Long-running radio and TV serials take on a bubbly effect

Songbirds is a soap opera. But what is a soap opera? Is it people singing with bubbles coming out of their mouths? Of course not. Soap operas are long-running serials about everyday life in which a storyline is carried over from one episode to the next.

Successful soap operas, or 'soaps' as they are often called, may go on for many years. For example, Songbirds first began in 1999.

Soap operas originated in the United States. The first soap operas were broadcast on commercial radio stations and were sponsored by soap manufacturers, hence the use of the word 'soap'. The golden age of American radio soap operas was in the 1930s and 1940s. From the 1950s television soap operas developed and became the dominant form as advertisers switched their sponsorship from commercial radio to television.

Soap operas include the following:

* an open-ended storyline divided into episodes, each with a cliffhanger ending to make listeners tune in the following week to find out what happens next

* a regular group of characters, for instance, a family,