Soap opera idea for county’s TV channel
Shropshire could get its own soap opera as part of plans for a new online television channel dedicated to the county.
Shropshire could get its own soap opera as part of plans for a new online television channel dedicated to the county.
Geoff Ward, one of the co-founders of the County Channel which is due to launch in the autumn, said that one of his ambitions was to come up with Shropshire’s own television equivalent of The Archers or EastEnders as part of a ‘really good spread’ of different programming.
He said that the team behind the online station wants to have a wide stream of programming – possibly including a regular drama based in the county.
“We want to have a really good spread of programme ideas. I would really like to have a soap based in Shropshire,” he said.
“It could be a bit like The Archers. It would all depend on what kind of sponsorship we can get. There is nothing to say we wouldn’t get thousands watching that across Shropshire.”
The County Channel will be launched as Shropshire’s own version of the BBC iPlayer, offering ‘high-quality’ programmes with a local twist.
Mr Ward and business partner Robert Harper hope to put out about 260 programmes a year, with documentaries and music shows on the schedule.
They said that they want to make ‘broadcast quality’ shows that can be watched by people around the world once the channel goes live.
It is intended that the programmes would all be of a short length, lasting between three and seven minutes each.
The pair hope the channel will help turn Shropshire into a ‘centre of excellence’ for the broadcasting industry, with training established to provide skills in presenting, editing and directing.
For more information see www.countychannel.tv
What would you like to see in a Shropshire soap opera? Leave your comment below:
Comments for: "Soap opera idea for county’s TV channel"
H. St. John Peasbody
It's bad enough living here in Parochialshire without having a soap opera about it!
Iron Flag
Oh please leave then, Ill pay for a one way trip to the crime ridden conurbation of your choice.
Steven
Harold, you clearly have a dislike of everything, how about living in another Shire and writing to their local newspapers instead of ours ?
Fiona
No! Don't let him go, he could be Albert and Ena's love child.
R Suppards
Door's over there, Podsbury.
Colin Dodd.
Oh great. Now you can all sit through 30 minutes of muggings, watching shops close, maybe catch the odd glimpse of a police officer on foot patrol, (OK, I know that's a bit far fetched), Z list celebrities appearing at Theatre Severn and Demanding Dan lying down in the road.
Sounds like riveting stuff, enough to persuade a chap to return to Shropshire to live,,,,,or maybe not.
zamper
If you dont like this area - why don't you move?
Colin Dodd.
zamper. I did, 10 years ago, never regretted it.
Superstar Tradesman
Yet you still choose to make comment. Why? You don't live here anymore!
Amy Hill
I think its a great idea..even if you think Shropshires crap...Salford isn't exactly rivetting yet look at the success of 'Shameless'...its all about embracing the good and bad and slapping it honestly in peoples faces, what better way to do it than creatively? I'm in...
Superstar Tradesman
So The County Channel will embrace the good and the bad and slap it honestly in peoples faces........ creatively ! I'd love to see how that's going to happen, just once.
Shameless is not about Salford but Chatsworth which, like Frank Gallagher, doesn't really exist !
Katherine de Gama
I cant see why people are so negative about Shropshire. I'm an incomer who loves the land that time forgot. We have some of the best architecture in the country, beautiful countryside and an abundance of warm, friendly characters.
Nistagmus
Well you see, you've gone and called it the land that time forgot. People from round here won't like that. And neither will Doug McClure's shade.
Gareth Griffiths
You could bring back Brookside, but set in Telford.
Katherine de Gama
Yep, and we might get Ricky Tomlinson, half of the Shrewsbury Two:)
Fiona
oh no and there was me casting all the regulars Peas as Albert Tactnot Nig as his long lost brother.
Nistagmus
What's the point of soap operas? They're like a really long book that you start reading part way though and never finish.
Apart from Eldorado. That was like a really short book that no-one read and finished without anyone noticing.
R Suppards
More television utter, total, complete garbage, only fit for those without a real life, who have the attention span of a tadpole and who enjoy watching storylines as puerile and miserable as it is possible to be.
Soap opera scripts must be written by people who have not a shred of happiness in their lives, judging by the never-ending plots of misery, adultery, divorce, conflict, murder, crime and suddenly-discovered long-lost relatives appearing from between the cracks in the woodwork.
Port Hill Boy
Let's face it the cast numbers will be larger than the number of viewers this channel gets.