It’s a battle out there for the big three soaps with Emmerdale, Coronation Street and EastEnders vying to be the best.
But a quarter of the way into the year – just which of the soaps is leading the pack?
The Dales, the cobbles or the Square – who gets your vote?
Emmerdale
The village set soap has had a flying start to the year.
Marlon Dingle’s stroke episode was nothing short of brilliant.
It proved what a brilliant actor Mark Charnock is – and showed off the soap’s creativity in exploring what a stroke is like for the person suffering one.
Read more: Complete Emmerdale cast list 2022 – meet them all here!
But the true power of Emmerdale’s recent success comes from Meena Jutla.
Actress Paige Sandhu has created one of the most watch-able, incredibly, joyful soap serial killers of all time.
She has been mesmerising to watch – and viewers have eaten up every second she has been on screen.
But it hasn’t all been fun and games.
The decision to soften Kim Tate and make her less of a villain has been a difficult one to navigate – but it’s getting there.
Some well-publicised behind the scenes drama have marred the Meena storyline and its impact.
And the temporary loss of David Metcalfe and Victoria Sugden from the village has shown that even the most historic of characters aren’t necessary for the soap to thrive.
Did anyone really miss them in the village?
Likewise the endless drama between Chas and Charity has become too much now.
There are too many Dingles in the show – and some of the main ones are deeply, deeply unpleasant to watch.
Time for a trim of that particular family tree.
Coronation Street
Corrie has had a mixed few months – where so much has happened and yet so little.
Storylines like Laura’s tragic death, Rick’s body being found and Abi’s endless drugs/baby/child loss saga have kept the drama going.
As cracking an actress Sally Carman is, Corrie bosses need to tread carefully.
Read more: Emmerdale fans disappointed as Gabby finds out Jamie is alive
They are risking turning Abi into the new Michelle Connor where every storyline involves her and all the drama focuses on her.
Blowing up Sarah and Adam Barlow‘s marriage for a brief storyline was certainly a choice.
While Lydia turned out to be a brilliant addition – her leaving has made it all the more pointless.
And the reintroduction of Nicky has failed to ignite sparks – with the former prostitute not quite fitting in while Daniel is with scheming Daisy.
Speaking of Daisy – she’s had quite the character turnaround and has now proven herself to be worthy of being a Rovers barmaid.
Fortunately Corrie has remained – for the most part – completely watchable.
But it seems to be haemorrhaging talent.
Alexandra Mardell and Kel Allen left earlier this month, Charlie de Melo is off soon and Rebecca Ryan only stuck around for a few months.
At this rate there’ll be no-one left by Christmas.
Sadly there are some characters who really do need to leave but are steadfastly hanging on until grim death.
Hopefully summer can thin the herd a little and chop some of the deadwood.
EastEnders
EastEnders has been struggling for a while, let’s face it.
This year promised the end to Gray Atkins’ three year reign of terror – but it massively over-promised and under-delivered.
He ran! Through an alleyway! How exciting. And then he didn’t get thrown over a bridge.
Teens appear to have taken over the Square with Tommy Moon’s bullying ordeal and teen mum Jada arriving from nowhere.
The only storyline to show any promise at the moment is Jean Slater in her manic episode – she’s feisty, forthright and rapidly approaching a fall.
It’s not overkill to suggest that actress Gillian Wright is carrying the entire show on her back at the moment.
Bringing Janine Butcher back had a lot of potential – but she’s not the Janine we all love to hate.
And this recent simpering version with Janine falling for Mick is just not working.
And now drunk Linda Carter’s back – and everything just isn’t working the way it should.
Fortunately we’ve got Sam Mitchell’s return bubbling away – let’s just hope it doesn’t go the way of Janine.
The winner – Emmerdale
Who else could it be really?
And it’s for one reason that the soap has soared above its rivals this year – Meena Jutla.
The ITV soap now has its work cut out to fill the gaps left by the incredible serial killer extraordinaire.
Emmerdale usually airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
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