God I miss Brookside from the old days. It really did reflect real life, it was proper kitchen sink drama.
I grew up on an almost identical new housing estate, built by the same developer that built Brookside Close and have always felt a huge affinity to the show, especially when my mum used to call our neighbours by the names of characters from Brookie
'oooh look Ron Dixons taking that bloody dog out for a walk AGAIN' haha.
God I miss Brookside from the old days. It really did reflect real life, it was proper kitchen sink drama.
I grew up on an almost identical new housing estate, built by the same developer that built Brookside Close and have always felt a huge affinity to the show, especially when my mum used to call our neighbours by the names of characters from Brookie
'oooh look Ron Dixons taking that bloody dog out for a walk AGAIN' haha.
I'd love to move into one of the Brookie houses, No.8 was on Zoopla last year & it looked really nice on the inside!
The show was obsessed with Heroin....it featured through out it's history
To be fair, heroin was a massive issue in the working class regions of most northern towns and cities throughout the 80s and 90s. I can remember being told to be careful if I saw any 'smack heads' when I went out to play, they'd nick your bike as soon as look at you! And I grew up on a pretty nice estate!!!!
I think the best thing about Brookside was it was more easy to identify with as as true to life as it could be - but at times with the humour of Corrie at its best.
Brookside was always cast as 'the thinking man's soap'.
Corrie was hilarious in the early 90's - the best TV sitcom ever!
EastEnders was fantastic under Julia Smith when the show first launched, but completely lost its way after she left. It found itself again in the early 90's - about 93 to 97 - when the Jacksons and David Wicks introduced a whole new foundation for the Square. Since then its wobbled along pretending to be great but really being a shadow of its former self.
I really feel sorry for people who missed out on the glory days of soap. The danger is they will be the TV producers of the future and will base their quality expectations on shows like Hollyoaks. God help us!
Both were very Left Wing/anti-Thatcher. But then it was the 1980s and there were two very clear camps. I often felt EastEnders was a bit OTT in that respect. Things like Mary living in a damp bedsit, whilst in reality many people were moaning about lone parents getting nice flats and houses was odd. I never came across anyone in Mary's situation. And the fact that the Square was so dilapidated when gentrification was in full swing in the East End was also strange. Brookside did attempt to balance things a bit with nice yuppie Heather and posh Paul and Annabelle who were very human and could be very likeable. But both serials were compelling dramas back then.
Comments
BIB - In your opinion. I enjoyed Corrie in the 'olden days'..
Loved Brookside.
You can keep your grittiness - I'll take Corrie, with its wit, humour and brilliant character writing any day of the week.
It didn't capture real life... It was quite twee until Brian Park came along
For about a year before 1997 maybe... certainly not in the mid-80s!
I grew up on an almost identical new housing estate, built by the same developer that built Brookside Close and have always felt a huge affinity to the show, especially when my mum used to call our neighbours by the names of characters from Brookie
'oooh look Ron Dixons taking that bloody dog out for a walk AGAIN' haha.
I've since visited it loads and loved it
I'd love to move into one of the Brookie houses, No.8 was on Zoopla last year & it looked really nice on the inside!
To be fair, heroin was a massive issue in the working class regions of most northern towns and cities throughout the 80s and 90s. I can remember being told to be careful if I saw any 'smack heads' when I went out to play, they'd nick your bike as soon as look at you! And I grew up on a pretty nice estate!!!!
Agreed.
I think the best thing about Brookside was it was more easy to identify with as as true to life as it could be - but at times with the humour of Corrie at its best.
But with a higher turnover especially towards the end
Corrie was hilarious in the early 90's - the best TV sitcom ever!
EastEnders was fantastic under Julia Smith when the show first launched, but completely lost its way after she left. It found itself again in the early 90's - about 93 to 97 - when the Jacksons and David Wicks introduced a whole new foundation for the Square. Since then its wobbled along pretending to be great but really being a shadow of its former self.
I really feel sorry for people who missed out on the glory days of soap. The danger is they will be the TV producers of the future and will base their quality expectations on shows like Hollyoaks. God help us!