Family Affairs

Since I started watching Family Affairs in November 2004 I've been hooked, I was honestly astonished to find such a fantastic show on a channel such as five. Story lines like Denise's rape, Pete's demise and Chrissy's cancer have kept me glued to my screen for these past 13 months and I for one am going to miss this fabulous soap a great deal when it comes to an end tomorrow night.

Many characters have left Charnham this year and the show has suffered huge losses but still struggled on, August 3rd was a dark day indeed when I was horrified to find Family Affairs had gotten the chop.

While Pete & Eileen Callan, Sadie & Pamela Hargreaves, Dave Matthews, Jake Walker, Lucy Day, Tanya Woods and Conrad Williams were very big parts of the show, It has somehow managed to still entertain me on a daily basis with the 10 new characters introduced these past 2 months - That takes something special that no other genre of television has, something that only soaps have. It seems, with this axing, the great British soap is dying a slow and painful death.

So, to Family Affairs! 2285 episodes on and finally coming to an end, We'll miss you!

Although soap is not a rare commodity in this world, occasionally some do stand out.

Having seen many many soaps over the years, and having dropped most after a few shows I can say that only a very few are both memorable and watchable.

Although this isn't the best of the three that would make up my complete list of good soap operas, I would say that it is the only one still in production.

What it takes to make a good soap opera is writing and although there are daily flaws in the writing of Family Affairs, over all it wins. It wins not only because the cast and the players are so heavily embedded within their part [hell they make five episodes per week they can't help it] but because of the perspective from which the writing takes place.

The writers Know they can't have a plane crash or and Ebola outbreak every week and so they make the smaller stories that do occur affect characters on a more intimate and personal level. Things occur to characters, the characters do appear to have lives. Admittedly on occasion just for viewing figures things go totally out of whack, but on the whole the writers do keep things based on the lives of the characters.

That's what makes this show great.

Oh and in case your wondering the other two shows are, A Country Practice [exceptional characters and writing, all under a limited budget] and Prisoner Cell Block H [yes it was more than just a bunch of ugly chicks doing each other, it had many of the same writers as A Country Practice but with harder stories].

I took a glimpse at this soap last night on Channel 5. The last time i had watched this show was when it was interesting, when Pete Callan was wicked as the villain and Benjamin, a school boy had the affair with that teacher. Well, when i took a glance yesterday, i nearly cried. No, it wasn't the drama included, it was the lack of dialogue and how utterly dull this show is becoming. The script says it all, the conversations the characters have are similar to the ones i have to myself...pointless. It's just doesn't have the knack it had before, there was action, there was drama there was something there for me to watch but yesterday i had to suffer watching this. I only watched it because i wanted to know what was happening, plus i was bored out of my skull. And oh dear god how i regret spending half and hour watching this soap. Card-board characters i could make within 5 minutes, dialogue my brother of 6-years-old could write. Also, the situations does not interest me. For example, one of the characters i found yesterday is gay and his father is currently in hospital nearly dying. So of course before the program started they showed what happened on the previous episode, so i got a general idea of what this episode was going to be about. All the conversations between this character and his mother and all the other people in the show included, "How is your father,"..."He's still in hospital," next scene, "I don't know what to do about my father, " next scene, "Oh what am i going to do about my father," something along those lines. What was worse was the other story that was happening, a lady is currently selling her pub and her friends are not entirely happy about it. "I'm selling the pub, i've made my decision"..."There is nothing you can do about it i am selling the pub," next scene, "Nobody is going to stop me selling my pub," next scene, "The pub is in my name, so i can do what i like with it, i will sell the pub," and her friends, "Why are you selling the pub," next scene, "Sell the pub to someone else, " next scene, " i am angry about you selling the pub, " next scene, "Why are you selling the pub, what about your friends," Thats why i nearly cried, thats how bad it was. If only they could improve on the script maybe they might scrape some more viewers, but at this rate, they will see the light at the end of the tunnel...or in that case...a flop.

I know most of you would draw and quarter me for this but I would take this show anyday over Coronation Street and Eastenders.why? Because they do not have a villain so complex and evil as the incredible David Easter's PETE CALLAN. He is the England's answer to DALLAS' JR Ewing. A real son of a bitch but not without his own weakness' (ie kids) who revels in other people's misery and suffering especially when it suits his own agendas. This show really ought to be called the David Easter hour as every scene with his character is eagerly awaited. The shows brisk pace is excellent too and you will definately miss out if you forget a episode.The acting on this show is superior to most soaps and all cast and crew should take a bow. hell, and I usually don't even watch soaps!

Family Affairs is without a doubt the best of all the UK soaps. Why? Take the quality of the production first - There is a cinematic style to all the camera work, using jibs and dollies - keeping the cameras moving, all these things add up to a "professional" production. The show is shot on video (as it has to be when filming at least 5 episodes a week) and then filtered in post production to give the "film" look. Just look at the cheap video production of Eastenders and Coronation Street for comparison. It was certainly the quality of the Family Affairs production that led the producers of Brookside to totally change their production (too late to save the show as the script writing had unfortunately deteriorated to a level beyond redemption) style to attempt to emulate this high quality cinematic style.

Secondly, the show's writers keep the plot lines within semi-believable boundaries, choosing to deal with everyday characters and situations rather than the plane crashes and larger than life "comedy" characters utilised so often by Eastenders and Coronation Street.

Last, but certainly not least, is the superb cast who interact superbly. Actors like David Easter (Pete Callan) and Nicola Duffet (Cat Matthews) have an absolutely brilliant "natural" on screen friction that just cannot be duplicated by any of the shallow characters from the other two soaps.

Well done the whole Family Affairs crew, Actors/Actresses, Technicians and the Producers.