In one in all British TV’s extra uncommon cleaning soap plot twists, the motion in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks is leaping ahead by a complete yr – to let producers cut back the variety of episodes and solid members, within the newest cutback to TV drama.
How do you do away with 20 folks in the identical small, tight-knit, already troubled village?
Set a serial killer on the free? Summon a serious catastrophe?
No cleaning soap boss would willingly reduce their present, but when they have been pressured to undertake a serious solid cull, most wouldn’t go up the prospect to unleash a wave of demise and destruction.
Nevertheless, when Hannah Cheers took over Hollyoaks earlier this yr – because it was introduced that the present would have its headcount, price range and episodes slashed – she didn’t need her storyline to be too “unfavourable and grim”.
As a substitute, she got here up with a extra radical thought – to skip ahead in time by a complete yr.
“It truly gave us a lot extra scope for the ‘what if’ questions, and a cleaning soap viewers love the what, the place, how the hell have you ever obtained there?” Cheers says.
“And truly, impulsively, this was far more precious than a airplane crashing on the village, as a result of that solely ends a method – demise, in a coffin, disappointment.
“Whereas we’ve obtained a mechanism that has led to new friendships, new romances, previous relationships being rekindled, pregnancies, secrets and techniques, mysteries – all from transferring a yr in time.”
There’s nonetheless some demise and destruction – this week is Hollyoaks’ annual “stunt week”.
It’s additionally the primary week for 25 years that the present has had three episodes, down from the earlier 5.
Then on Monday, the motion will leap 12 months forward, and viewers will begin to piece collectively what’s occurred to the characters who’re nonetheless standing, and people who aren’t.
In addition to culling the solid by a 3rd, the same proportion of jobs – about 130 – have been misplaced behind the scenes on the present’s Liverpool set.
Prior to now few years, Channel 4 has reduce its programming price range due to a downturn in promoting income, a part of a funding squeeze all through the TV business.
Amongst different long-running dramas, the BBC has axed Medical doctors and Holby Metropolis, and trimmed the variety of episodes of Casualty (however has revived Waterloo Highway). In the meantime, Channel 5 axed its funding for Neighbours.
Large modifications
On Hollyoaks, made for Channel 4 by Lime Footage, the previous six months have been “a testing time”, government producer Cheers says.
“It’s been actually powerful, however I’m extremely happy with how all people throughout the enterprise has pulled collectively.”
The cleaning soap’s remaining solid members share these sentiments.
“With there being huge modifications and so many redundancies, it was a very unhappy place to work for an excellent few months,” says Jennifer Metcalfe, who has performed Mercedes McQueen for nearly 20 years.
“It’s getting higher, the power, however we’ve misplaced lots of good associates.”
She’s talking after a screening of the time-jump episode for solid, crew and press in Liverpool.
“To face right here at the moment and watch a present that appears glowing, that appears very present and prefer it’s progressing, not transferring backwards – I really feel actually happy with us,” Metcalfe provides.
Within the Nineties and 2000s, soaps ramped up their output throughout a interval of rampant episode inflation. Going within the different route has a silver lining, the actress says.
“It provides us extra time to inform tales with extra endurance, and extra time to organize, extra time to assault the storylines.
“While you’re churning out 5 episodes per week and also you’re in for 10 or 11-hour days, it’s actually tough to maintain up the power at all times on a seamless drama.”
‘We’ve to reinvent’
Tyler Conti, whose character Abe is on the centre of a coersive management storyline, provides: “You trim the fats, nearly, and it looks like then you’ll be able to actually stay in these tales that we’re telling inside these three episodes.”
“It’s additionally reflective of how folks watch TV today,” provides Nadine Mulkerrin, who performs his on-screen companion Cleo.
“Who watches TV stay any extra? We’re all streaming it.”
Certainly, Hollyoaks hasn’t truly been on Channel 4 for a yr, aside from a weekly omnibus within the early hours. Episodes at the moment are on sister channel E4, the broadcaster’s streaming platform and YouTube.
Channel 4 has trumpeted its E4 and streaming scores. The present is presently watched by about 600,000 folks a day, however that’s down by a 3rd in two years, and cleaning soap scores have been steadily falling throughout the board.
Bosses say the primary motive for the Hollyoaks episode reduce comes from analysis saying viewers have been solely watching three out of the 5 episodes per week on common.
“Our viewers is youthful they usually’re consuming the present in a different way,” says Channel 4 drama commissioning government Ben Wadey.
“Hollyoaks is almost 30 years previous, and if we’re making an attempt to nonetheless make that present from 30 years in the past, I don’t suppose it’s going to work perpetually.
“We’ve to maneuver ahead, now we have to reinvent. We are able to’t relaxation on our laurels, and we are able to’t simply do it the identical method we’ve at all times achieved it. We’ve obtained to make these modifications, which is able to imply it’s match for the long run.”
Altering viewers habits don’t inform the total story, although. Cash performs an enormous half, the Solar newspaper’s soaps editor Carl Greenwood says.
“Channel 4 have slashed their price range. Every part must be reduce, and soaps are an enormous a part of that, so it’s solely three days per week.”
The cuts to Hollyoaks and Medical doctors may have a big effect on individuals who need careers within the TV business, he says.
“There isn’t a lot alternative for working-class folks to enter TV any extra.
“Hollyoaks has produced Oscar winners, so the expertise’s there. However with out the dimensions of the manufacturing, the expertise can’t come via.”
Others have additionally expressed considerations.
Actors’ union Fairness has mentioned the Medical doctors and Hollyoaks cuts imply “persevering with drama sequence have been dealt an actual blow”.
Broadcasting union Bectu mentioned the Hollyoaks announcement was “completely devastating information for everybody involved, for the area and for the broader UK TV business”.
‘No managed decline’
Bectu assistant nationwide secretary Jenny Tingle says a lot of those that have left Hollyoaks haven’t discovered different work within the business.
“A few of them, just like the members in make-up and hair, have been most likely going to go and work within the wedding ceremony business and stuff like that,” she says.
“There was a way that they weren’t going to have the ability to hold doing that sort of [TV] work, which is an actual disgrace, to lose these expertise and that have.”
The influence of cuts is felt extra in locations like Liverpool and Birmingham, the place Medical doctors was made, than it will be in London as a result of the TV business is smaller in these cities so staff have fewer choices, she says.
For many who stay on the present, “we’ve simply obtained to hope that it will probably survive happening to a few episodes”.
Channel 4 insists it’s dedicated to Hollyoaks’ future, and that taking it off the primary channel and reducing its epiodes isn’t a part of a method of managed decline.
“There’s no pulling again from the present,” C4’s Wadey says. “If something, we’re leaning into it.
“We would like this to work. We’ve to make it work, this swap to a few episodes, as a result of we consider it’s the future.”
So does the Hollyoaks time-jump mark a courageous leap into a brand new period, or the start of the tip for British soaps?
Not even the Hollyoaks scriptwriters can see the long run clearly sufficient to reply that.