TV soaps are incredible, says Happy Valley creator

 Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright said TV soap storylines have become "crazier and more unbelievable" because they have so many episodes to fill and an "obsession with youth".

Wainwright cut her teeth writing on Coronation Street in the 1990s.

She became one of Britain's leading screenwriters with acclaimed dramas such as Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack.

She said she was bored watching soaps when "the stories were a bit the same and a bit similar, all about romance".

"It certainly happened in Coronation Street. Or [they were] just much more obsessed with getting younger audiences and so creating stories about younger people and ignoring the fact that the core audience was older."

In its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s, Corrie was "proper kitchen-sink drama" and "such a posh show", she said. "It was about real things that happened to real people."

When she joined in 1994, there were two episodes a week. When she left five years later, it was supposed to go out four times a week and now there are six episodes.

More from the Edinburgh TV Festival

I think the problem is that you have so many plot twists that it inevitably becomes melodramatic,” she said.

“When it comes out in that many [episodes], it inevitably becomes more and more intense and crazy and unbelievable by ravaging the story.

“I don't know if it was a problem of becoming less grounded.

She said she wasn't sure if she stopped watching soaps because she had changed or because her own tastes had changed.

Wainwright was speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival where Happy Valley won Best Drama.

Her next show was also announced at the event. Hot Flush will follow a group of menopausal women from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, who form a punk band to enter a talent competition.

"Catalyst for Change"

The BBC said the six-part show will follow the women "as they deal with demanding jobs, grown-up children who still eat up their energy, dependent parents, husbands who let them down and menopause".

"The band becomes a catalyst for change in women's lives and makes them question it all."

Hot Flush is Wainwright's homage to the 1970s drama Rock Follies and the sequel to Rock Follies of '77, which followed a rock band called the Little Ladies that inspired Wainwright to become a writer when she was 13.

But the writer told the festival she had failed to convince TV channels to commission the drama about pioneering pilot Amy Johnson, who was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in the 1930s. She died when her plane crashed into the sea in 1941.

"I can't get anyone to care about Amy Johnson, and I don't know why," Wainwright said. "I think she's one of those fascinating people. And I think her story is extraordinary."

The writer also revealed that she is also helping to write the plot for the ballet. "Which I'm really excited about because it's just something different. It's working the same muscle but in a slightly different way."

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Secrets behind incredible TV soaps revealed: Happy Valley creator speaks out

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