Inside Soap readers definitely know what they like – and what they don’t!

Steven Murphy, Editor

As the editor of Inside Soap, it’s Steven’s job to guide you through each week’s soap drama. We ask him how the magic happens…

Hi Steven, we’ve seen your face in Inside Soap for a long time! How many of the 1000 issues have you worked on?

I dread to think! Putting together this issue and looking back has been like my whole life flashing before me! I first worked on Inside

Soap 22 years ago as a features writer, so I’ve witnessed a lot of babies, bust-ups, betrayals and bumpings-off !

What’s the best part of being Inside Soap’s Editor?

The readers, to be honest. We’re all soap fans here – we get excited by things like Kim Tate coming back, or just a funny scene like

Corrie’s Tracy decking Steve the other week, and we want to bring that same excitement to every issue. We get such a great response –

readers know what they do and don’t like in soaps, and aren’t shy to tell us, so it’s good to have that feedback and to feel you have a real relationship with the people you’re making the magazine for. Soap Inside

What’s the worst bit?

Remembering that you can’t please all of the people, all of the time! People have their favourites and rightly get frustrated when they think we’re not doing enough. But it’s funny how it goes around. A few years ago people were asking why Eastenders was always on the cover and never Emmerdale, but now I’m getting complaints that we don’t do enough Eastenders covers and have too much Emmerdale! We follow the mood and engagement of the viewers

– so we run the cover we think is most likely to tempt people to pick it up. Sometimes it surprises even me. One of our best-selling covers had the ridiculous headline ‘A baby for Dot!’ Readers were intrigued, and it f lew off the shelves!

You must have met a lot of soap stars – so, go on, what are they really like?

Do you know what? By and large, they’re really nice. They all work hard, which I think keeps them down to earth.

But it’s just like life, really – some people you hit it off with straight away and have a right laugh, and with others it’s more about getting the job done. But no one’s ever been horrible to anyone at Inside Soap, and that’s the honest truth.

Okay, if there’s no dirt to dig, what’s been your most showbiz moment ever?

I’ve been to lots of glitzy showbiz dos, but the moment I’ll always treasure was the time I went to Barbara Windsor’s

[Eastenders’ Peggy Mitchell] house. She made me a cup of tea and I could hardly drink it, because I was so terrified that I would spill it on her lovely cream sofa!