Too posh for Night and Day

For most of the past 180 years, King George Street in Greenwich has kept itself pretty much to itself.

And unless you possess a taste for period architecture and about £400,000 to spare, its listed late-Georgian homes probably don't look too familiar at present.

As of 5.05pm next Wednesday, however, this backstreet of SE10 should become a landmark in the minds of millions all over Britain - it is the setting for Night and Day, ITV's first major new soap for 30 years.

Starring household names including Gareth Hunt, Lesley Joseph and Joe McGann, the threetimesa-week show plans to be the antidote to EastEnders: scrapping the depressing storylines of life on the breadline in favour of something altogether more middleclass, cheerful and "aspirational".

Husbands and wives may actually cohabit happily without endless rowing. Businesses may thrive rather than being firebombed. And new couples may get together without suddenly discovering that they are in fact long-lost halfbrother and sister.

All of this and more will take place on fictional Thornton Street, for which King George Street has been used to provide the real-life backdrops. But how does life here compare?

Pretty well, it seems. For a start, it's far too quiet for any noisy "leave it out!" EastEnders-style slanging matches. And like Night and Day, which has a well-to-do character list including two teachers, a GP, and a lady vicar, the locals are mixture of retired academics, artists, and 4WDdriving young professionals. Indeed, it's so upwardly mobile that most of them have very little interest in watching TV soaps - including Night and Day.

"I must admit, I'm not a fan of soaps at all," said Michael Kerney, 66, an art historian and retired academic from the University of London. "I don't think I will be watching it - it's not really my kind of thing. Most of the time this is a very nice, quiet street and, to be honest, the filming that we've had over the last few months has been a bit of a nuisance at times, although they do their best to be considerate."

Maureen Bayliss, a retired child psychotherapist who lives over the road, seemed similarly unexcited. "Is it going to be like an upmarket version of EastEnders?" she asked. "I'm not really interested in soaps, and I haven't really heard anything about this one. There's certainly very little drama on this street - it's very friendly but pretty quiet."

Only retired secretary Margaret Herzberg, 76, seemed tempted to break the habits of a lifetime and tune in. "I don't normally watch soaps - they're always full of dreadful people quarrelling - but I might watch this one as my neighbour's house has been filmed quite a bit."

Producers for the new series picked the street after scouring south-east London for suitable locations, drawn by its photogenic appearance and lack of traffic. A local pub will provide the answer to the new Queen Vic, while numerous other scenes will be shot in and around the Greenwich area, from where dozens of extras have been recruited off the streets. The film crews put in an appearance about every 10 days - most of the footage is being shot on permanent sets elsewhere in London.

If ITV executives' dreams come true, it will soon become the capital's new Albert Square. Greenwich council is highly chuffed that the area is back on television for reasons other than the Dome. However, not all the residents of King George Street share the aspirations to permanent fame.

"One of my fears now is that we'll get pilgrimages of people coming here," said Mr Kerney. "In a way, though, it's my fault as it was me who got the houses here listed in the first place so that alterations are controlled.

If people had been allowed to put up some stone cladding or something perhaps the film people wouldn't have been interested in the first place."