Take A Closer Look at Inside Soap Magazine (Inside Soap - Magazine)

Member Name: junkboxjules

Product:	Inside Soap - Magazine
Date:	30/04/02 (3727 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads of info on your favourite soaps, Find out about future storylines before they happen

Disadvantages: None

I just love soaps - not all of them, in fact there are so many today that I have never seen or indeed heard of. It is due to Britains love of soap operas that there are now several magazines dedicated purely to this ever growing army of soap fanatics.

Inside Soap is just one of these magazines, I believe it was the first magazine to totally dedicate itself to soaps. I first stumbled upon a copy in the Doctors waiting room and have been a fan ever since.

Inside Soap comes out once a fortnight on a Tuesday. It costs £1.30 and this is what you get for your money. The magazine is fresh and bright and the front cover normally features a picture and headline of a future storyline in one of the most popular soaps, ie Eastenders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street or Brookside. The issue which I have based this review on is Issue 204 and covers the fortnight ending 10th May 2002. The cover story features Sonia, Dot and Chloe from Eastenders and the headline is SNATCHED! In small print underneath the headline continues 'a desperate Sonia kidnaps Chloe - can Dot stop her before it's too late?' Intrigued soap fans are sure to want to know more and these cover stories must help to sell thousands of copies of this magazine.

** FEATURES **

There are various feature stories and these treat the reader to a hint of future storylines such as the cover story.

The current magazine has feature stories on Eastenders, Neighbours, Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Home and Away and Hollyoaks.

** COMPETITIONS AND OFFERS **

The magazine always has competitions the prizes usually being soap or tv related. You can enter as many or as few competitions as you like and entry is by post.

A popular competition is the Caption Competition - a scene from one of the soaps is printed and the funniest most original caption sent in to accompany it wins £20.00.

** REGULARS **

Regular items include a Que
stion and Answer page which is where a popular soap star is given questions about themselves to answer, the celebrity in the current issue is Michael Greco, (Beppe di Marco).

Inside Info features snippets of information in relation to the various soaps and soap stars such as who is leaving, and brief snippets of information relating to the actors real lives. Also on these pages there is a small section dedicated to soap history which gives a brief outline to some of the popular storylines from 1 year, 5 years and 10 years ago.

Soap Box is a selection of viewers letters about anything and everything - £30 is paid for the star letter and £10 for all other letters that are published. Within these pages there is a Looky-Likey feature which is where readers can send in photos of somebody they know who they think looks like a soap star and Snapped with a Star where readers send in their photographs of them with a soap star - if your photos are printed you win £20.00.

** 14 DAYS **

This section takes a look at the best of the other television programmes that are going to be on during the next 14 days. Also featured within 14 days is a daily brief summary of what is going to happen in the following soaps, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Neighbours, Brookside, Home and Away, Hollyoaks, Family Affairs, Crossroads and even the Archers.

For all of you that hate soap operas I expect you have probably fallen asleep by now. However, if you are a true soap junkie this is a fantastic magazine and well worth a read - I always collect mine on the day it comes out and have read it within an hour or so of collecting it.

Happy reading :o)

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