The rise of microdramas: The 'snackable' shows made for the scrolling age

Every evening, Heather Sharrock settles down to watch her favourite show.

But it's not on Netflix or iPlayer, or even on her television - it's on her phone.

And while some of us might get through a handful of episodes of our latest must-watch series every night, Heather can binge on dozens - because the 55-year-old from Scotland is into microdramas.

"There's so much rubbish going on in the world at the moment," Heather says. "It's just nice to switch off and not think for a little while."

Microdramas - already huge in China - are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, and can be found on apps like ReelShort, CandyJar and DramaBox. Last week, producers announced classic Neighbours storylines would be repackaged as super-short vertical episodes, one of the latest signs the format is moving into the mainstream.

Made up of snappy, high-octane episodes, they are usually 60 to 90 seconds long. Many focus on themes like forbidden love, family feuds and secret billionaires, and nearly every instalment ends on a dramatic cliffhanger. Each series tends to have 50 or more episodes, making the total runtime comparable to a feature film.

Diane Aitken, 45, a fan from Scotland, likens the werewolf- and vampire-themed microdramas she enjoys to 1980s US soaps Dallas or Dynasty "on steroids".

The shows emerged in China in the late 2010s as cheap and quick-to-film adaptations from online novels, says China-born filmmaker Samantha Sun, and for many fans they're a form of escapism.

Sarah-Jayne Lunn, 46, from Doncaster, says they helped her cope during a difficult period in her life. "Straight away I was hooked," she says. "I didn't have to overthink."

Jen Cooper, a microdrama viewer who now works as a consultant in the industry, agrees. She says microdramas were originally popular among middle-aged women looking for romance content, with many BookTok and romantasy devotees watching them, but they are are now popular with a much wider audience.

Last year, China's microdrama market was worth more than 100 billion yuan (£11bn) and viewer numbers surpassed 800 million, according to China's National Radio and Television Administration. But they're also big in South Korea, India and the US, with streamers including Prime, Peacock and Disney+ announcing plans to add microdramas to their services.

In the UK, TattleTV, which bills itself as the the country's first dedicated microdrama app, was launched earlier this year, while the Royal Television Society held an industry panel discussion on microdramas this summer.

Companies are also looking to capitalise on the buzz around microdramas, making branded short video ads for social media, with examples including productions from Jamie Oliver, the Co-op, and a Channel 4 and Sol de Janeiro collaboration.

Microdramas have to be fast-paced to keep viewers' attention, says Charlotte Brokenbrow of Welsh production company Spare Arrow, which made its first series this year.

"If you leave too much air in the script and in the video, then someone's going to get bored and will scroll on," she says.

As well as breakneck speed, microdramas have proved popular because people can watch them in bite-sized chunks, leading some analysts to describe them as "snackable".

They also feed into a shift towards "casual, low-commitment viewing that we can dip in and out of," says Dr Tina Kendall, associate professor of film and media at Anglia Ruskin University.

Some people told BBC News they watch them in the car while waiting to pick up their children from school, while others said they have one on in the background while they catch up on housework or admin.

It's so "obvious what's going to happen", Sarah-Jayne says she can even enjoy them while she is working.

Dedicated apps typically hook viewers by letting them watch the first few episodes for free, before then requiring a subscription. CandyJar costs £49 for one year, while DramaBox costs £110, but most microdrama apps allow binge-watchers to buy weekly subscriptions or watch ads in exchange for free episodes.

As you scroll through the apps, themes such as mafia bosses, enemies-to-lovers plotlines and cowboys recur.

Sun says Chinese production companies often replicate successful formulas, with only minor tweaks - and that's something Heather has noticed, too. "A lot of them have been the same story, just set in a different setting," she says, adding that she's now "fed up" seeing billionaire CEO storylines.

More outlandish titles include I Adopted My Stolen Baby, Craving My British Cowboy and Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas.

Some fans say they feel certain plots have been degrading to women, in some cases involving crude depictions of violence and sexual assault. "It became a bit of a sort of joke that the female actress has had a million hideous things happen to her and been crying and screaming 10 million times before she's even got to lunch," says Coco Taylor, an actress who starred in her first microdrama in 2024.

Taylor says she has turned down roles in some series because she felt they were too misogynistic. But she and many other microdrama fans say the storytelling has developed which they credit to more storylines now being written by US and UK teams, and they speak enthusiastically about microdramas branching out into genres such as comedy, thriller and horror.

Haydn Wakeling, founder of production company Black Swan, first heard about microdramas earlier this year through a film industry contact. "Fast-forward to now and it's all anyone's talking about," he says.

Financially, microdramas are very attractive to directors and producers, Wakeling says - it typically takes less than two weeks to film a microdrama of between 60 and 90 minutes, pushing down costs.

Director Dan Löwenstein worked on his first microdrama, Mafia Lover, in February 2024. He's now on his 38th. Initially he worked on shows commissioned by Chinese apps, but says he's now working with US platforms, global streamers and UK companies, after the industry in China pivoted to AI production.

The UK is now Europe's largest audience for microdramas - and while many fans and producers in the industry are excited about the format's future, it's not without its critics.

Some deride microdramas as low-quality content that ruins people's attention spans. In an opinion piece for The Guardian, one writer said the shows were "catastrophically brainless and objectively bad".

But, as microdrama fan-turned-consultant Jen Cooper says: "No one's saying that this is profound, but if you've had that emotional reaction and you've made someone smile or made a hard day easier, then surely that is something wonderful to celebrate."