The peek of the drama is known as the heightened tension within the Soap Opera. After a few episodes of the beginning of the dilemma, the story-line meets a final point where the characters either explode in anger or sadness, or conflict strongly emerges between the characters. Such story-lines with massive drama tension are those which every viewer can relate to and feel sympathy for. The progression of storylines is the most crucial part of a soap opera as it is the basic foundation of all reason for creating a soap opera, the influence of viewer gossip and the encouragement of other forms of media such as; magazines and websites.
Stages of a story e.g. an affair
1. Firstly, the introduction of a story can become noticed during a sudden incident. In many cases where characters have admitted affairs, the actual incident of having an affair is the point where a future plot is introduced, thereby developing the personality of the characters involved (the couple and the third party) and either twisting them to the other direction discovering the secret under public circumstances. A great example of this is Max and Stacey's affair where it started of as 'a bit of fun' but turned into an ugly christmas story towards the end of the year.
2. Secondly, the discovery of the secret is prolonged as the characters involved in the affair continue with the third party without the other partner knowing about their little secret. This stage shows a different side to people where in society, people are expected to be kind and loyal, whereas in the case of an affair the partner commiting the affair is seen as a traitor. As an audience member, two sides to the story are seen as even the partner who will become the sufferur (the person being cheated on) will have a different side to them after the events has been discovered.
3. Thirdly, in this case, the person committing the affair, Max Branning, may have a change of heart and double think about what they are doing. Regardless of the affair being thrilling and dangerous, which agrees with the characters personality, the fact that he is cheating on his wife, betraying his oaths and worrying about the consequences of his children if the secret is to be discovered is a massive burden to carry. For this reason, the affair may cease for a while and therefore decline slightly, even though the persistence of the third party, being Stacey Slater, may relight the desire to chear.
4. By this stage, the story may have prolonged for many months, by specific times of the year the secret is usually discovered in new dramatic ways to increase tension within the plot. The affair is about to reach its peak moment to when the whole family including Tanya Branning, the other partner will discover the secret and bring a new plot connecting to the harsh news awaiting her ever since the affair began. With Eastenders, these plots are usually exposed in very dramatic ways, as Stacey is preparing to get married to Bradley Branning, she is getting ready in a room where a camera was hidden by Lauren Branning to secure her suspicions. The wedding video was shown on christmas day where Max and Stacey kissed causing horror and a huge wave of tension of each family members face, specifically Stacey's, Bradley's, Max's, Tanya's and Lauren's face. However, this dramatic moment becomes the end of this plot and the introduction of another plot, this being the breakup of the family, which is what all affairs between married couples suffer from.
Stories such as this are reinforced with the two types of gossip. One being primary, the other being secondary. Firstly, primary gossip is the word of mouth from audience members as they discuss the stories shown on the soap. However this is not all, the gossip stretches out into the web were it is advertised. This makes the gossip secondary as it is a step above normal gossip. Such magazines like TV Choice is loaded with a massive range of Tv drama's, soap opera's and other shows like The Apprentice. There website shows just how much of TV broadcasting they cover;
http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/
http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/soaps#4898
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