Australian Soaps

An Outline There are only two main Australian soaps that are shown in England (Home and

away, Neighbours) this is because Australian soaps are melodramas and are therefore different to gritty English soaps such as Eastenders or Coronation Street and as a result don’t have as big of a following

What are they like? Australian soaps are melodramas so contain more humour but more drama than British soaps and often have storylines which are overly dramatic due to the diegetic and non diegetic sounds The clip below shows an overly dramatic trailer for ‘Disaster Week’ in Home and Away

Stereotypes As with English soap operas there are stereotypes that are portrayed by mainly the shows characters and how they act and come across towards the audience. For example the vast majority of the neighbours and Home and away cast are young, outgoing people. This matches the settings for this soap as Home and away is set in a beautiful part of Australia and as a result these are the sort of people you would associate with this setting

Storylines Australian soaps contain similar mundane and realistic storylines but because they are melodramas everything is emphasised and done in excess so they become more interesting. This can either be done to make a storyline funny or moving depending on what the storyline is. This can be achieved by using bright lighting for happy situations and blue filters on lights for sad situations. Non diegetic sound is also used as song can set the mood for a scene