Australian soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours differ from British soaps in that they are melodramas rather than gritty dramas. They contain more humor and drama through overly dramatic storylines enhanced by diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The soaps portray stereotypical young, outgoing characters living in beautiful coastal settings. While the storylines explore mundane topics, they are emphasized and done in excess to make them more interesting, using techniques like lighting, music, and sound to set moods for happy or sad scenes.

1. Australian Soaps

2. An Outline
There are only two main Australian soaps that are shown in England (Home and
away, Neighbours) this is because Australian soaps are melodramas and are
therefore different to gritty English soaps such as Eastenders or Coronation
Street and as a result don’t have as big of a following

3. What are they like?
Australian soaps are melodramas so contain more humour but more drama
than British soaps and often have storylines which are overly dramatic due
to the diegetic and non diegetic sounds
The clip below shows an overly dramatic trailer for ‘Disaster Week’ in Home
and Away

4. Stereotypes
As with English soap operas there are stereotypes that are portrayed by mainly the shows
characters and how they act and come across towards the audience. For example the vast
majority of the neighbours and Home and away cast are young, outgoing people. This
matches the settings for this soap as Home and away is set in a beautiful part of Australia
and as a result these are the sort of people you would associate with this setting

5. Storylines
Australian soaps contain similar mundane and realistic storylines but because
they are melodramas everything is emphasised and done in excess so they
become more interesting. This can either be done to make a storyline funny or
moving depending on what the storyline is. This can be achieved by using bright
lighting for happy situations and blue filters on lights for sad situations. Non
diegetic sound is also used as song can set the mood for a scene