It creates a little world of equality that you then try and be as good as you can within. There are two reasons for soap snobbery, he suggests. Firstly, it's a reality that when you make a drama quickly its hard to get it absolutely perfect. But we've become familiar with our environments now, and the peple who are in charge of our genre now pay it more respect, and allow us more time and resources. There is, inevitably, a class element too.
Opera is a middle-class interest, and it's seen as high art.
I don't see that as being of more worth than getting 20 million people to watch Roy tell Pat that her earrings are horrible. He is referring to a seminal moment of ordinary pain when, as their relationship disintegrated, Pat Butcher's husband took her to task over her gruesome jewellery. It really took my breath away, that. Similarly, theatre is seen as being of more value than television. I find that so rude.