'EastEnders' scriptwriter Tony Jordan thinks soaps are in "very real trouble".
An EastEnders scriptwriter thinks soaps are in 'very real trouble'
The 65-year-old screenwriter - who has penned hundreds of episodes of the BBC One soap - fears for the future of serial dramas if they don't "reinvent themselves".
He said: "Soaps are in a pretty poor way. Unless they reinvent themselves, I think they’re in very real trouble.
"They need to stop and take a breath and think, ‘What does a soap look like in 2025?’ And start aiming for that."
Among the many 'EastEnders' episodes Tony has written, he is known for penning 'Pretty Baby....' in 2008.
The episode remains EastEnders' only ever single-hander, in which Dot Branning - who was played by the late June Brown - recorded a message for her husband Jim Branning (John Bardon) while he was in hospital recovering from a stroke.
Tony insists people used to get their gossip from characters like Dot, but says times have now changed and social media has "stolen" that space.
He is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: "In post-war Britain there was a sense of community. And then television took some of that away.
"In that period, we all looked at Dot Cotton and Den Watts ... that’s where we got all our gossip from. Soaps fulfilled that for us.
"But now that space has been stolen by Facebook and social media. That’s where all the gossip is coming from."
Last week, 'Doctor Who' showrunner Russell T. Davies admitted he fears for the future of soaps, and believes they need "radical work" to save them.
He said at the time: "How to save [soaps]? I think radical work is needed that they will never have time for.
"Like they say if you stopped the London Underground for 24 hours and moved all the trains to the right position, it would run like a dream for ever.
"It is like that for soaps. There is no time to reassess, to re-tool. You’re trapped on a treadmill and it is terrifying."
Tagged in Russell T Davies