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Brookside - 2003

hello.memberhello.member Posts: 7,635
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in Soaps #1
I've been watching some old episodes of Brookside on youtube from when it had lost its prime time slot and moved to one weekly 90 minute episode. I never realised just how little was going on in its final year. For some reason most of these episodes just seem to focus on one family or a select few characters, and whatever story was going on with said family that week was usually wrapped up by the end of the episode and then the next week the same formula was repeated with another family and so on. It was a stupid way of storytelling, there was no real continuing plots or character interaction between the neighbours anymore. I suppose in hindsight it was written this way because the show was coming to an end, but I dunno it just feels so.. nothingy. You can really tell they couldn't be bothered making an effort with the show once the axe had been announced, which is understandable in a way I suppose.

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,770
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    #2
    I'd given up on it by the end, one of the last stories I remember was the little religious lad Anthony killing the girl who bullied him at school
  • dazza89dazza89 Posts: 13,909
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    #3
    If I recall C4 moved Brookside off the weeknight schedules without much warning and just before the big revamp that Phil Redmond had been planning was about to air with a massive plane crash on the Parade so when the show moved to just Saturdays afternoons for 90 minutes it was still 3 episodes together stuck together much like the omnibus was. I'm sure though C4 hadn't officially axed it by that point and I remember Redmond saying when they moved to a late night slot that it would give the show an opportunity to return to the days when they could use more risk language and by having the 90 minutes they could tell the stories in a different way. I do agree though the final few months were a sad state of affairs for the show, the fact the last episode only briefly featured the likes of Bev and Ron was a disgrace, I cannot even remember what happened to the likes of Jacqui Dixon, Katie, Rachel or Mike by the end. C4 treated it disgracefully, Brookie was a great soap with many fantastic stories over the years.
  • flbkabflbkab Posts: 8,804
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    #4
    dazza89 wrote: »
    If I recall C4 moved Brookside off the weeknight schedules without much warning and just before the big revamp that Phil Redmond had been planning was about to air with a massive plane crash on the Parade so when the show moved to just Saturdays afternoons for 90 minutes it was still 3 episodes together stuck together much like the omnibus was. I'm sure though C4 hadn't officially axed it by that point and I remember Redmond saying when they moved to a late night slot that it would give the show an opportunity to return to the days when they could use more risk language and by having the 90 minutes they could tell the stories in a different way. I do agree though the final few months were a sad state of affairs for the show, the fact the last episode only briefly featured the likes of Bev and Ron was a disgrace, I cannot even remember what happened to the likes of Jacqui Dixon, Katie, Rachel or Mike by the end. C4 treated it disgracefully, Brookie was a great soap with many fantastic stories over the years.

    I've also been re-watching the episodes on youtube and from what I've seen (and remember from the time) none of those characters got a proper exit, which is a shame given how they'd all been in the show for a long time.

    Mike and Rachel moved away from the close several months before the show ended but still appeared in the show regularly. They were last seen in hospital just after Rachel had given birth to their second child.

    Jacqui and Max didn't get an on-screen exit. It was mentioned by Ron in passing that they'd moved away. Jacqui still popped back every now and again and was last seen as Bev and Ron's wedding.

    Katie and Sammy also just disappeared a few weeks before the show ended. Katie was going to marry her boyfriend and then they were going to move away from the close with baby Sophie. Sammy was going to move into a bedsit but managed to persuade Katie to let her stay with her whilst she found somewhere better to live. That was the last we saw of them.
  • flbkabflbkab Posts: 8,804
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    #5
    dazza89 wrote: »
    If I recall C4 moved Brookside off the weeknight schedules without much warning and just before the big revamp that Phil Redmond had been planning was about to air with a massive plane crash on the Parade so when the show moved to just Saturdays afternoons for 90 minutes it was still 3 episodes together stuck together much like the omnibus was. I'm sure though C4 hadn't officially axed it by that point and I remember Redmond saying when they moved to a late night slot that it would give the show an opportunity to return to the days when they could use more risk language and by having the 90 minutes they could tell the stories in a different way. I do agree though the final few months were a sad state of affairs for the show, the fact the last episode only briefly featured the likes of Bev and Ron was a disgrace, I cannot even remember what happened to the likes of Jacqui Dixon, Katie, Rachel or Mike by the end. C4 treated it disgracefully, Brookie was a great soap with many fantastic stories over the years.

    I've also been re-watching the episodes on youtube and from what I've seen (and remember from the time) none of those characters got a proper exit, which is a shame given how they'd all been in the show for a long time.

    Mike and Rachel moved away from the close several months before the show ended but still appeared in the show regularly. They were last seen in hospital just after Rachel had given birth to their second child.

    Jacqui and Max didn't get an on-screen exit. It was mentioned by Ron in passing that they'd moved away. Jacqui still popped back every now and again and was last seen at Bev and Ron's wedding, mentioning every 5 minutes that "Max was on his way".

    Katie and Sammy also just disappeared a few weeks before the show ended. Katie was going to marry her boyfriend and then they were going to move away from the close with baby Sophie. Sammy was going to move into a bedsit but managed to persuade Katie to let her stay with her whilst she found somewhere better to live. That was the last we saw of them.
  • performingmonkperformingmonk Posts: 20,086
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    #6
    It was pretty obvious that many of the cast had either left or simply couldn't be re-hired for more episodes due to the show being axed. Personally I enjoyed watching those last few weeks, particularly the last episode which featured surely one of the darkest storylines in soap history.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,348
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    #7
    flbkab wrote: »
    I've also been re-watching the episodes on youtube and from what I've seen (and remember from the time) none of those characters got a proper exit, which is a shame given how they'd all been in the show for a long time.

    Mike and Rachel moved away from the close several months before the show ended but still appeared in the show regularly. They were last seen in hospital just after Rachel had given birth to their second child.

    Jacqui and Max didn't get an on-screen exit. It was mentioned by Ron in passing that they'd moved away. Jacqui still popped back every now and again and was last seen at Bev and Ron's wedding, mentioning every 5 minutes that "Max was on his way".

    Katie and Sammy also just disappeared a few weeks before the show ended. Katie was going to marry her boyfriend and then they were going to move away from the close with baby Sophie. Sammy was going to move into a bedsit but managed to persuade Katie to let her stay with her whilst she found somewhere better to live. That was the last we saw of them.



    Posted twice here, lol.
  • babeloguebabelogue Posts: 1,008
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    #8
    I started watching Brookside in 94, so I'm probably in a minority here, but I really enjoyed it all the way from 94 to 03 ( bar the Lindsey Corkhill gangster crap). I particularly liked Katie Rogers grieving for her boyfriend who Ron shot - if I remember rightly it played out over two years, very realistic in terms of grieving, she didn't just get over it in six weeks as per the other soaps.
  • gboygboy Posts: 4,989
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    #9
    I recently watched an episode from 1984 - Sheila and Marie brawling in the Close. Brilliant!

    Brookside at its very best.

    By 2003 it had pretty much run out of steam. I remember Steven Pinder (Max) saying that his character just disappeared without being given a proper exit.
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