Brookside

Do you know, I still miss Brookside. It hasn't been on now for several years but I think if they brought it back tomorrow every one of their viewers would tune in again. It was one of the first programmes to be shown on Channel 4, back in 1982. Over the years it got stronger and had many contraversal storylines. I guess that had alot to do with the fact the Phil Redmond was the genius behind it. I think it was typical of Liverpool (and many other areas) at that time and that is why is was so popular. The viewers could identify with the characters and their lives. The storylines I remember most were, Sheila Grant's rape, Barry and Terry getting up to all sorts, ...  Read the complete review

Who can forget Brookside, the first soap ever shown on Channel 4. This programme was set on a Liverpool housing estate, and followed all of it's residents. The show was always hard hitting, covering almost every story that you can think of. Some examples from the top of my head include murder, rape, sieges, shootings, incest, affairs, domestic abuse, helicopter crashes and explosions. Who would ever want to live on such an estate with all of these nasty things going on. The close would have surely been on the news all of the time! The hardest hitting story would have to be the Jordache domestic abuse story, in about 1993. Mandy Jordache and her ...  Read the complete review

This was the first soap opera to be shown on channel 4 on the channels first night started back in 1982. The Brookside of the title was the close in Liverpool where all the charcters lived. There was a real mixture of characters -there were the Grants - who were on their way up in life having bought their first non council home, the Yuppies Heather and Roger and the wide boy Gavin with his wife Petra. This series launched the careers of a number of actors who have since become household names, Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston who played Bobby and Sheila Grant, Amanda Burton who played Heather Haversham and Anna Friel who played Beth ...  Read the complete review

On my travels today myself and 2 colleagues were sent to have a look at some houses on a small estate in Croxteth, Liverpool... As I turned onto a quite looking estate I scanned the sign post which simply said 'Brookeside'... as I drove into this avenue I had to park just in front of a small hut, with a barrier crossing the road into what looked like another avenue... I ducked under the pole of a barrier and walked onto the small hidden cul-de-sac without thinking anything about it but to have a look at the buildings on it for our clients... As I walked along the road and turned to face the semi circle of house I suddenly realised where I'd seen this close ...  Read the complete review

I find Brookside to be absolutely impenetrable. It takes long enough to understand what they are saying what with 'Go ead yur divvy' whatever that means but even when you can understand them the storylines are so extreme there is just no credibility. I know its a soap and they have to compress everything into a small location but the amount of things which have happened in the Close are incredible. You have the usual mix of improbable marriages and relationships seemingly only set up so you can see how they fail. Completely implausible situations such as Jimmy Corkhill becoming a teacher and going off his head. There have been gangsters, stalkers, rapes, ...  Read the complete review