Brookside memories

[faginsgirl]

Hi.



I used to love Brookside, the best soap ever IMO.



I remember the Grants and never quite got over Ricky Thomlinson and wife Shiela splitting up lol. A really sad scene was when the police came to tell Shiela that her son Damon had been murdered.



I remember Amanda Burton was in it and I think her husband died young in it if I remember rightly, and of course Trevor Jordash under the patio.



Then there was Jimmy Corkhill lol. I wonder what happened to the actor, he was good!



Anyone else remember any other characters or storylines?



xx

[wellendcanons]

I remember Amanda Burton was seeing millionaire businessman Tom Curzon, played by Brian Stephens. It was while she was preparing to marry him - which never came off - that she met her future husband after accidentally bumping into his car. I can't think of the guy's name but he was also Ken Barlow's brother in "Coronation Street" in an earlier life. He was the one that died. I'm not sure if he committed suicide.



Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnstone were highly entertaining to watch. It's still good to see them now in "The Royle Family". They are great together. I met them once at a Cricket Charity match in 1986 at a little town called Birch Vale, near where I live. It was Brookside v Albion Market. I can't remember who won. I think it may have been Brookside but I can't be certain.



I used to love watching Billy Dean as Harry Cross. He was a grumpy old sod! Yet totally loveable. He had some great scenes.



I agree with you faginsgirl that this has been the best soap of all-time. That is to say, the early "Brookside". I think it went shambolic towards the end. Even when the fantastic Kenneth Cope was in it, the programme had already gone way downhill by then I'm afraid. In it's heyday it was unmissable.



wellendcanons.

[faginsgirl]

name='wellendcanons'] I think it went shambolic towards the end. Even when the fantastic Kenneth Cope was in it, the programme had already gone way downhill by then I'm afraid. In it's heyday it was unmissable.

I agree! Towards the end the actual film quality changed and it looked much cheaper, also, most of the origional actors had left and the new ones wern`t as good, I wouldn`t recognise them again in anything else.



I still remember the theme tune and the shots of Merseyside which were interesting.



xx

[Freddy]

name='wellendcanons'] I can't think of the guy's name but he was also Ken Barlow's brother in "Coronation Street" in an earlier life. He was the one that died. I'm not sure if he committed suicide.

Ken's brother David was killed in a car crash in Australia. He was played by Alan Rothwell. Here he is in a recent 2010 episode of Doctors.

[film1967]

I enjoyed the early days of Brookside. The Grant's, Collins and Gavin & Petra. I think Gavin was the first character to die in the close.



A re-run on some channel would be great.

[Freddy]

You can see nine episodes on 4oD. the very first episode as well as some 'classic' ones.



Brookside - 4oD - Channel 4



Freddy

[faginsgirl]

I remember Terry who had a girlfriend or wife called Sue who had an affair with his best mate Barry Grant. I think that actress is on an ad for washing powder now.



And I wonder what happened to the actress who played Karen Grant?



Sinbad the window cleaner ended up in coronation street.



xx

[wellendcanons]

name='Freddy']Ken's brother David was killed in a car crash in Australia. He was played by Alan Rothwell. Here he is in a recent 2010 episode of Doctors.

Alan Rothwell, of course. Thanks for that Freddy.



wellendcanons.

[wellendcanons]

Did Alexandra Pigg play Petra? I couldn't get Channel 4 in my region until 1985, so I missed the first 3 years. I remember the actress Doreen Sloane who played Annabelle Collins. Tragically she died in April 1990 of cancer.



wellendcanons.

[paul revere]

Alexandra Pigg of Letter To Brezhnev fame did indeed play Petra, married to Gavin, the man who liked to store cookers in his front garden. She was also in a classic episode of Tickets For the Titanic in which she starred alongside Warren Mitchell. The last time I recall seeing her was briefly in Making Out.



In it's heyday, the Brookie was untouchable and it made stars of the likes of Amanda Burton, Sue Johnston, John McArdle and Anna Friel. Many other stars, past and present, popped up on the close; Ian Hendry, Brian Murphy, Norman Eshley, Christian Rodska, David Yip, Christopher Blake, Stephen McGann, Bryan Murray and Mary Tamm to name but a few.



Brookside also spawned two spin-off shows, Damon and Debbie and the lesser-known South and back in the late 1980s it would have been hard to imagine it's rapid and tragic decline which C4 did it's best to bring about.



Someone mentioned the actress who played Karen Grant. I believe Shelagh O'Hara gave up acting.

[frame69]

I remember a very nice mk1 cortina on someones drive

Frame.

[Dave Rattigan]

name='faginsgirl']Then there was Jimmy Corkhill lol. I wonder what happened to the actor, he was good!

Dean Sullivan. I'm sure he's still acting, and he's definitely still around Liverpool, as I said hello to him a couple years ago when he was supporting a community project I was involved with. He's very supportive of local projects, especially on the LGBT scene and arts scene.

[Mark O]

name='frame69']I remember a very nice mk1 cortina on someones drive

Frame.

So do I, a maroon one, can't recall the name of the family that had it though, I did watch Brookside when it first started, I liked Katrin Cartlidge, then up to the 'body under the patio' storyline which was very gripping and then just stopped watching it, I think it was Jacqi Stephens who does the TV reviews for the Mail weekend magazine who became obsessed about the 'erm' girl, who kept saying erm before every line, like she was obsessed with Sally's 'us beans for us tea' on Corrie!



The camp hairdresser played by Sam Kane was a laugh also, he struck up a friendship with gossipy Julia Brogan.

[cully]

How can you Brookside fans mention the show and.....forget Claire Sweeney??!!

[faginsgirl]

name='cully']How can you Brookside fans mention the show and.....forget Claire Sweeney??!!

Really good actress, its a shame she hasn`t been in a lot more t.v stuff, but the last time I saw her was in a home improvement series



xx

[didi-5]

I loved Brookside - the early years with the Grants, the feud between the Corkhills and the Dixons, even the silly later years with the irritating Farnham kids who died in a car crash, and of course 'Bing' Crosbie. It is surprising how many of the cast seemed to disappear once the show finished.



Claire Sweeney and Anna Friel have of course gone from strength to strength, but what about the actors who played Bev and Jacqui Dixon? Louis Emerick who played Mick became one of the inept policemen in Last of the Summer Wine, while Steven Pinder who was Max Farnham does a lot of stage work.

[Mervyn]

Yes, Brookside WAS a good soap in the early years. Quite apart from the often gripping, believeable and mostly humourous storylines, there were so many genuinely good actors and characters in it that it easily outclassed the other soaps in my opinion.



That said, although he might well have been a nice guy, Terry's (to me at least) improbable success with the ladies (including the beautiful Kazia Pelka, later in Heartbeat) was always annoyingly incomprehensible to me - and yes, I resisted the permed hair and tache look :)



As for remembered storylines, well I've forgotten them for the most part (though the body under the patio one is remembered by everyone I'm sure), but didn't Barry Grant run a club for a hood at one time?

[Mark O]

name='Mervyn']Yes, Brookside WAS a good soap in the early years. Quite apart from the often gripping, believeable and mostly humourous storylines, there were so many genuinely good actors and characters in it that it easily outclassed the other soaps in my opinion.



That said, although he might well have been a nice guy, Terry's improbable success with the ladies (including the beautiful Kazia Pelka, later in Heartbeat) was always annoyingly incomprehensible to me - and yes, I resisted the permed hair and tache look :)

Thanks for the reminder about Kazia Pelka, I recall reading that during the Gulf war it was she who was the most popular pin-up amongst 'our boys'.



I also recall the 'Prostitute' story-line, one car pulled up at the kerbside, she leant down to the window and said 'looking for business?', the potential client looked totally repulsive!



I'm trying to think of the name of the young actress who played the 'Mistress' of the local prostitutes, post Brookside she appeared on the revival of 'Houseparty' (the southern england women who pretended they were ordinary, but were professional business women in the main, once on the show they had a Nun, Sister Immaculata)



I also recall her in an 'entrapment' type consumer programme, she had broken down in her car, a camera was fixed in the engine bay to see what the reaction of any 'Knights in shining armour' would be, one 'Knight' said "there's a camera down there"!



I can see her face, brown hair and an estuary english type accent, similar to Saffron Burrows speak but not quite so droney.



http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...8519821&v=wall

[Freddy]

name='Mervyn']Yes, Brookside WAS a good soap in the early years. Quite apart from the often gripping, believeable and mostly humourous storylines, there were so many genuinely good actors and characters in it that it easily outclassed the other soaps in my opinion.



That said, although he might well have been a nice guy, Terry's (to me at least) improbable success with the ladies (including the beautiful Kazia Pelka, later in Heartbeat) was always annoyingly incomprehensible to me - and yes, I resisted the permed hair and tache look :)



As for remembered storylines, well I've forgotten them for the most part (though the body under the patio one is remembered by everyone I'm sure), but didn't Barry Grant run a club for a hood at one time?

Wasn't Terry the role model for Harry Enfield's Scouser 'calm down, calm down'?



Also Paul Usher's Barry Grant character could well have been the inspiration for the Eastenders Mitchell Brothers, violent and aggressive son with criminal leanings, fond of his mum.

[George Bailey]

Eithne Browne ... Chrissy Rogers (33 episodes, 1987-1991)

Simon O'Brien ... Damon Grant (14 episodes, 1982-1987)

Dean Sullivan ... Jimmy Corkhill (56 episodes, 1985-2003)

Suzanne Collins ... Nikki Shadwick (6 episodes, 1998-2003)



Simon O'Brien was working on Radio Merseyside but a slip of the tongue meant he had to resign. He now works for another radio station.



Eithne Browne does much work in the local theatre in Liverpool as does Suzanne Collins who also runs a youth theatre.



Dean Sullivan is also involved in various things on Merseyside.