Streaming, silly storylines and cuts have been blamed for plummeting figures. But there is still much to celebrate about British soap operas

“It wasn’t exactly like On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer or turning to page one of War and Peace, but you have to say the BBC did its best to make the start of its new twice-weekly soap EastEnders go with a bang,” opined the Guardian’s TV critic in 1985. It would take a year, the review concluded, to see if the show was a goer. This week EastEnders marked its 40th anniversary.

But as with every celebration in Albert Square, a less cheery story is lurking in the background, despite an eventful live edition, nostalgic documentaries and best-of lists. The BBC’s one-time ratings giant, commanding 30 million viewers on Christmas Day in 1986, is suffering a midlife crisis. This year’s Christmas show figures were a sobering 4.39 million. It is a similar picture over on ITV, where next year Coronation Street and Emmerdale will revert from one‑hour to 30-minute episodes.