Weavers Green [07/04/66]
An injured labrador, sick pigs and a petri dish of mange mites in ITV's first rural soap.
Six years before Emmerdale Farm, the ITV network aired its first rural soap opera: Weavers Green, created by married couple Peter and Betty Lambda for Anglia Television. Anglia wasn't one of the big ITV franchise companies, so it was quite a prize that it managed to produce a drama serial with a primetime slot nationwide, even if Weavers Green didn't last for long (just 25 weeks, or 50 half-hours episodes).
This episode was the first to be televised and neatly sets up the drama of the fictional East Anglian farming village by having all the stories connect through the local vet's office, run by Alan and Dotty Armstrong (Grant Taylor and Megs Jenkins). Dashing newcomer Mr Swan (Maurice Kaufman) drives through the village and hits a labrador belonging to Hazel (Marjie Lawrence). The other vet, metropolitan Mr Toms (Eric Flynn), strikes up a friendship with outspoken farmer Jack Royston (Richard Coleman), and they both come into conflict with wealthy landowner Archibald Langley (Gerald Young) when his pigs become unwell.
As was common for serial dramas of the time, Weavers Green had a mixture of scenes shot on location and in the studio. What was less standard was that exteriors as well as studio scenes were shot on videotape, with the location shoots using equipment usually reserved for outside broadcasts of live events. The production also involved an ambitious amount of live animals, including a very well-trained labrador and a fully-stocked cowshed.
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TV Soap: Selection Box
Continuing drama on the small screen: explore how TV soap has changed over the decades.
The UK is a nation of soap addicts, with programmes commanding audiences of millions every week. Since they first appeared on British television in the 1950s, British soaps have given us hundreds of memorably distinctive characters in many different settings. But while they take many forms, there are some common characteristics.
Where in the US soaps tend to favour glamour and frothy fantasy, here they typically centre on relatable communities and families and reflect life in (usually) contemporary Britain, exploring sometimes thorny social issues and attitudes to class, race, gender, sexuality and more. While originally steeped in real-life domestic conflict, soap marched into the new millennium with hard-hitting storylines, sensationalist plots and issue-driven narratives highlighting pressing matters of the day.
This collection showcases a variety of soaps; rural or urban, north or south and everything in between. Some were shortlived and are much missed, while others are longstanding favourites embedded in our collective memory.
So settle in and prepare for drama!
24 videos in this collection
1
2
General Hospital [19/10/72]
3
Garnock Way [01/04/76]
4
Emmerdale Farm [05/04/76]
5
A Stitch in Time
6
Coronation Street [14/11/77]
7
Crossroads (Promotion)
8
Pat Phoenix &Tony Booth (Live from Two)
9
Mary Whitehouse Reacts to Brookside Scenes
10
Emmerdale Farm [14/05/85]
11
Coronation Street[01/11/1961]
12
Crossroads [23/05/85]
13
Albion Market
14
Coronation Street [13/08/86]
15
Yorkshire Television
16
Brookside [13/04/87]
17
Families [14/01/91]
18
Family Pride [08/09/91]
19
Emmerdale [10/10/91]
20
Coronation Street [06/07/92]
21
Sus
22
Machair
23
Sus
24