Introduction by Bryan Kirkwood

7 October 2015

C4’s flagship soap, Hollyoaks will celebrate 20 years on screen on October 23rd 2015 and I feel privileged to be at the helm of it as it reaches a milestone that I bet nobody could have foreseen when it began in 1995 with just seven cast members.

Hollyoaks in 2015 has become synonymous with gasp-inducing stunts, shock twists and storylines that push the boundaries of teatime viewing. But at the heart of it all is great storytelling.

We are different to the other soaps. We have a more youthful audience (16% of the 16-24s), we have a faster pace (three hooks an episode) and filmed single-camera we have a glossy, filmic look.

And yes, we go places that other soaps won’t (Bonnie Tyler appearing as a dream in Hollyoaks Later is one of my favourite moments) - but the audience tells us nightly on Twitter that is what they love about the show.

Our heady mix of heightened reality, epic love stories, and characterful comedy allow us to tell important issue-based, award-winning stories about domestic violence and child abuse without the audience feeling they are being hit over the head with an education pamphlet.

I was recently asked how soaps continue to survive, in a landscape where fewer people sit down to watch television, opting to binge on box sets and view on-demand on their own time. The answer is that we have to evolve too.

With around 2 million consolidated viewers a night still watching (2.9 million tuned in for the first ever episode) Hollyoaks remains an important part of C4’s teatime schedule.

But we also know that 80% per cent of Hollyoaks trailer views are on mobile phone. Ignore that and the on-demand audience at your peril. We need to deliver content that is satisfying across all platforms to keep our audience engaged and excited.

So what is Hollyoaks about? For me it is a show about firsts. First kiss, first time, first HIV test…

The coming of age stories we tell are timeless and we find new ways to cover these exciting milestones in fresh and exciting ways to an audience, not necessarily ‘young’ but youthful in spirit.

I think we have hit on the right formula for Hollyoaks with our three tenets of storytelling. We want the audience to escape into our stories and think either ‘I wish that was me’, ‘thank God that’s not me’ or ‘that is me’.

So what will Hollyoaks 20th anniversary hold? With some of our most loved current characters caught up in the action packed episodes (and the return of an old favourite) we hope it will deliver thrills and spills and, inevitably, some tears.

But most of all I hope it feels like a celebration, of a show that started small with bold ambitions and overcame huge adversity to grow up to be a big 20 years old.

Happy birthday Hollyoaks

Bryan Kirkwood, Executive Producer