Hollyoaks creator says soaps aren't "doomed" and are 'only place to see working class drama on a regular basis'

In a year in which EastEnders celebrated its 40th anniversary, and Coronation Street reaches the grand old age of 65, this week sees Hollyoaks, the enfant terrible of soaps devised by Redmond, mark 30 years on air. Soaps, it seems, are weathering the stormy TV landscape and managing to stay afloat.

To mark the coming-of-age of Redmond’s heightened saga of suburban adolescence, Hollyoaks is acknowledging its roots with a tribute to another of his creations, Brookside. Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston are returning as Bobby and Sheila Grant for a crossover event with a cameo from Redmond himself – three decades after he was chastised for engineering something very similar.

“Brookside was Channel 4’s biggest show in 1995, so I thought it was a good idea to use it to promote their new drama,” he recalls. “I sent characters from Brookie across to Hollyoaks, and got my knuckles rapped by the regulators because you weren’t allowed to cross-promote.

“So when Hollyoaks asked me to be involved in the Brookside crossover to celebrate the 30th anniversary, it appealed to my sense of mischief – they were doing something I was told off for, which was now being waved through. It sounded like fun.”

To Redmond, Brookside and Hollyoaks always occupied the same fictional world. Brookside, set on a real Liverpool cul-de-sac, began on the night of the launch of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, revolutionising soap by tackling taboo topics with a gritty social conscience.

By the 1990s, he had another idea. “For years I nagged the networks to do an adolescent-skewed show. I always treated teenage characters in Brookside, like Damon Grant, the same as the adults. Grange Hill [which Redmond created for the BBC in 1978] never really went into the sixth form, we did Tucker’s Luck as a spin-off in the early 1980s following the characters after they left school, but it didn’t last.

“Channel 4 started importing things like Saved By the Bell from the US and wanted to develop something along those lines. I’d done Grange Hill and Brookside by then, I knew what was needed to make it work. That’s how Hollyoaks started, off the back of Brookie.”

Shortly after Channel 4 axed Brookside in 2003, Redmond withdrew from active TV production after years of disillusionment. “The 1990 Broadcasting Act was the worst thing to happen to television,” he says. “No one thought through the consequences of introducing concepts such as taste and decency, imitable behaviour and influence. It’s like the debate we’re having now in culture with free speech, it was trying to compress it.

“You couldn’t consult regulators in advance with a controversial idea, so you would transmit and hope for the best. They could fine you 3 per cent of your income if you broke the rules, which became prohibitive to creativity in the boardroom – it was a case of: ‘If in doubt, leave it out’.

“I also got fed up of arguing with people who just wanted to work ‘in telly’ but had nothing to say. It was being run by people who didn’t have lived experience of the working class and had no understanding of the subtleties and nuances of how they interacted. Those people started recruiting in their own image and bringing in their mates, who’d done an English or media studies degree, so you ended up with a narrow view and very little depth. Now we’re in a time loop back to the 1970s, and it’s full of the Oxbridge gang again.”

Redmond, who was knighted in 2020 for services to broadcasting and arts, is still involved with the industry, as a public speaker, lecturer, and cultural advisor. “I’ve become one of the elders who wanders around telling them what they should be doing!”

One of his endeavours is chairing the UK City of Culture initiative, tapping into his passion to serve society and preserve regional identity. “There are interesting conversations to be had about culture. Once your culture is defined, what step change are you going to bring about with it? What stories do you want to tell? I suppose that takes it back to the essence of soaps – how do you make change and serve an audience with a storyline?”

Redmond recognises TV drama still has the power to unite, highlight working-class struggles and inspire change, though not as regularly as it used to. “Mr Bates vs the Post Office was great, but in the 1960s and 70s you’d see something like that every week. Now revenue is so tight the networks can’t afford to make those as often, so the only place to see working class drama on a regular basis is the soaps, as they are more cost-effective.

“Soaps are considered ‘bankers’ by terrestrial networks as they still bring in revenue, but are also seen as a bit old-fashioned. I don’t think they’re a cultural imperative, put it that way.”

Competition from streaming and cold, hard economics have meant reduced budgets and programming for continuing dramas. Coronation Street and Emmerdale will each lower their weekly output from January 2026 and will coincidentally mark their new transmission patterns with their own ITV soaps crossover, “Corriedale”. As usual, Redmond’s creations strike first with the big ideas.

Despite all this, the man who turned his back on making soap is reluctant to write the genre off completely. “It’s the most fascinating form of drama, it allows a character to evolve over every aspect of their life. Put the investment in and believe in it, and a soap can run and run. Streamers are not the threats to terrestrial TV the networks think they are, because they’re only interested in global markets.

“I don’t think soaps are doomed. We need TV for now, to tell relevant stories. Soaps could drive that, especially with viewers able to watch them when they want. And soaps can fill that half-hour gap you spend trying to find something to watch on Netflix every night!”

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.