Stock Characters

We needed to consider casting our actors/actresses to play our characters. We needed to think about what we want them to look like and why, we needed to think of age, gender, costume, general look.
Firstly we looked at the characters we are using in our piece and tried to find comparisons of other characters from soaps to get ideas from them about how our character should look.

All soap operas have stereotypical characters that fit into props theory which are:

The villain
The dispatcher

The helper

The princess

Her Father

The donor

The hero

False hero

However unlike films soaps do not usually contain all of these characters in the same episode at the same time however they would all be in the soap but not involved in the same storyline or episode.

We are going to look at the 5 main soap operas in British television,  (Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Neighbours ) to gather more information on what kinds of characters we would need to include.

Some examples of these characters are below;

The Villain:
 

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1) Eastenders Villain: Phil Mitchell

Phil first joined Eastenders on 20 February 1990, and was soon joined by his brother, Grant. He has become one of the soap's most popular characters and is the second longest-running male protagonist to appear in the serial. He was first introduced as the lesser of two thugs, but became a darker character after Grant left. More recent storylines, such as the return of his son, have shown a softer side to the character.

He has, owned many businesses in the Square. He has been married three times and featured in numerous high profile storylines, the dubbed "Who shot phil? and having an affair with his brother's wife. Other storylines that he has been invloved with include taking of high class drugs, murders and domestic violence.

2) Coronation Street Villain: Tony Gordon

The character first appeared on screen on 16 September 2007. He is a local businessman, disliked by many of Weatherfield's residents for his ruthlessness. His storylines have revolved around his business deals, his relationships and murder. Tony was named 'Bad Boy' of 2009 at the All About Soap Bubble awards, and 'Villain of the Year' at the 2009 British Soap Awards

3) Hollyoaks Villain: Warren Fox

He first arrived in 2006 and quickly became known as the show's main villain. Since his first appearance, the character has been involved in such storylines including drug dealing, murder and the 'Who Pushed Clare' storyline.

During the time in the show these are his occupations:

Businessman (since 2006)
Club owner (since 2006)
Pub owner (2007–08)
Gangster (since 2006)

The Pregnant Teen:



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1) Neighbours- Bridget Parker

 In 2007 the Neighbours was revamped to boost falling ratings in Australia. As part of this, the show's focus returned to family dynamics and the character of Bridget and her family were created and introduced. Bridget made her first on-screen appearance on 23 July 2007. Bridget's storylines included being run over by Susan Kennedy, falling in love and finding her birth mother and falling pregnant at seventeen.

First appearance	23 July 2007
Last appearance	21 July 2009

2) Coronation Street- Sarah Platt

Tina O'Brien was recast in the role in 1999. O'Brien was given the part when she was 16, playing the character who was still only 12 at the time. She left the role in 2007. The main storyline which she was involved in was the teenage pregnancy The characters' teenage-pregnancy storyline was created to highlight the risks of teenage pregnancy. However, the storyline has been a highly controversial and discussed storyline because of the possibility that it glamorised the idea. Despite this, it has been praised for its message. Tina O'Brien has revealed that she was "naive" over the plot at the time of filming, oblivious that it would create much controversy.

First appearance	28 January 1987
Last appearance	30 December 2007

3) Hollyoaks- Amy Barnes

She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 14 November 2005, Story lines that she has been involved in include topics such as Domestic violence, Scamming people out of money by pretending her child has leukemia and an underage pregnancy. The baby was conceived during a night of drinking, it has been used to highlight the bad side of alcohol in teens.

First appearance	14 November 2005

Last appearance       Still on the show

Homosexual:



1) Hollyoaks- Ste Hay


Ste has been at the centre of several story lines including joyriding, a baby kidnapping plot and a gay relationship. He was initially portrayed a "bad boy" type character. He debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 17 February 2006. Ste's gay storyline prompted Richardson to come out as gay. Its aim was to raise awareness of domestic abuse in a homosexual relationship. Whilst Ste and his story lines have received a mixed reaction from critics, Richardson has been nominated for various awards for his portrayal.








2) Eastenders- Christian Clarke

In November 2007, it was announced that a new gay character was to join the cast of EastEnders, as the shows bosses had seen how popular Antony Cotton was in the role of Sean Tully in Coronation Street. He made his first appearance on 17 January 2008. He has been involved in story lines such as the break up of his civil union to Ashleigh Jennings, the break up of a heterosexual marriage so he gets the male and the adoption of a child with his partner.

3) Coronation Street- Sean Tully
Portrayed by actor Antony Cotton, the character first appeared on screen in 13 July 2003. He has been involved in story lines such as breakdown of relationships and re kindling of old loves with other males. He is now part of the first civil partnership to be shown on the show.

Adolescent:

  

1) Coronation Street- Rosie Baxter

This character has been in the soap since 1990, the baby was played by a different actor, the actor changed in 2000, the type of story lines that she has been involved in include bullying of other people whilst at school, going through a Gothic stage, being in a relationship which her family are not happy with. She has had two near death experiences as she has been involved in two car crashes and an affair with her school teacher. These are all stereotypical story lines when involving a character that the audience has seen her change and adapt to her environment.

2) Hollyoaks- Newt

He debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 22 October 2007. He was introduced as the serial's first 'Emo' character and as the foster son of Jack and Frankie Osborne. During the character's duration he was involved in notable story lines including schizophrenia, a suicide pact and living in foster care. He also was involved in a teenage relationships which highlighted the pressure with sexual relationships. With being the first character that was classed as a 'Emo' the stereotypical story lines followed him, including depression, threatening suicide and other situations that are strongly linked to being an 'Emo'

3) Eastenders- Whitney Dean

The character is the adoptive daughter of long-running character Bianca Jackson, and was introduced in April 2008. She is the centre of a storyline involving a paedophile in the family. The character has been involved in other story lines such as affairs, teenage relationships and bullying. She is involved in a lot of relationships and most of these end in domestic violence or violence of some kind. This character is used to show how young teenagers need to think about relationships and sexual intercourse and the affects it can have.


After looking into stock characters we have decided that in our soap opera we will try to keep to these conventions but will encorperate different parts of them together.
Our soap is centered around teenagers so we will keep to the stereotypical view of teenagers in soaps but shall use different themes such as one character will be seen as the villain and having a character who will come out as a homosexual throughout the series.

We will use this information on characters to improve our characters and help them to stay to verisimilitude.

Will Howlett