Hollyoaks Case Study

Detailed analysis of an episode // Hollyoaks.

Target audience // Teenagers and young adults.

Key Characters and their role/archetype/stereotype //

-      Secretive/Problematic Teenager (Finn O’Connor)

-      Oblivious Parent (Diane O’Connor)

-      LGBTQ character/Person of colour (Blessing Chambers)

-      Meddling sibling (Sinead O’Connor)

Setting/location //

-      Hollyoaks, fictional suburb of Chester

Realism/exaggerated storylines //

-      Stigma over Transgenderism is a real issue which Blessing and Dennis face in this episode

-      Dennis’ worry of having cancer is normal

-      Finn being a sadist isn’t common amongst young teenage boys (I hope not)

Themes //

-      Transgenderism // Blessing coming out to Dennis

-      Welfare // Dennis’ worry about cancer

-      Coming of age issues // Sinead’s concern over Finn’s secrecy

Representation (gender; age; social class; ethnicity; sexuality; regional identity; ability/disability) //

-      Predominantly white, straight, ablebodied, cisgendered working class characters… With the exception of Blessing; a black, transgender woman.

-      A mix of teenagers, young adults, and parental characters

-      Everybody shares the same regional identity in Chester (Northern)

Primary target audience //

-      Teenagers and young adults

Scheduling and ratings //

-      6:30 pm Weekdays for 30 mins.

-      5.4/10 on IMDb.

-      Viewing average: 1.5-2 million combined first look (E4) and C4 views

History //

-      Originally devised by Phil Redmond in 1995, who also worked on ‘Brookside’ and helped revive ‘Emmerdale’. Broadcasted once a week until 2011.

-      Since then, there have been numerous changes in producers, with Brian Kirkwood currently.

-      Originally revolved around the lives of 7 characters, now there are around 50 main cast character members.