A comprehensive analysis of the soap opera format throughout Europe (including the UK and the Republic of Ireland) covering not only home-produced soaps, but also imported soaps from Australia, the US, South America and elsewhere which are screened throughout Europe. Topics covered in the text include: a definition of the soap and related genres; analysis of their audiences; similarities and differences in plots and themes from country to country; the importance of scheduling and screening times; and the shifting balance between home-produced and imported soaps. The book is based on sustained viewing of the products themselves, concentrating, in particular, on those soaps which have started since 1990. It outlines the narrative and plot structures of each soap, discusses the kind of audience it attempts to construct and attempts to place it within the broader television culture of the country concerned. Following a neo-Gramscian approach, it also examines soaps in the different European countries as constituting both macro- and hyper-narratives, recounting large-scale cultural, social and political changes within the country in which they are produced.