TV classics - Brookside

By Jason Wright (Entertainment Expert)

BROOKSIDE was a soap opera that whether you loved it or hated it, it just couldn’t be ignored.  Set in Brookside Close, a fictional cul-de-sac of houses in Liverpool, it launched in November 1982, along with the arrival a brand new terrestrial channel, Channel 4.

     In its early years, it was seen as a cheap, heartless version of Coronation Street, the only other prime-time soap at the time of its launch.  It was also heavily criticised by the Mersey public itself because they felt it was a distasteful portrayal of average scouse life.  However, creator Phil Redmond vowed to win over the critics and started doing what ITV couldn’t; browsing through the real-life stories with the aim of incorporating them into Brookie in some way.  It worked and the show’s ratings went through the roof.  Brookside helped launched the careers of many actors and actresses including Ricky Tomlinson, Amanda Burton, Paul Usher, Claire Sweeney, Anna Friel and Barry Sloane.

     By 1990, with ratings increasing to over seven million, the show was rewarded with an extra episode and an extension in the set was made with the arrival of Brookside Parade.  This allowed room for an extra restaurant, a bar and in a first for British soap, a petrol station on the promenade.

STAR: Anna Friel's career took off with some juicy storylines on the Close

     February 1993 brought a change of direction in Brookside with its most famous plot in history.  The troubled Jordache family changed forever when Beth (Anna Friel) stabbed abusing dad Trevor (Bryan Murray) when attacking his wife Mandy (Sandra Maitland).  In an act of defiance, they buried his body underneath their patio and it wasn’t until little less than two years later when it was dug up.  Mandy and Beth were jailed for life and the viewing figures struck 10 million for the first (and perhaps only) time in history.  The complex plotline also brought along Britain’s first pre-watershed lesbian kiss between Beth and family friend Margaret Clemence (Nicola Stephenson) in January 1994.  With that, along with often scenes of drug abuse, alcohol addiction and grudges, many formed by perhaps Brookie’s most-known character, Jimmy Corkhill (Dean Sullivan), the soap was able to deal with hard-hitting issues in a unique way and receive critical acclaim for it.

     Phil Redmond quit the soap in 1998, to focus more on building up potential on the recently-launched Hollyoaks.  His final produced scenes centred on Brookside Parade being blown up in a gas leak, but it turned into an anti-climax with no loss of life.  The departure of Redmond was another hammer blow for the show as it had been rated by experts as having become too dramatic and intense for pre-watershed airing.  A new production team aimed to try and stem the recent flow of tough storylines but the plan instead went in the opposite direction.

     By 2000, the soap was in crisis.  Channel 4 persuaded Redmond to come back and offer Brookie a much needed lifeline.  For its 20th anniversary, Redmond decided that a fortnight-long siege plot would hopefully drum up the much-needed support.  The episodes were somewhat explosive and distressing to say the least with every cast member held captive in their own houses by escaped convict Terry ‘Psycho’ Gibson and his henchman.  It was mass carnage with two people being killed (one being pushed through a window!), two raped and others being beaten up.  The shocking events culminated with Gibson, having finally been trapped by armed police, using a machine gun to strike down a police helicopter.  It crashed into the petrol station, engulfing Brookside in a massive fireball, and claiming the life of another innocent victim.

     Needless to say, the plot failed miserably.  Though it did record the best ratings in a while (2 million compared the norm then of around 500,000), it came under attack by critics for the way it had been handled.  There are far too many similarities with the far more successful plane crash in Emmerdale in 1993.  Regulator at the time, ITC (Independent Television Commission) received thousands of complaints from viewers who had been left traumatised and physically unwell by the horrific episodes.

     With no alternatives left, Channel 4 threw in the towel and cancelled the show.  Redmond expressed his disappointment by saying: “It happens.  Life must move on and we all have to come to terms with that.”  First, Brookside was scaled down into a Saturday omnibus show, before moving in mid-2003 into a late night midnight/1am programme.

     The soap bowed out with little fanfare or mention in November 2003.  It fell to Jimmy Corkhill to utter the last words and paint a D on the street sign to read BROOKSIDE CLOSED!  Brookie’s demise was Hollyoaks gain, as a week after Brookie’s swansong, the Chester-based soap went into a weekly format, slowly starting its transition into top-quality soap.

DEMISE: Brookside got the chop from the TV schedules in 2003

     Brookside however will live on as an innovative soap to many people and is still mentioned of today.  It’s difficult to say whether it would have survived another few years than what it got if it hadn’t taken a wrong turn in direction but whatever the case, the writing was on wall already when Redmond tried to rescue the show from oblivion.  The legacy of the close will remain for years to come.