The document provides details on the proposed soap opera "Needwood" including: 1) It is centered around a small village pub, church, school and shop in Staffordshire, England and focuses on the daily lives of the village residents. 2) Main characters introduced are the pub owners Howard and Jane Kingsley, their grandchildren Jess and Toby, eccentric retired doctor Ernest Roland Cromwell, shop owner Anna Harding, and school headteacher Colin McNeil. 3) The soap has a budget of £100,000 per episode and aims to appeal to both female and older male viewers with familiar storylines focused on relationships and family life.

1. Unit 6 Needwood Task 2
PowerPoint Notes
SLIDE 1 - Setting and Main Meeting Place
It 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.
SLIDE 2 - Characters
Howard and Jane Kingsley
 White British
 Early sixties
 Own and run the Shoulder of Mutton public house
Jane
 Endearing and loves to organise fetes, shows and quizzes
 Friendly
 Helpful
 Involves the community
 Smartly dressed
 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
SLIDE 3 - Jess and Toby Braxton
 Grandchildren to Howard and Jane Kingsley
 Live at the public house whilst their parents travel with their jobs
 White British teenagers
 Attend the local school

2. Jess
 Fifteen
 Easily impressionable
 No ambition
 Mixes with the wrong crowd
Toby
 Seventeen
 Studying A-levels
 Mixes with the wrong crowd
SLIDE 4 - Ernest Roland Cromwell
 Eccentric
 White British male
 Fifties
 Lives in large house in the village
 Wears checked trousers, shirt and bowtie
 Retired surgeon/consultant
 Written countless books in his medical field
 Loves to drink
 Chat to people
 Life and soul of the village
 Happy go lucky
 Highly intelligent
 Kind
 Wealthy
 Loves telling stories
SLIDE 5 - Anna Harding
 Owner of the local shop and lives above
 Shop hub of the community
 Black British widow
 Early thirties
 Homely
 Neighbour next door appeal

3.  Dressed smart/casual in jeans, boots and tops
 Takes pride in her appearance
SLIDE 6 - Colin McNeil
 Head teacher at the school
 White British
 Early forties
 Homosexual
 Smartly dressed
 Wears a suit at work
 Knows all the children’s names off by heart
 Wants children to achieve the best that they can
 Easy to get along with
 Casual attitude towards the children
 Respected and well-liked by everyone
SLIDE 7 - Location
 Small village in Staffordshire
 Based on a real village
 Portray the lives of the people within the village
 Middle class and lower middle class (BC1)
SLIDE 8 - Clothes
 Smart casual wear
 Symbolic clothes to show audience personality - such as Ernest’s bowtie
Notes
Individual fashion and appearances for characters to trigger audience into an opinion on what they
think of the individuals. Hopefully they shall like the characters and continue to watch the soap.
SLIDE 9 - 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

4. Notes
Countryside views, luxury family cars, mainly above average houses and local public house would
attract older male population.
It will have a mild element of religion as it will show the local church but would not focus on this, so
as not to offend anyone. It will be more of a background conversation within the soap.
It shall include social problems that the viewers can relate to, for example relationships and family
life.
According to YouGov website below, the target audience for Emmerdale is female aged 55 or over
and for Waterloo Road its females aged 18-24 years old. In both cases these soaps are taking
females.
SLIDE 10 - Budget
£100,000 per episode
10.4 Million a year
Notes
Emmerdale is £125,000 but Needwood has less actors, so £100,000 would be realistic. (Source
Radio Times article)
Advertisements
Notes
Emmerdale receives £400 million per year in revenue. Their main sponsor being McCain chips at
£8 million over two years.

5. SLIDE 11 - Visual style
 Outside shots on location
 Inside shots in the studio
 Chocolate box
 Focus on main road
 Symbolic buildings
Notes
Outside shots of the public house, school, church, houses on the main road and the shop. All the
inside shots shall be in the studio. It shall have a chocolate box, country style theme to it with a
main road centred in the soap with all the symbolic buildings running from it.
SLIDE 12 - 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
Notes
Familiar storylines to bring the whole audience together regardless of their social class
The language is formal as its reflecting on day to day life mainly focusing on female viewers and
the dialogue is presented to ensure the viewers are there to watch.
Younger viewers would listen to characters talking about love hair, jewellery, make up, clothes and
to gossip with their friends. This shall then make the characters relatable to other women watching
the programme.
Shoulder of Mutton public house, local shop and the school shall all be the main symbolic
buildings within the soap, to bring the viewers together from the different communities watching
the soap, as they can relate to a public house, school and shop, as they probably have one nearby
to them.

6. The title sequence is homely and portrays the countryside with opening shots of the trees and the
use of panning in and out of shots for the road and houses, which invites the viewers to tune in. A
variety of camera shots are used especially close ups and point of view shots in soaps, so the
viewers can sense emotion and the body language from the characters.
It shall also have open endings at the end of each episode and the storyline shall ensure they are
left open, so the next episode can continue on with the narrative of where the previous episode
has left from.
SLIDE 13 - Genre
 Drama, soap
Length
 It shall be shown twice a week for 30 minutes.
Slot/Main Competitors
 BBC1 at 7pm
 Emmerdale on every weekday
SLIDE 14 - 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]

7. YouTube, (2016) ‘EastEnders Christmas scene’ Available from: https://youtu.be/f949uafKpCc
[Accessed 28th June 2016]