Why are there no British soaps about the middle classes?

[jubei]

Maybe you could just write your own and send it to ITV? Follow this guide to be a success:

Week 1: Introduce the cast, need a gangster, a hardman, dithering old person, hot girl, badboy and then just some fillers.

Week 2: Pick the plot to run! (Rape/Murder/Blackmail/Affair)

Week 4: Yeah start the next plot, out of the 3 you havent done.

Repeat that formula until all four are done, then just start again. People that watch this drivel wont actually mind as your plot is probably a week out of sync with the other soaps airing which makes your plot fresh and exciting.

 

[One More Solo]

Maybe it would just be boring!

/thread

 

[THMRK]

They had soap elements and serious subject matter form time to time

TBH all soaps just bore the hell out of me so I'm not really one to speak to on the subject.

The "soap elements" you describe is something that's gradually been incorporated into the sitcom since the 90s. Much in the same way that the documentary format has been incorporated into sitcom since the the 00s.

They're hybrid sitcoms, not soaps.

Back to the OP: as has already been said, soaps are designed to make people feel better about their lives, hence why something tragic is always happening in them. And this is why they mainly follow working class families - it's harder to see the reality behind the "fall" of a middle class family when a working class family is, socially, "further down the ladder" and "closer to the bottom", as it were.