Mistletoe and melodrama

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/magazine/8378987.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Death, divorce, weddings and car crashes - the soaps pull out all the stops in their Christmas Day episodes. Why?

There's been one divorce that has gripped the nation like no other - and it's not Katie Price and Peter Andre.

When Den Watts served his long-suffering wife Angie with divorce papers on Christmas Day, 1986, just over 30 million people tuned in to watch Eastenders and see him do it.

A typical soap Christmas dinner

That's a huge number. It's more than 10 million more people than watched Princess Diana's funeral on the BBC (19m) in 1997, and one of the highest viewing figures of all time. It's also more than 10 million more than watched this year's X Factor final on ITV, which was regarded as a ratings triumph with 19.1 million viewers.

Christmas Day is a massive occasion for the nation's biggest soaps. The three main players - Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale - all have episodes on the day, sometimes two, and they nearly always top the viewing figures for ITV and the BBC.

Each year the soaps unveil shocking, big-budget storylines to make sure you watch. Deaths, births, divorce, weddings, affairs, car crashes - you name it, they've done it. But why is it such a big deal?

There are two main reasons, say industry insiders. Firstly, it's the only day of the year you can guarantee most people are at home, so the potential audience is huge. Normally, if the audience exceeds 10 million for an episode it's considered good, but the soaps can get several million more viewers on Christmas Day.

Competition

Secondly, it's also one of those very rare days when the soaps are clearly running in tandem with the real world. It's Christmas for everyone, making the shows feel more real.

"Usually soap characters come together in a way people don't in everyday life," says Steven Murphy, editor of Inside Soap magazine. "Most of us don't live with all our family or go to the same pub or shop everyday of the year.

"But on Christmas Day the large majority of us are stuck in a house with the extended family, just like on Coronation Street or Emmerdale. There is more of a soap scenario to real life."

Den and Angie set the standard

Every soap can boast a classic Christmas episode. There's Coronation Street's Tracy Barlow revealing that Steve McDonald was the father of her baby. Emmerdale had the murder of Tom King on his wedding day. But for many in the industry, it was the Watts divorce saga that really established the model for such episodes.

"There had always been drama, but that episode took things to a whole new level," says Mr Murphy. "Most significantly, it made Christmas day a competition between the soaps."

Ever since, there has been a huge weight of expectation about these episodes, says Simon Ashdown, the scriptwriter who penned this year's festive offering from EastEnders.

"People now expect high drama and a climax. As writers we start thinking about what we want in the episode a long way in advance because we need to know what we're building up to. On EastEnders, we're already looking ahead to next year."

As well as being the climax of storylines, such episodes also act as a "linchpin for transition" and set storylines for the following year. Basically, everything revolves around them.

'New promises'

"You can feel the story bubbling towards these big moments," says Craig Batty, senior lecturer in screenwriting at Bournemouth University. "But the repercussions and new promises from such episodes also set up the storylines for the next year."

There are big differences between writing for Christmas Day and the rest of the year, say writers.

"Christmas episodes are more demanding to write because you need to have balance in a way you don't on other days," says Mr Ashdown.

Not a very merry Christmas for Molly

"Often something incredibly dark happens, but the whole programme can't be consumed by it. There needs to be some light in there as well - something positive. Viewers want both. As a writer there is a lot of pressure on you, but it's incredibly exciting."

There needs to be a special mix of high drama and the "cosy, familiar feeling" the soaps can give you, agrees Mr Murphy. There has to be light and shade.

Another complication for a writer is the number of people in the episode. Christmas is about family. Mirroring what is happening in most viewers' homes, large groups of people will congregate on screen.

"There's usually a lot more characters involved because Christmas revolves around families getting together," says Mr Ashdown. "As a writer you're juggling a lot of balls."

The plus side of this is it allows the soaps to do storylines that might not work at other times of the year.

"Take Max and Stacey's affair, which was revealed on Christmas Day in EastEnders a few years ago," says Mr Batty.

"All Max's relations were there to watch a video of the pair kissing, it had maximum impact. Christmas is probably the only time you'd legitimately get that many members of a family in one room. If the writers had written that at any other time of the year it might have felt a bit contrived."

With 25 December fast approaching, the three big soaps all have their Christmas Day episodes in the bag. There's a wedding, at least one murder and a "brilliant twist" in a long-running storyline, says Mr Murphy.

Come Christmas day, soap fans - and maybe a few extra viewers - will be on the edge of their seats.