories centering in handling them. Brookside, because of its interesting of the current British serials. on sexual relationships. The treatment of other concerns, has never had this full But Angels, because of its hospital setting, Petra's relationship with Barry Grant, after blooded commitment to its women has been able to take on stories about Gavin's death, fully used the serial form's characters. It does take on women's issues unions, privatisation and the cuts in public capacity to explore her shifting emotions — infertility, pregnancy, low pay — but the services, without abandoning the space and response to a new sexual relationship in way in which it represents women seems to usually given to women in serials. It has a way which was moving and unusual. reinforce sexual stereotyping rather than handled stories of rape, abortion and The other major difference in Brookside to challenge it. Whereas most serials con- childbirth with considerable frankness and is the way in which it represents groups centrate on the personal world, Brookside has shown women challenging doctors who which are not normally given much space also tries to operate in the public arena tell them what's best for their own bodies. or sympathy in serials — men and and gives more attention to what are Brookside's commitment to realism, its adolescents. The other serials tend to be defined as public problems. Women are concern to show how working class people dominated by women characters but in almost always excluded from these activi- really live, is in tune with the common Brookside the characters of Bobby and ties. Of the main women characters, only response on the Left to what is felt to be Barry Grant, Paul Collins and even Alan Heather Huntingdon has a job outside the misrepresentation by the media generally. Partridge are crucial in terms of the stories home; there is no attempt to represent Brookside has succeeded in the difficult task built around them and the space given to women working in the factory or organising of establishing itself as a serial, and the their opinions. Redmond's previous work in the unions. It is Bobby Grant who is presentation of the Grant family in has been marked by an interest in the shift the shop steward; his wife, Sheila, one of particular has been a real challenge to other from childhood to adolescence and much the strongest women characters, is not serials. But the way in which it has attention is paid in Brookside to the even a union member. The norm is relent- represented women is a salutary reminder lifestyle, attitudes and problems of young lessly that of the married couple, with or that the conventions and pleasures of more people. Within this group, however, the without children, with the women taking traditional soap operas should not be too weighting towards males is even more on the traditional roles of cleaning, cook- lightly discarded.