Needwood Unit 6

Critical Approaches to Creative Media Products

By Chelsie Brandrick

Premise This soap is centred around the

village pub, church, school, shop and a row of houses on the main road where all the characters meet on a daily basis. The narrative is the daily lives of the village.

Howard & Jane Kingsley

Jane - Endearing and loves to organise fetes, shows and quizzes, Friendly, Helpful, Involves the community, Smartly dressed and takes pride in her appearance.

Howard - Gentle soul, Kind, Thoughtful, Likes to help people, Smartly dressed, Slightly hen-pecked by Jane but he secretly likes the way she fusses over him.

Early sixties and own and run the Shoulder of Mutton public house.

Braxton Teenagers

Grandchildren to Howard and Jane Kingsley and live at the public house whilst their parents travel with their jobs. Attend the local school.

Jess - Fifteen, Easily impressionable, No ambitions, Mixes with the wrong crowd. 

Toby – Seventeen, Studying A-levels, Mixes with the wrong crowd.

Jess Toby

Ernest Roland Cromwell

Chat to people , Loves to drink, Life and soul of the village , Happy go lucky, Highly intelligent, Kind, Wealthy, Loves telling stories.

Eccentric , Fifties, Retired surgeon/consultant, Written countless books in his medical field. Lives in large house in the village.

Wears checked trousers, shirt and bowtie

Anna Harding

Owner of the local shop and lives above it. The shop is the hub of the community.

Widow, Early thirties, Homely, Neighbour next door appeal. Dressed smart/casual in jeans, boots and tops and takes

pride in her appearance.

Colin McNeil

Easy to get along with, Casual attitude towards the children and is respected and well-liked by everyone.

Head teacher at the school , Early forties, Homosexual.

Smartly dressed, Wears a suit at work.

Knows all the children’s names off by heart and wants children to achieve the best that they can.

Location

ClothesSmart casual wear. Symbolic clothes to show

audience personality - such as Ernest’s bowtie.

Target Audience

Mass market Mainstream soap Contain a mixture of youth, adult and senior characters to entice

audience Many targeted at females Also suited to older males All religions – church in village but only as background

conversation

Budget£100,000 per episode

10.4 Million a year

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Visual Style Outside shots on location Inside shots in the studio Chocolate box Focus on main road Symbolic buildings

Narrative Style Sequential/Linear Multi-strand – tells more than one story at a time Needwood - Emmerdale meets Waterloo Road Familiar storylines Formal language Focus on female viewers and housewives with children Contains teenage storylines Symbolic buildings Homely/countryside title sequence Focus on main road and surrounding key buildings Open endings

Genre, Length, Slot & Competitors

Genre - Drama, soap.

Length - It shall be shown twice a week for 30 minutes.  

Slot/Main Competitors - BBC1 at 7pm. Emmerdale on every weekday.

Bibliography British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), (2016), Available from: www.bbc.co.uk

[Accessed 28th June 2016] Broadcaster’s audience research board (BARB), (2016), ‘Weekly viewing data.

Available from: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-viewing-summary [Accessed 27th June 2016]

Channel 4, (2016), Available from: www.channel4.com [Accessed 28th June 2016] Channel 5, (2016), Available from: www.channel5.com [Accessed 28th June 2016] ITV.com, (2016), Available from: www.itv.com [Accessed 28th June 2016] Netflix, (2016), Available from: https://www.netflix.com/browse [Accessed 28th

June 2016] Sky, (2016), Available from: www.sky.com [Accessed 28th June 2016] TV.com, (2016), Available from: www.tv.com [Accessed 28th June 2016] Wikipedia, (2016) ‘NRS social grade’ Available from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade [Accessed 27th June 2016] YouTube, (2016) ‘EastEnders Christmas scene’ Available from:

https://youtu.be/f949uafKpCc [Accessed 28th June 2016]