The Street Character Profile

Character Profile:

Character	Appearance	Personality	Storyline
Benjamin Michael	Benjamin is tall, blonde, blue eyes, pale skin and a chiselled jaw who wears a suit and tie.	Benjamin is a very calm and caring family man, but has the potential to snap and react violently.	Benjamin is undergoing the stressful divorce between him and his wife due to her missing daughter.
Michelle Thornton	Michelle is a tall, brunette, green eyes, pale skin with freckles who dresses casually.	Michelle is an independent, powerful, aggressive woman, found in the centre of conflicts.	Michelle is the evil ex wife of Benjamin who is desperately looking for her daughter.
Hayley Michael	Hayley is young, petite, brunette with a tan who dresses provocatively.	Hayley is a strong willed girl who desires independence, she is argumentative and miserable.	Hayley is returning to the street after 5 long years.
Sally Cole	Sally is a young girl in her teens who is now 3 months pregnant, with blonde hair and green eyes	Sally is an innocent girl who is very easily manipulated by her peers and shy.	Sally faces the dilemma whether or not to tell Dwayne that she is pregnant with Cameron’s baby.
Dwayne David	Dwayne is a young Afro-Caribbean boy in his late teens, dressed in baggy clothing and wears hats and bandanas	Dwayne keeps himself to himself thus being very independent but has a short temper which leads to him lashing out violently.	Dwayne’s father left when he was nine years old and ever since has been dealing drugs. He assumes Sally is pregnant with his child.
Cameron Roberts	Cameron is a chubby teenager, black scruffy hair and beard with brown eyes.	Cameron is quiet and shy, easily tempted by Dwayne to deal drugs with him.	Cameron has always loved Sally who live next-door and got her pregnant at a party but doesn’t remember.

The Streets Treatment - Group

The Streets is a weekly televised serial soap opera which will air Monday to Friday with an omnibus on the weekend, on a Sunday. 

The Streets will be entirely focused within a small community in South London. The significantly large cast of characters will be of a particular class, more specifically of a lower / working class as it will coincide with the location thus being set within a sub-urban area consisting of sets which include the pub, community centre, estate, park, etc. The characters within the soap opera will be of diverse ethnicities as the area of south London is multicultural. However there will be a particular focus on current stereotypes of youth crime, especially those within the Afro-Caribbean community. The streets will have a broad target audience although it focus on primarily younger audiences, especially young teenager hence the airing time will be scheduled after popular soap operas targeted to a similar audience such as Hollyoaks, therefore the broadcasting time will be at 7:30 to 8pm. The channel it will air on will be E4 as it already has established a young audience thus ensuring The Streets will gain momentum due to its being aired after Hollyoaks.

The first episode of The Streets will start with a very dramatic introduction, which will include the establishment of characters and where the narrative is headed. Benjamin Michael’s daughter Hayley returning to The Street ten years after disappearing whilst his ex-wife Michelle is still trying to blame Benjamin with the disappearance, when Hayley was in the town she caused alot of trouble with neighbours and after leaving lead to Michelle and Benjamin's failing relationship. The return of Hayley also shows viewers her newly fond relationship with Steve Rogers a young policeman and former understudy of Benjamin falling for Hayley, who does not know is Benjamin’s daughter.

Community in Soap Operas

In the soap opera genre, communities are one of the crucial conventions that contribute significantly to the realism. The realism is necessary in order to help viewers relate to the narrative and the characters as certain aspects of both may be very similar to their own lives thus creating certain empathy for particular character or narrative. 

The community aspect of soap operas keeps the area secluded from the rest of the world within the typically fictional areas, creating another small world which contains everything necessary to be self sufficient. 

This can potentially make the viewer switch off consciously and become a spectator of the world within the soap opera, possible member of the community hence the reason why soap operas are so habit forming. Therefore in my soap opera the Streets I hope to create a similar sense of community within the small trailer similar to that of Coronation Street which will significantly benefit the soap opera and make it more appealing.


The different examples of communities in which I am familiar to are:


In Coronation Street, there are different places where the residents gather, as they all know each other they are very knowledgeable about peoples pasts, presents and perhaps future due to the different generations of people. The places where the residents of Weatherfield meet are:


- The Rovers (Pub)
- The factory
- Garage
- Roys Rolls (Cafe)
- Devs shop
- Bookies
- Hairdresser
- The Joinery (club)
- Butchers


In Eastenders, the community is also similar to Coronation Street, families tend to own businesses and multiple ones, we as a viewer see the characters as working class working within the square and there arent any characters to travel outside of Albert square to work.
- The Queen Vic (Pub)
- Cafe
- Chip shop
- Beauty Salon
- Market stalls
- Indian restaurant/ take away
- Car Dealer
- Garage
- Community Centre
- R & R Nightclub
- Laundrette




Hollyoaks shows a different type of community compared to Eastenders and Coronation Street. The target audience is aimed at a younger audience (teenagers). The different locations in which a viewer can gather a sense of community are:
- The Dog (Pub)
- The SU Bar
- Skate Park
- Beauty Salon
- Laundrette
- Community College


The uses of different locations within a community has helped me gather knowledge of what relationships the different characters have and how these places help effect the realism of the soap operas.

Target Audience

This is Naomi Miller, she is 18 years old and lives with her parents and younger brother in Birmingham. She attends Winchester Academy and is currently doing her A Levels in Media Studies, Psychology and Sociology.

She enjoys reading books, magazines and newspapers to keep up-to date with society. She works part-time in Primark so she can have her own pocket money aswell as EMA.

She watches soap operas like Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Home and Away. She enjoys these soap operas with her parents and after shes done all her school work which she usually finished at 6pm. She uses social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Naomi's favourite films are Hes just not that into you, Strangers and Paranormal Activity aswell as Kidulthood.

Naomi is my target audience for Town because she is not too young and is able to understand the different storylines also, herself and her parents watch soap operas, different generations of people are viewing them therefore they have different insights into them.

The different ages and cultures in Town can relate to Naomi as she is young and goes to school where there would be different people with different cultural backgrounds.