Watching series 5 of LWT’s successful London’s Burning made me feel very old. It first aired in 1991, some 15 years ago, and shows just how much television and television drama has changed.
Friday nights at 9pm was a must for any London’s Burning fan and series 5 doesn’t disappoint. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this series has some historical value to it.

Malcolm McDowell had a small role as Crispin Ryder before finding international fame for the playing the lead in the controversial 1970s film A Clockwork Orange (which incidentally also starred John “Fred Elliott” Savident)

Sue Nicholls, was the first actor to play the part of Marilyn Gates Hope, and then became a Coronation Street institution as Audrey Potter Roberts, where she can still be seen today

Bryan Mosley appeared in Crossroads a number of time before becoming Britain's most famous shopkeeper, Alf Roberts, in Coronation Street

Stephen Hancock was another actor who crossed from Crossroads, in which he had two separate roles, to Coronation Street, where he played Emily Bishop's ill-fated husband Ernie

Richard Thorp played Doug Randall but of course is now much better known as one of Emmerdale's longest running characters, Alan Turner

Steven Pinder was Roy Lambert, one of a host of younger characters brought into Crossroads under director Philip Bowman, but he had a much longer run as the many times married Max Farnham in Brookside

Diane Keen was Sharon Gould, before becoming the nation's sweetheart in comedies like Rings on their Fingers and The Cuckoo Waltz. Diane is still a TV regular today – starring in BBC1's Doctors

David Jason may be well known for his roles of Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses and Inspector Frost in A Touch of Frost, but an early entry on his complete CV would also include a stint in Crossroads

Elaine Page, the celebrated singer and musical theatre actor, played Caroline Winthrop in the early years of the show

June Bolton (aka Emily Bolton) was Lia, a Malaysian girl who wanted to take revenge on David Hunter for killing her parents. She later went on to star as Christina in Tenko and Sylvia in Capital City

A host of real-life comedians appeared in Crossroads over the years: Max Wall played Walter Soper, while Larry Grayson was a Motel guest and also the surprise chauffeur at Meg and Hugh's wedding. Ken Dodd and Bob Monkhouse also made appearances, as did Fern Britton's dad, the actor Tony Britton.

Before he got Footloose Kevin Bacon had roles in two daytime soaps, as Todd in Search for Tomorrow and Tim in Guiding Light

Early in his career tough guy Robert de Niro had a bit part in Search for Tomorrow

Mark Hamill will be forever associated with Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, but he previously played Kent Murray in General Hospital

David Hasselhoff had hits with Knight Rider and Baywatch and these days is famous just for being "the Hoff", but in the 1970s he played Snapper Foster in The Young & The Restless

Tommy Lee Jones has an illustrious film career, before which, in the early 1970s, he spent four years playing Mark Toland in One Life to Live

These days Demi Moore is as well known for her marriage to a younger man as for her acting roles, but in the early 1980s her fame came from playing Jackie Templeton in General Hospital

To sci-fi fans she is Voyager's Captain Janeaway, but to soap fans of the 1970s, Kate Mulgrew was Mary Ryan in Ryan's Hope

In the early 1980s Meg Ryan spent two years playing Betsy Stewart in As The Word Turns

Veteran actress and campaigner Susan Sarandon had roles in both Search for Tomorrow and A World Apart

Before he was President of the United States (on TV, at least), Martin Sheen appeared in Edge of Night

Nightime soaps have also been a convenient launchpad for the careers of some of the biggest movie stars around:

A young Brad Pitt turned up in Dallas as a boyfriend of Charlie Wade

Alec Baldwin played a wife-beating TV evangelist in Knots Landing

Halle Berry also turned up in Knots Landing as a love interest for Frank Williams

Can you think of any more Hollywood stars that got their break on a soap?

On the Soap Show website we've listed our top ten storylines from the Aussie soap of the 1980s Sons and Daughters:

1) Dee's will divides the Hamiltons, Palmers and Morrells
2) Patricia plots revenge on Martin Healy and Margaret Dunne
3) Patricia is wrongly accused of killing Luke and slowly breaks down
4) Fiona discovers the man who raped Jill is the son she thought was dead
5) Wayne pays an escort to pretend to be Jill's long lost mother
6) Leigh kidnaps Beryl's baby and gives it away to an orphanage
7) Karen Fox convinces Wayne that he killed Mitch
8) David and Patricia reignite their affair while working at Woombai
9) Amanda falls in love with Todd unaware he is dying
10) Barbara discovers her first husband is still alive and must chose between him and Gordon

What was your favourite storyline?

On the Soap Show website we've included some of our best memories from the 1970s Aussie drama The Sullivans, starring Paul Cronin, Lorraine Bayly, Andrew McFarlane and Steven Tandy.

Here are our "Top Ten Tearjerkers":

Grace's death in London
Grace's funeral and John's return
Grace waves Tom off to war
Dave takes Terry to Grace's grave
Alice sails for New Zealand to be with Jim
Kate leaves Camberwell with Christopher Merchant
Norm's wife Melina is killed by a firing squad
John tells the family he must return to Palestine and look for his wife
Kitty's husband Robbie takes his own life
Meg Fulton is caught by the Nazis in Holland

Do you agree? Let us know!