Stock Characters

Stock characters are used in every soap, they are the stereo typical characters which you can pick out from each soap and to the audience they know what characters to expect from every soap. In each soap there is around 8-9 of the same stock characters. This also links with Vladimir's Propps theory as it can be applied here. Examples of Stock characters in soaps are The bad boy, The pregnant teen, The villain, The elderly wise one, The Strong women, The young couple, The boss figure/ business, The cute kid, And the spiteful bitchy girl. In our soap we want to use certain stock characters so we will research into the characters other soaps use to give us an idea of how we want to portray our characters in our soap.

The Spiteful Bitchy girl

In our soap we are hoping to use 3 spiteful bitchy girls at the start, we want them to come across as very too faced and think highly of themselves. The characters we found in real soaps to compare to this spiteful female is Natasha from Neighbours, Rosie from Coronation Street And Lucy from Eastenders.
Natashas character is described as being spiteful and conniving. She gets herself into lots of trouble and tries to gain sympathy, she likes to turn people against each other. She has a major attitude and apparently has a burning desire to rule the school which also explains she likes to be centre of attention and does whatever she can to be noticed, if she fails she can be a bitch to everyone. She is very manipulative and likes to get her own way.
Compared to her twin brother Lucy is quite rebellious. The unruly teenager has been involved with bad boys, and harsh blackmail. She likes to get what she wants and goes to any length to get it, even if this does involve stabbing someone in the back. She is very selfish and doesnt think of anyone but herself. She doesnt have many friends due to her spiteful ways and doesnt get along with her family. Rosie Webster is the bitch of the street. She is stuck up and thinks everyone is below her as she attended private school. She has cause fights, break ups and arguments between her family and friends, and also has had her fair share of blackmail. Her behaviour is troublesome and manipulative, she used to be innocent when she was younger but now the rebel side has come out of her.

In our soap we are hoping to use an innocent girl to interact with the 3 malicious bitchy girls at the start, we want there to be a atmosphere between the girls and for them to be very fake and spiteful towards the innocent girl. This can come across as bulling as she is the centre of their gossip. The characters we have chosen is Abi from Eastenders, Hayley from Coronation Street and Carmel from Hollyoaks.

The Innocent girl

Abi Branning is the innocent youth of Albert square, compared to her old sister Lauren who is quite spiteful Abi remains naive. She is known as the good girl who does no wrong, she is easily led sometimes by her friends who take advantage of her innocence. She is a very caring characters and is always there to help the young and old of the square.

Hayley Cropper is a sacrificing angel, she is always there for a shoulder to cry on and is always there in their time of need. Although she may not realise it some people take Hayley for granted but she lets them walk all over her. Her character is a very caring and kind heated one but she is also very shy and she hates conflict.

Carmel is a newly performed nun. Her character is quiet and kind hearted and she is always there to make others smile even though she has her own problems. She puts others before herself, especially her family as they can sometimes go against the rules. She always wants to do right in life.

In our soap we are hoping to use a crooked business man who knows exactly what he is doing, the business man is going to be involved with the bad boy who is no good, the two together will have some sort of illegal company where drugs will be involved. The characters we found in real soaps to compare to this Business Man is Frank and Tony from coronation street and Phil from Eastenders.

The business man

Frank is the new business man to street and is in business with the factory underworld. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. He is always dressed proper and drives round in fast cars. He makes people work and always wants the best.

Phil Mitchell has been an entrepreneur on the square for a number of years. He has his own car lot and now also owns the famous queen vic. He is a business man that doesn't play by the rules and has been involved in many dodgy deals. It is not a surprising scene when Phil pulls out a mysterious wodge of cash or even a gun.

Brendan is the business man of the village and owns the club Chez Chez he is also involved in dodgy deals and gets into tricky situations. He is always dressed smart and doesn't take any stick especially when it comes to his business. He wants people to work for him properly without any funny business and knows when to give them the sack.

In our soap we are hoping to use a bad boy who interacts with the business man in a dodgey deal, just because our characters are rich and glamorous doesnt mean they always behave properly and the bad boy can prove this , the characters we have found in real soaps are Sean from Eastenders, David from Coronation Street and Cain from Emmerdale.

The Bad boy

Sean Slater from Eastenders is know to be quite a violent character, he likes to lash out and get into fights with people. He is a very isolated person and never knows whether to trust a person, he likes to get a reaction as its his cry for help. He is most of the time in trouble with some situation and acts like the bad boy but inside he is a nice person...just dont cross him.

David Platt has always caused chaos on the street since he was young. He would always be spiteful towards his sister and especially his mother. Wherever there was trouble, David would always be in the middle of it. He has been involved in many tricky situations an has many close calls with prison.

Cain Dingle is definitely known as the biggest bad boy on Emmerdale, his character comes across very intimating. The cast on the farm know not to mess with him as there will be consequences. He is always up for trouble and likes to get into a lot of fights, he is not one to mess with on the farm.

The Single Mother

In our soap we would like to have the character of the single mother. We want to embed this into a storyline and have Whos the daddy. We have found characters like this in some of the soaps including, Sarah Platt Coronation Street, Roxy Eastenders and Amy from Hollyoaks.

Sarah Platt was an innocent child but a vital mistake had a huge impact on her life when she became pregnant while still young. Her child was brought up with no father but luckily Sarah had a very supportive family to help her cope with the situation.

Roxy was part of a Whos the daddy scandal and ended up having no father for her child. She ends up relying on many family members to look after her child, as she still wants to live her life and socialise. However, she tries to cope with being a single mother as much as she can.

Amy is a single mother in Hollyoaks and this is because of a teen pregnancy. There was a possibility of two fathers and because of this she got a bad name for herself and the dads didnt want to be involved. She kept it a secret from her family but when she had the child this caused many problems and family feuds.

The Cute Child

In our soap we would like to have the character of a cute child, this will be the single mothers son. In our trailer we hope to show the mother and sons loving relationship and reveal that there is a possibility of the child's father isnt who we think it is in the storyline whos the daddy. By having a young child in our soap it will create verisimilitude of a family and how many family situations are like this nowadays. The two characters we found of cute cheeky children in real soaps is Tiffany from Eastenders and Simon from Coronation Street.

Both Tiffany and Simon play the role of the cute child in their soaps. They bring a sense of humour and cheekiness within there characters. By having younger children in soaps it makes some serious situations more light hearted. By involving children it can bring out the true personality of some of the characters. It adds more reality to the soaps by including children as they are very truthful and honest characters.

The Potential Dads

In our soap we would like to have the character of two potential Dads who will be involved in the storyline whos the daddy, what we want to happen in our trailer is have the two Dads enter but the audience dont know which one is the real father to the child. The characters we found of potential Dads are Peter from Coronation Street, Jack from Eastenders and also Alfie from Eastenders.

Peter, Jack and Alfie are all portrayed to be good fathers in their soap. However, the secret kept from them is that they are not really the daddy. The mother usually finds it hard to break this to them as they have bonded with the children and they are usually more capable that the true father, which is normally the result of a one night stand. These three characters are all shown to have good relationships with the children and want to do what's best by them.