Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"I bet I would look well suspicious with all these new clothes if Soap Division hadn't set up that fake part-time job in a supermarket for me."
"Sally, I need to talk to you."
"I'm sorry... do I know you...?"
"I know you. I need you to liaise with Soap Division for me urgently."
"Thing is, I have to be back for my tea by five or I'll be in trouble for being late."
...
"Okay... meet me in the cafe by the lake tomorrow morning at eleven... or your parents will learn all about how it really is that their daughter can afford to pay for all that shopping."
Perhaps you have always secretly believed that soap opera characters were real...? Okay, you probably haven't, but then that means this unlikeliest of premises will plough a fictional furrow less err... ploughed. Then firmly trampled all over.
Yes, Paul Rainey returns with another peculiarly British farcical romp following on from his superb time-twisting nerd-nonsense THERE'S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT and his wickedly satirical skewering strips in his POPE FRANCIS GOES TO THE DENTIST and TALES TO DIMINISH. Actually, this very much feels an extended version of one of his crackpot strips, which is great because they usually leave me wanting more!
Soap Division is the covert organisation that records the 'real' lives of all the myriad TV characters for your guilty viewing pleasure. In addition, they fulfil the vital role of ensuring the soap worlds are never sullied by the unsuspecting viewers themselves. Obviously it's a nigh on impossible task, one that teenager Sally now finds herself utterly mired in as apprentice to the chief Soap Division security officer himself, the implausibly named Thunder Brother. It's completely madness, clearly, but let's face it, all soaps are totally insane condensed parodies of real life, so this neatly squares the lunacy factor and in doing so makes it infinitely more enjoyable than an episode of Emmerdale could ever be..!
