Peep Show

Peep Show is a British sitcom.  It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2003 until 2015. In 2010 it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history. Peep Show follows the lives of two flat mate friends who live in London. Stylistically the show uses point of view shots, with the thoughts of main characters Mark and Jeremy audible as voice-overs. In September 2013, Channel 4 announced that the show's ninth series would be its last. I analysed the promotional trailer released for the last series:



I picked up on these features:

• Eachother's point of view (POV) and that we hear what he's thinking:

The point of view shots and the voice-over-ed thoughts of main characters are what has drawn me to the Peep Show, in relation to the TV Soap Opera advert I will produce. To make my Soap Opera more unique and have an edge on other soaps, similar I wanted it all based around one character, likely to be a young women, probably 17 or 18 years old who attends a Sixth Form college. This makes it different from programs such as Waterloo Road and Skins as it'll all be problems that are directly affecting that main character (such as friend's parents getting a divorce, exams that main character has, the sighting of drugs in the school and wondering whether to tell etc.) Many, many British soaps do not follow this format and instead have 6 or 7 storylines happening at once all concerning different people. British comedies, however, have been known to follow this structure such as Peep Show, Miranda, Mrs. Brown's Boys and The Catherine Tate Show. Quite often in these programs the main character breaks the fourth wall (meaning they talk directly to the camera, to the people watching at home). I do not wish to feature this in my soap but instead indirectly talk to those at home, like Peep Show does, by having the voice over being the thoughts of that main character.

• Upbeat music:

This is import to give the program a youthful feel. If I put classical, slow music in the background it would give the program a different feel and probably appeal to the wrong audience. Usually, TV dramas or soap adverts only have slow, upsetting music if what it's advertising is a sad storyline or a drama centered around a distressing event. As my Soap Opera is going to be based in a sixth form, it would be good to have a sixth-form-feel to it, maybe featuring a school bell, or the noise of many young people from a playground or something similar. 

• Titles to break the advert up:

Although I do like this and think it works well in this advert for the Peep Show, I don't think it would be conventional to put them in an advert for a new soap. In the EastEnders 2013 advert for their Christmas Special, it uses 3 title screens. One of 'It's all', one of 'about to', and one of 'Change'. This worked well but is an existing soap and I don't think would make sense in a new soap trailer.

• Gives insight into life at home:

I think this in important in a trailer so the public can see to what extent they would be able to relate to this character they know nothing about, if the main character lived in a normal working class house with a ordinary family structure, the majority of people are likely to be more interested in watching this program due to normality and relatibility, whereas if the main character lived in a mansion with butlers then the general public would probably resent this person more if they were to complain about things not as important.

• Shows other main characters:

Although the main character will be the people most featured in the trailer, it is vital to show some other members of the cast so the audience can get a taste of what else they will be seeing in the program. This also gives more of an insight into the main character's life and what problems may be occuring in this new series of a new British soap.

• Date, time, title of program & channel:

Crucial! How else will the viewer know when, where and what to watch? This is normally shown in a format similar to the channel's ident. I will either look into using an existing channel that would appeal to the audience of youths (e.g BBC 3 or E4) or will create my own channel and channel ident, probably using Adobe After Effects.