The best soap arcs/eras

[biggytitbo]

McFadden's Cold War is a thing of great beauty

Yes, as of course is - http://rosskempfolds.tumblr.com/

[Gulftastic]

I definitely watch Grange Hill when this aired, but I have no memory of it whatsoever. With good reason, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzQF9m-qa8M

[Cloud]

Another one that comes to mind - Dirty Den making a comeback from the dead ('allo Princess) then almost immediately getting beaten back to death with a doorstop.

[Delete Delete Delete]

The episode of Eastenders dedicated to Alfie finding a Condom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5lYv1i8yw

[phes]

I really got into the Martin kemp (spandeau ballet geezer) - accidental death of girlfriend and blaming it on the young fella storyline in Enders

Frank Skinner did a fantastic little take-off of this early in the Frank Skinner Show in the late 1990s. He played Steve Owen and Matthew Rose. Sadly it appears to be gone forever

[jonno]

The old Corrie reruns on itv3 are just getting to the arc where Alan Bradley pretends to be Rita's dead husband in order to secure a mortgage against her house for his business, gets convicted of fraud and then released to terrorise Rita. I remember this was around the time I started watching it and he absolutely terrified me as a kid, even watching now he exudes a real air of menace. Best soap villain ever.

[Brundle-Fly]

This shouldn't have worked but Ian McKellan's stint as the conniving Mel Hutchwright was one of my favourite Corrie plots. It was so well written and you can see McKellen is having a ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8A8ViMA64U

[Sebastian Cobb]

I really got into the Martin kemp (spandeau ballet geezer) - accidental death of girlfriend and blaming it on the young fella storyline in Enders

When I was a kid I struggled to believe 'that guy from Eastenders' was also the guy that sung Gold, now I completely forget 'that guy from spandau ballet' was in Eastenders. Mad eh?

[lebowskibukowski]

The episode of Eastenders dedicated to Alfie finding a Condom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5lYv1i8yw

I remember watching this when it first aired, mouth agape. I, well, I just have no suitable words.

[non capisco]

The realism is uncanny. I like the bit where he's at the front of a massive queue at a late night petrol station, and also the bit where the newsagent that has a display of condoms in front of the kiosk and is still open at night gets robbed by two blokes with supersoakers. That was a real episode of Eastenders, was it? I don't know why I'm surprised after Arthur Fowler going on a game show dressed as a mouse but there you go.

[lebowskibukowski]

I don't know why I'm surprised after Arthur Fowler going on a game show dressed as a mouse but there you go.

I was more surprised with his clandestine ploughing of Mrs Hewitt

[Emma Raducanu]

Haven't seen Ian McKellen in coronation Street before but Jesus they were some brilliant scenes. Reminded me of how much better the cast was even in 2005.

[Brundle-Fly]

Haven't seen Ian McKellen in coronation Street before but Jesus they were some brilliant scenes. Reminded me of how much better the cast was even in 2005.

You can see the cast and writers raise their game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-meslAyrY

[Dr Rock]

I don't know why I'm surprised after Arthur Fowler going on a game show dressed as a mouse but there you go.

'Ooh Arfur it's that TV show you like' = Where the fuck is this going, nobody on the telly acknowledges there are even tv shows. And then it went there oh my god.

[Bazooka]

The episode of Eastenders dedicated to Alfie finding a Condom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5lYv1i8yw

Wow, words can not describe. The thieves stealing the condoms, what a twist!

[Replies From View]

That one when Harold went missing for ages and came back with amnesia.

What I loved about it was that they wrote the beginning of his arc very carefully - OH NO HE IS MISSING ETC - but they must have had different writers when Harold returned and they couldn't really be arsed with it beyond the fact that the actor was back from his long break and needed writing back in.  So they had a few episodes where after his unexplained absence Harold was glimpsed pottering around Erinsborough in a dizzy state, and then he was back and it was as if he had never left.

[Replies From View]

Oh and the male rape arc in Hollyoaks.

Never watched any soaps apart from that though I'm afraid.