England's Royal Family: TV's Real -Life Soap Opera Still in the Making?

England has always been known for many things over the many centuries such as Buckingham Palace, The River Thames, the birthplace of 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling, and the BBC. But, even now since the death of Princess Diana, there seems to be even more and more bad news that has been coming from Buckingham Palace, from princes who dress in Nazi uniforms to the public airing of Prince Charles' dirty laundry due to his affair with his current consort, the Lady Camille. But, as we watch as newer and even grosser transgressions are made by the Royals every day, does it not seem more like a soap opera than actual real life?

Soap operas are a main staple for television today, and still have a cult following with such hits as 'The Young And The Restless', 'Guiding Light', 'Days Of Our Lives', and others, and we see the makings of the same thing that is happening overseas, and the characters upon the stage are totally unaware that they are mirroring something that has been happening on television screens for decades. So, my next question is why it is not overly obvious?

Soap operas have a basic formula, and it comes in a series of parts:

1) Drama: Soap operas cannot live without this, as it is what their scripts depend on. We have heroes and their significant others who fight constatntly at odds with their lives and the world. We have villians, who normally sit either in positions of power or are merely scoundrels that are looking to make lives miserable for others. They may have affairs with the heroes wifes, may steal their infant children for genetics experiments and so on. Without drama, soap operas cannot hope to stand by the basis of their characters alone.

2)Crisis: A more extreme form of drama, where secrets that are happening within the set series of characters may be revealed at any given time. They may lose a daughter to a car crash. Their father may die of terminal cancer and they might see them at times from the great beyond. They may even realize that they may be a clone of someone else. It is with crisis that drama is further expounded, and crisis makes people want to know what happens next.

3)Twists: In other words, the unexpected. In soaps, there are a great many times that secrets lay just uunder the radar and may not be revealed until after a certain set of episodes where a secret that you may have been wondering about will suddenly become known out of thin air. This will keep the interest just as much, if not more, in the order and scheme of things.

4)Resolutions: Resolutions in soap operas do occur, but they are few and far between as it usually takes a full season before anything comes full circle. Hmm... almost sounds like real life, does it not?

The Royal Family has lately been finding that it is because of the actions that happpen in their real lives that these steps to the formula are often created. Every day and every year, there is some form of attrition that is happening within the walls of Buckingham Palace, and the news crews and newspaper reporters are always there to cover it. Therefore, could it not be said that it is no different than watching our favvorite shows on the TV, with the only difference is that it's real?

The real facts remain that humanity's nature loves to revolve on the dramas that unfold before our very eyes as the world that we know is suddenly turned upside-down as strange turns-of-events happen every day as we hear from the news, tabloid magazines, talks shows, and late-night television as the jokes come forth and the hypotheses from analysts comes through so that we are given a broader spectrum on the Royal family and what it is currently facing. But, do we always know exactly what is going on at any given time?

The sad reality although is that there are a great many things that we do not know about the Royals, and it is for the fact that any information that we receive about the matter is second-hand, which only allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions. It is because of this form of guessing that the truth about England and its monarchy has never come forth. Thereefore, it does indeed look like a soap opera rather than actual news.

How, you may ask? The explanation is relatively simple. When one gains celebrity, it leaves them open to the public to only see what they can see rather than actually what is happening. They can only surmise and think of what it could be, and inherently in human nature, we always assume the worst when it comes to global affairs. In soap operas, this form of thinking works in the same way. Everything that happens is scripted and has an outcome, but whereas in the real world, there are no scripts to follow. That is the only main difference.

There has been much that has been theorized concerning the Queen and her family, with books galore as well as movies, documentaries, and others that only give us a glimpse into what may have been rather than what was. We have heard rumors about abuse to Diana from Charles, where he might have caused the miscarriage of their unborn children. We hear of the Quuen and her past in such films as 'Mrs. Brown' starring Dame Judi Dentch and 'The Queen' satrring Helen Mirren, where we hear the history of the monarch , but as I have said before, second-hand from sources that we have not even heard of. So, what are we left with? Again, only theory.

So, whether it be Prince Harry getting in trouble for snorting vodka with his friends or Fergie releasing another 'Budgie, The Little Helicopter Book', or even the current inquest into the death of Princess Di, I am very surprised of one thing: Why have the networks not taken what has happened and made a show? I mean, it has all of the elements needed for a soap, and the fact that it's real is all the more reason to. You have affairs, marriages going bust, princes going wild. It's all of the earmarks of great television and possibly an Emmy? Who knows? I might just start writing the script myself!