The Living Soap

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The Living Soap was a BBC North fly on the wall reality television show broadcast in 1993, which set out to show the everyday lives of six students sharing a house in Manchester. The six chosen students gave up their privacy for one year in return for free rent and of course, the chance to be on television. Out of the original six participants, four of them left the show and were replaced by other willing students. Although the show was groundbreaking, The Living Soap attracted the wrong kind of controversy and was taken off the air after about five months. The remaining housemates appeared in two one-hour specials later on in 1994.

The Living Soap differs from most of today's reality shows because, to achieve the sense of currency suggested by the show's name, each episode was aired as soon as it was made. Therefore, the depiction of everyday life was inevitably distorted from episode two onwards by the fact that the subjects were on television every week (students outside the program criticized it for being completely untrue compared to real life as a student). In this respect, The Living Soap can be contrasted with Sylvania Waters, an earlier Australian documentary based on a similar concept, which was filmed in its entirety before a single episode was broadcast.

The original participants included a football mad Everton FC fan, a clay-shooting Tory, a long haired heavy metal fan, a single mother, a clubber with an infectious laugh, and an art student.

The program’s subjects complained bitterly about the way they were portrayed due to the editing carried out by the show’s producers and directors, which included Spencer Campbell. Considering the poor reception of the show, it is no surprise that the show is never repeated.