Since becoming a grown up, I have not been one for soap opera
viewing. We can’t put this down to my
life being an enviable social whirl but mainly due to working nights in theatre since the age of 21.
My only real relationship (obsession) with soaps was, like
most children of the 1980s, with Neighbours.
I lived for 5.35pm on weekdays and I distinctly remember coming in for
tea (at 6pm of course) distraught with my sister and my poor Mum trying to
decipher what was wrong. “Scott sniff gulp h-h-h-has had a row w-w-w-with
sniff sniff Charlene, and we don’t
know gasp, if they are going to be ok
waaaaaail” Who could face chicken nuggets
and alpha bites after such an emotional roller coaster?
So since then I have not let myself become emotionally
involved in a soap. Those who know me
personally may think this is ironic, but I barely watch Coronation Street - until
tonight. There has been so much media
interest in the euthanasia storyline surrounding the characters of Roy and
Hayley Cropper that, with a free evening ahead, I thought I’d sit down and
watch it. If only to be clued up for any
water cooler moments and Twitter chat tomorrow.
Well, I cannot lie to you dear reader, I am typing this to
you through a veil of tears despite the episode finishing a few hours ago. I am sure you all will agree that it was
heart-wrenching, subtle, beautiful and unbearable. I think I had my hands over my eyes at one
point moaning “please don’t” to an empty living-room.
I am not going to debate the merits or dangers of tackling
such a sensitive subject on primetime telly, that’s for Loose Women and The
Daily Mail, but I’ll chat about it from my point of view. The acting.
As a theatre actress with hyperactive eyebrows and an
over-expressive face, I envy any actor who can portray such depth through just their eyes. The 1 hour episode was
filled with pathos, empathy and yearning and all from two actors getting a
script and making it real without the need for a number or a sparkly costume. I believed their plight, sobbed along with
half a nation and now feel emotionally drained.
That is the effect of powerful, effortless acting.
It is easy to discount soap opera actors as ‘just playing
themselves’ especially if they have been doing a character for so long. We
never see the transformation and preparation that it requires. Those effortless
performances, that seem so lifelike that they must only be the actor being
themselves, are actually finely-crafted and nuanced. I find that enviably, wonderful.
I am the first person to disparage members of the public who
believe a soap actor really is the character they play; you know those people
who bound over, screeching the character’s name and demanding a 20 minute chat
and a photo. “THEY ARE ONLY ACTORS!!!” I inwardly scream, no-one did that when I played Gavroche in Les Mis! Well, of
course not because I wasn’t beamed into their homes every night.
Tonight, I saw for the first time the power of a genuinely
brilliant soap opera performance. You truly believe in the character and the
stories played out to you, and you are left sobbing and bereft in your own
home. I think if I saw David Neilson
tomorrow I would run over and give him a cuddle despite him buying some washing
up liquid in The Co-op.
To me, that is brilliant acting, whether you are on a stage
or on the front of OK! Magazine. I may
not be a soap convert yet but I think my experience tonight may encourage me
lose my desire to scowl at folk who get excited to see a beloved character in
the flesh. It is a testament to a
skilled actor and that is a very worthy thing to be praised.
