Best European soap series

Set in early 18th-century Madrid, the plot follows the love story between an agoraphobic cook and a widowed nobleman.

In 1950s Spain, the heir to a fashion house romances a beautiful seamstress who works for the company, despite the objections of his family.

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

Gracia and Paloma return to Las Sabinas to look after their father, Emilio. Gracia reunites with her childhood sweetheart, Miguel, who is now engaged to Esther. Paloma takes over the family's land and clashes with landowner Paca Utrera, who shares a terrible secret with Emilio and has a nefarious plan for the village. Young Óscar is found dead under strange circumstances. Manuela must investigate the murder with the help of Óscar's brother, Álex, who is a priest.

Comedy soap opera re-imagining the lives of the British Royal Family as you have never seen them before.

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.

F.C. De Kampioenen, was a long-running Flemish sitcom chronicling the adventures of a fictional local football team. It aired on the Belgian-Flemish channel één between 1990 and 2011, for 21 seasons with 273 half-hour long episodes, making it one of the most successful comedy programs ever on Belgian television. In 2009 a film had been planned, but has since been cancelled following complaints by the actors about the script. In 2012 the crew announced a new script was written and a movie will be produced. The movie is to be released in December 2013. The series relies heavily on stereotypical characters and farce for its humour. The story is mainly set around a few members of the football club who regularly visit the club canteen before or after a soccer training or match. The canteen is run by Pascale, who is in a relationship with Maurice. The football club is sponsored by the owner of a sausage factory, Balthazar Boma. Next to the field is an antiques shop, owned by the fraudulent Fernand. Most of the episodes are based on misunderstandings or dirty tricks from Fernand.

The daily soap that follows the loves, lives and misdemeanours of a group of people living in the Chester village of Hollyoaks where anything could, and frequently does, happen...

Begoña Montes is a woman who lives trapped in a toxic marriage and seeks the long-awaited freedom in Spain in 1958.

Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.

In 1913 Spain, a woman gets a job at the palace of La Promesa as a reward for saving the marquesses' son - but nobody knows that she has her own plans, which involve avenging her mother's death and finding her missing brother.

A group of boarding school students embark on the search for a treasure when one of them discovers a long hidden secret in the attic.

Eighteen years ago, Susan and Michael Vincent travelled to Spain with a group of friends. She was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Martha. Newly released on parole from the Spanish jail, Susan comes back to Chicago to regain her children’s love and prove her innocence.

The story revolves around the people of Sète, France. Their lives are punctuated by family rivalries, romance and scenes from daily life, but also by plots involving police investigations, secrets and betrayals.

Maxime, Rose and Antoine immerse themselves in the life of a school that will train the future big names in gastronomy.

Starting on the day a long, dormant feud between two local families is brutally reignited, this continuing drama is based around a busy Dublin Garda station. On one side, the Hennessys, a local dynasty, whose name is above half the businesses in town. On the other side, the Kielys, who have turned petty crime into a cottage industry. Charting the life and dramas of a community about to be enveloped by a feud, through the eyes of those who police it, each episode will be a mix of 'crime of the week' stories and on-going serial arcs, following principle characters in both their professional and personal lives. A powerful and moving drama, Red Rock is a contemporary western, set in the shadow of Ireland's 'gold rush'.

Morangos com Açúcar was a Portuguese Teen drama. It was broadcast daily on the Portuguese TV station TVI between 30 August 2003 to 15 September 2012. It has also been broadcast in Angola, Syria, Brazil and Romania.

They're beautiful, they're filthy rich and they can have anything money can buy... so why are they hardly ever happy?... The makers of hit ITV1 show 'Bad Girls' invite you to join the wives of the Earls Park FC footballers as they discover the perils, both in the spotlight and out, of being married to their famous husbands - catfights... newspaper allegations... even murder... anyone who's anyone watches Footballers' Wives.

When Eva and Rubén travel back in time to 1957, they try to go unnoticed until they find a way to return. Their plans change after Eva falls for Italian heartthrob JJ, and her actions begin to drastically alter the future.

Follow Teresa Iorio, a young woman who leaves her rural Sicilian hometown for Milan to find work--and much more--at a newly opened department store: The Ladies' Paradise.

'Familie' is the longest running Belgian soap opera. The Van den Bossches originally had an electronics company, later a holding company that included a clothing chain and a sandwich shop. In the meantime, we closely follow the personal lives of the Van den Bossches and their entourage. Grandma Anna and all her children and grandchildren have been through a lot over time and it doesn't look like their lives will become calmer any time soon.

Dream Team follows both the on and off pitch battles of Harchester United Football Club and the drama that follows them on and off the pitch. It follows the lives of the players, management, executives, and their wives and girlfriends as well as the football agents. The former Premiership club are currently in The Coca Cola Football League Championship (English football's second highest division) having been relegated from The Premier League at the end of Series 7 (the top league) which they were in since the shows begining. The fictional club is filled with trouble, fear, anguish, death, betrayl, blackmail, murder, corruption, affairs, deceipt, lying, theft, assult and scandal all round and thats just off the pitch, it seems that the drama on the pitch with battles for promotion or against relegation is the easy life. During the years, the team have been through many highs and lows both on and off the pitch, including many relegation battles that have gone to the wire, win

Uli Cieplak - who is not very pretty, but hardworking and smart - finds employment in the renowned fashion house Febo & Dobrzański. Despite her unattractive appearance, with diligence she climbs the career ladder while secretly having a crush on her boss, Marek Dobrzański, the president of the company.

Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten is a long-running German television soap opera, first broadcast on RTL in 1992. The programme concerns the lives of a fictional neighborhood in Germany's capital city Berlin. Over the years the soap opera tends to have an overhaul of young people in their late teens and early twenties; targeting a young viewership.

Twins who have never seen each other find out they were torn apart at birth. A crime was behind the disappearance of one of them. A romance can keep them from being a family. A secret will bring them together again.

1763. The life of Adriana, a brave and loyal woman, suffers an unexpected setback when she receives a devastating blow: her father has died, and, as a result of a secret pact, she must travel from the city of Madrid to Valle Salvaje, in northern Spain, to marry a stranger. A dark secret from her past follows her to the remote valley, home to her fiancé's family and her troubled aunt, Doña Victoria. There, her life will change forever. She will experience true love, betrayal, and danger as she tries to uncover the truth behind her father's death.

A former British soccer star moves to a quiet village after divorce, meeting a local doctor. Their growing love faces obstacles as two different worlds collide, while past secrets and present conflicts test their relationship.

Ana Margarida Rosa Lobo, a 70-year-old actress at the end of her career, discovers she has Alzheimer's and without explaining to anyone, she decides to end her five-decade marriage with Sérgio and move to another house to enjoy her lucidity while she can. This decision causes an upheaval in the professional and personal lives of her four daughters. Faced with this situation, the family will be tested to the limit and the four women change their way of looking at life, questioning their love relationships that they have also built.

Zé Maria Magalhães is an innocent young man who, suddenly, sees his dreams and family destroyed by a man's greed: Miguel Ferreira da Fonseca, a powerful banker. For 15 years, Zé Maria is forced to remain hidden, in a life of lies, in another country, imprisoned by the memories of the past, having to assume a new identity. Today, he is a great farmer, owner of the Ouro Verde empire, known as Jorge Monforte, and has become one of the richest men in Brazil. The course of time only fueled his desire for revenge, making him lose the sense of right and wrong and the ability to love. Fifteen years later, he returns to Portugal, ready to avenge the past and destroy Miguel Ferreira da Fonseca.

LouisLouise is a Flemish soap opera based on the Argentine success Lalola format and has been broadcast since 24 September 2008 on vtm. It is the successor of the series Sara.

Back in her hometown of La Ciotat, a singer who gave up the stage returns to music, and must navigate between family secrets and young talent at the Studio Lumière.

A story of love and revenge of a woman who, as an adult, returns to the place where she was raped and where she will be surprised with her ability to overcome.

Goede tijden, slechte tijden, also known as GTST, is the longest-running Dutch soap opera, revolving around the lives of the families Alberts, Sanders, De Jong, Van Houten and Bouwhuis. It all takes place in the fictional town of Meerdijk.

'The Crackpot' is about an actor very important in the past of Catalonia, called Joel Joan (Plats Bruts, Porca Misèria), but has a problem: no one wants him in a film, because is very egocentric and rude. The series starts when he try to be in a new catalan film.

Alma, a young Parisian, juggles between her professional life in a palace and a complex love life. Combining love, humor and sensuality, this French romance depicts today's romantic and friendly relationships through the eyes of a generation that is connected, open, demanding and in search of meaning.

Cacau is an engaging saga of family secrets, clandestine loves and sacrifices, all sweetened by the irresistible taste of chocolate and the magic of cocoa plantations.

Your regular appointment in Letherbridge. In a busy Midlands GP practice, the turbulent lives and loves of the staff and patients mean there's always humour and heartbreak.

Claire is surprised when she gets arrested for the murder of her childhood friend after she returns to Montpellier.

When police officer Johanna Strand returns to her hometown Hammarvik to attend her mother's funeral, she expects to stay only for a few nights but the body of a young woman is found and she decides to stay and investigate what happened.

Capri is an Italian TV series produced by Rai Fiction.

Hollyoaks Later is a spin-off from the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Broadcast on E4 with a late night slot, the series began in 2008, and was an annual event for the soap until 2013, when there was a break, until it returned with a special episode in 2020. Each of the original series was shown over five consecutive nights. The late night airing allowed for more sexual content, "edgier" storylines, and stronger language. Each series is a stand-alone story, although each ties in with events on the main show at the time, with the producers often taking advantage of the later broadcast time to tie up loose ends on the more violent and controversial storylines.

Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph falls in love with young Elisabeth. It's love at first sight but Franz Joseph's mother Sophie doesn't approve of the relationship.

The story of João and Margarida happens between Macao and Portugal. The young lovers were separated when they were teenagers and they find each other in Macao after many years. João has changed his life and he is now a rich mafia casino boss that, after the encounter with Margarida, decides to return to Portugal to reconquer her.

Salatut elämät (Secret Lives) is a Finnish television soap opera that premiered on MTV3 on 25 January 1999. The series' storylines follow the daily lives of several families who live in the same apartment block in Helsinki.

The residents of a Berlin flat share, between which there are love affairs, scenes of jealousy and, again and again, very harmonious moments.

The telenovella 'Milo' is a modern musical fairy tale. The series tells the story of Milo, a very talented baker's daughter with a golden voice, who is forced to hide her talent from the outside world. No matter how hard she dreams of a life full of singing and music.

El precio de amarte revolves around a man who abandoned his family as a child. Upon returning, several years later, he wants to discover why he was forced away. However, the search for the truth is derailed by a passionate love story. Full of action, intrigue and unexpected twists, El Precio de Amarte promises an exciting journey through generations, marked by love and tragedy.

In the wealthy Montenegro family that lives in a small town in Spain, the evil matriarch of the family, Doña Francisca Montenegro, widow of Salvador Castro, attempts to exact revenge. against all those who dare to face her power as star-crossed love, revenge, betrayal, and unspeakable secrets play out.

Past lovers Asia and Piotr meet by chance one day, after many years on very different paths. With Asia going through a painful breakup and Piotr in a relationship with Sylwia who pushes him towards a career and luxurious life, the two will explore what prevented their young love from blooming.

Sara De Roose, a business economics graduate, passed with honours at the university but has trouble finding a job—until she comes across an assistant job in a Belgian fashion company, called "Présence".

Duarte Alvarenga is a man with a model family and a great fortune, but who lost his wife and baby girl. Luz is an exotic beauty raised by a Gypsy family after she was kidnapped as a baby. When Luz inherits a large fortune, she gets mixed up in the world of drug trafficking, love, and mystery.