Compact

1 9 6 2 - 1 9 6 5 (UK)
373 x 25 minute episodes

In January 1962 the BBC launched their first real soap opera since the demise of The Grove Family in 1957. It was called Compact and was created by Hazel Adair as she sat waiting to deliver an article to Women's Own magazine. It was written by Peter Ling, with whom Adair was to devise Crossroads .

Compact centered around 'the talented and temperamental people who worked on a topical magazine for the busy woman'. Compact was a glossy magazine that majored in schmaltzy fiction an other matters of female interest, and the majority of the action took place in the high-rise Compact offices in Enterprise House, in London's Victoria.

Screened on Tuesdays and Thursdays following Tonight, it was swiftly dismissed by the critics as being "empty-headed", "worthless" and "hollow", and it absolutely oozed BBC cleanliness. Characters didn't smoke or swear, and the sexiest moment was a chaste goodnight kiss (the foot of the bed was only seen once, and that was when someone had the flu!).

When an episode involving a dance was to feature The Twist, checks were made and, yes, a doctor somewhere had warned against sprains from the dance craze. So a new safe dance called The Method was invented instead to keep Compact pure and wholesome.

In the first six months alone, there were nine romances, including three marriages. Bouffant-haired editor Joanne Minster (Jean Harvey), gave way to droning heart-throb Ian Harman. Dozy Ian fell for impish secretary Sally, but she rejected his advances and left.  Later she returned and married Ian and the pair departed to America - Perhaps part of the reason she returned was because actress Monica Evans who played Sally said that after earning £50 a week on Compact it was hard living on £2.50 unemployment pay!

Other popular characters were art editor Richard, Gussie the warm-hearted gushing features editor, photographer Alec Gordon, Mark Viccars the mysterious fiction editor, features editor Jimmy Saunders, and tubby typist Iris and her boyfriend Stan.

But the ratings lagged behind ITV's Emergency - Ward 10 and with the understanding that journalists aren't as interesting as doctors, Compact  was dropped in 1965. After the series was cancelled, Hazel Adair commented "People got us wrong. We did not set out to make a documentary about life on a woman's magazine. What we put over was the stuff the woman's magazines are selling themselves". Perhaps it could have done with being a bit more Cosmopolitan and a little less Bunty.

TRIVIA NOTE
The name of Compact's sister magazine was Impact.