Brookside exploded onto British TV screens on 2 November 1982 – the day the new network, Channel 4, began transmitting. The resulting blast changed British soap operas forever.
Phil Redmond (pictured below) was the man behind Brookside (he had also created Grange Hill). Shunning Coronation Street techniques, forgetting studios and plywood houses, Redmond bought a set of newly built houses in a cul-de-sac in the Croxteth area of Liverpool, installing the latest TV equipment in them.
He wanted realism and got it. Real people also lived in Brookside Close (divided from the soap opera people by a barrier and security men). Only the post box was fake.
But Redmond’s fictional characters were too real for comfort. They spoke unashamedly in thick Liverpool accents. The kids were obsessed with sex and had respect for nothing. and they swore. They said everything you’ve ever heard and more. Viewers turned off in droves.
Shortly after launch, Brookside faced its smallest audience with just 250,000 viewers. Redmond changed direction. The swearing stopped (sort of), in came a few comic characters and ‘Brookie’ became a bona fide soap opera. Brookside was here. It was a Monday, Tuesday and Saturday Omnibus institution. Ratings rose.
Every sort of despair seemed to be there.
Unemployment was its constant backdrop. Contraception, AIDS, loss of virginity, rape, homosexuality, drug addiction, prostitution – all were subjects discussed over breakfast in Brookside Close.
And yes, it did feel more realistic for being shot through a hand-held camera on real driveways and through the windows of proper homes with lavatories, dustbins and cornflake packets on the table.
One crucial difference between the Brookside of the 1980s and other British soaps was the lack of a central community meeting point, such as a pub or corner shop, forcing characters to interact either on the close itself or in scenes shot on location in and around Liverpool.
However, the addition of a shopping development to the set in later seasons led to more traditional interactions over the counter of a pizza parlor, or in the nearby hair salon, medical centre, petrol station, bar, or nightclub.
The writing style was low-key, but the action was often fast and furious. Only once did they resort to absurd melodrama, with a ludicrous siege complete with gunman and double death. It put ratings up over 8 million.
Many of the main changes in Brookside were symbolised by the fate of the Grant family.
Moving onto the close at the start of the series, the Grants symbolised the expansion in working-class property ownership encouraged by the Conservative governments of the 1980s.
Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson), a trade unionist with a fierce attachment to socialist rhetoric, suffered unemployment: Damon Grant (Simon O’Brien) was murdered (with the death filmed as part of a Brookside spin-off titled Damon and Debbie, a format copied by Granada’s Coronation Street): Karen Grant left home to study at university, and Sheila Grant (Sue Johnston) left Bobby, symbolising the breakdown of the traditional post-World War II family unit.
Barry Grant (Paul Usher) gradually developed into a ruthlessly competitive young entrepreneur, encouraged by the boom-bust cycle of the British economy during the 1980s and 1990s. He continued with the series into the 1990s but gradually disappeared after murdering the wife and child of his lifelong best friend, Terry Sullivan.
The cast were local heroes, mobbed and feted in Liverpool wherever they went. In 1985, fireman George Jackson (Cliff Howells) was put away after being framed for a warehouse robbery. Brookside fans daubed ‘Jackson is Innocent’ and ‘ Free George Jackson’ slogans throughout Liverpool.
At Mersey Television in England, it was widely believed that if the soap were to be shown on the main ITV network rather than Channel 4, it would be near the top of the ratings and be a serious challenge to Coronation Street and even to EastEnders (the soap they claim to have inspired).
After a long and successful run, Brookside was eventually axed due to dwindling ratings and the last episode was broadcast on 4 November 2003 after 21 years on the air.
In 2005,the cul-de-sac was sold off to developers who gutted all 13 houses and rebuilt each interior, putting them on the market in January 2007. The cheapest were numbers 7 and 8, which sold for a remarkably low £199,000. The most expensive was No 10 – also the most famous of the houses – which sold for £295,000.
Sheila Grant
Sue Johnston
Bobby Grant
Ricky Tomlinson Barry Grant Paul Usher Damon Grant Simon O’Brien Karen Grant Shelagh O’Hara Annabelle Collins
Doreen Sloan
Paul Collins
Jim Wiggins Gordon Collins
Nigel Crowley Lucy Collins
Katrin Cartlidge Carl Banks
Stephen Donald Eddie Banks
Paul Broughton Rosie Banks
Susan Twist Sarah Banks
Andrea Marshall
Billy Corkhill
John McArdle Jackie Corkhill Sue Jenkins Jimmy Corkhill Dean Sullivan David Crosbie
John Burgess Jean Crosbie
Marcia Ashton DD Dixon
Irene Morot Mike Dixon
Paul Byatt Ron Dixon
Vince Earl Harry Cross
Bill Dean
Petra Taylor
Alexandra Pigg
George Jackson
Cliff Howells
Alan Partridge
Dicken Ashworth
Laura
Jane Cunliffe
Johnathan
Steve Pinner
Glossary
Antwacky : Old-fashioned (“them kecks are dead antwacky”) Bevvied : Drunk Bizzies : The police Cabbaged : Confused Divvy : Idiot Jacks : Detectives Jangling : Gossipping Kecks : Trousers Minted : Rich, well-off Off your cake : Mad Scran : Food Wooly Backs : Northerners who do not live in Liverpool
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Every sort of despair seemed to be there.
Bobby Grant (Ricky Tomlinson), a trade unionist with a fierce attachment to socialist rhetoric, suffered unemployment: Damon Grant (Simon O’Brien) was murdered (with the death filmed as part of a Brookside spin-off titled Damon and Debbie, a format copied by Granada’s Coronation Street): Karen Grant left home to study at university, and Sheila Grant (Sue Johnston) left Bobby, symbolising the breakdown of the traditional post-World War II family unit.
