A Year of Soap

So now 16.6 million of us know who killed Archie, alias actor Larry Lamb, in the roller-coaster soap EastEnders! We found out last Friday, on the 25th birthday of the show, as Stacey sobbed her way through the rising doof doofs of the much-loved and imitated theme tune. A live show, a fitting tribute to 25 years of great doof doof moments, and behind it a long, and occasionally chequered history of the BBC soap...

Originally, soaps came from the US - used to promote soap powders, and later a variety of domestic appliances, to American housewives in the 1930s. Being American they were, of course, immediately suspect to the British: bound to be low-brow, sure to be slushy or sensationalist. However, ironically - or perhaps rather cleverly - the first BBC soap was US-facing. Called Front Line Family, it hit the airwaves during WW2 as part of a propaganda push to bring the US into the war. It was followed by a succession of middle-class radio soaps, invariably depicting the stoic British bearing up to life's trials and tribulations. Most famously, the late Queen Mother was an avid listener of the radio soap, Mrs Dale's Diary (see pic above), stating that it was the only way of understanding what actually happened in a middle class family. An early case of royal market research, then...

One unexpected but actually entirely logical outcome of this is the way that BBC soaps have transformed themselves into vehicles for development broadcasting.

The World Service Trust now uses them to promote important messages on health, civic society, family issues etc all round the world. In fact, by way of a neat connection, Felicity Finch who plays Ruth in The Archers, has worked extensively on such projects in China, Rwanda and Afghanistan. In a recent interview, she spoke proudly of their real social impact, but also underlined emphatically that if they succeed, it's because first and foremost they have great characters and great storylines.

From Albert Square to Afghanistan is a long way, but soap can take us there and back again. If you want to know more about soap - its past, present and future - BBC History has teamed up with the National Media Museum in Bradford to explore all this in a Year of Soap. Check out the BBC History site.