Dickens, sudsy

Philip Hensher is fed up with the "if Dickens were alive, he'd be writing soap operas" bit:

The rationale behind this is, evidently, that fatuous comment that if Dickens were alive today, he'd be writing for EastEnders; a remark that can only be followed by the reflection that if Dickens did write EastEnders, it would be so very much improved in quality as to be unrecognisable.