Radio Drama · 2026-07-04
'Worlds Apart': A New American Audio Soap Opera
SoapKast Productions is launching its ambitious new audio drama "Worlds Apart" on 6 July, modernizing the traditional daytime soap opera format with 156 episodes a year, each 20 minutes long, released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Created and written by Andrew Pemberton-Fowler, the series is a wholly original story, not based on any prior property, set in the fictional Chicago North Shore suburb of Bedford Hills, where the lives of three families intertwine: the "old money" Livingstons — meaning wealth inherited over generations, not newly made — the self-made Russes, and the financially struggling Greenfields. The show explores themes of class, race, and the invisible lines that determine where people belong. In format it's a classic serialized soap opera — structurally similar to Hungary's long-running radio drama "A Szabó család" or the BBC's decades-running "The Archers" — but set in American suburbia, and it does not reflect real-world current events "live." Pemberton-Fowler previously worked on CBS's "Soapy" and HBO's "The Official Gilded Age Podcast," and served as a co-story editor on Grant Rutter's audio soap opera "Montecito."
Lead roles are played by Benjamin Corsi (Ian Greenfield), Deanna Rowland (Sylvia Russ) and Brady Ryan (Robbie Livingston). Episodes will be available on all major podcast platforms and on the SoapKast website.
Cast & Crew
- Creator, writer Andrew Pemberton-Fowler
- Editor Trae Budde
- Ian Greenfield Benjamin Corsi
- Sylvia Russ Deanna Rowland
- Robbie Livingston Brady Ryan
Sources: Soap Opera Network · michaelfairmantv.com
This article was partly machine-composed.