I remember a scene when Bethany and someone else were looking through a photo album and pointed at a photo and said: "Is that my grandad?". That could have been around the birth of Harry as Harlowe mentioned.

I thought it was a bad mistake killing off Brian Tilsley back in 1989. It would have been great had they left the door open for him to return someday as Chris Quinten is a great actor. Would have been brilliant to see him return now for instance nearly 30 years later since his departure from the cobbles

Really?

To me he's wooden, monotonous and frankly quite terrible. Luckily for him he was always propped up by the far superior Helen Worth, the sublime Lynne Perrie and to a lesser extent Sue Nicholls. He's certainly high up the list of one of Corrie's worst actors for me ...

Ben Price is definitely good casting as Brian's son,in that case. His acting makes me cringe at the best of times- but he's spectacularly awful whenever he has anything dramatic to do,such as the current brain injury story.

Different opinions and all that, but I'm always surprised when people say it was a mistake for Brian to be killed off. His death fuelled Gail and Ivy's character development for the next few years, and Christopher Quinten was no great loss as an actor. Frankly he was lucky to have lasted as long as he did. He was clearly cast for his looks and stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise excellent cast. Gail quickly outgrew Brian and once they had Nicky and Sarah Louise, he was surplus to requirements. The writers were treading water with the Tilsleys in the late 1980s and a change was desperately needed.

100000% agree.

It depends what you want from an actor. I thought he delivered the (fairly broad brush-stroked) character of Brian perfectly adequately. Whether he could take on the likes of Sir Ian McKellen in Shakespeare is another matter...

True. Acting is subjective as we all know. I guess you're right that in his day-to-day scenes Chris played Brian adequately it was when he needed to be stretched that

I always remember Gail and Brain's last scene together (where they argued viciously about their crumbling marriage) as a perfect demonstration of how different Helen Worth and Chris Quinten were as actors. Chris just couldn't handle the dramatic stuff, especially alongside Helen Worth going full throttle.

He was definitely the weakest link in the otherwise superb cast of the late 70s to the mid 80s. But,he was generally competent enough in what he was required to do. Such a pity that the current writers and producers are not utilising Helen Worth's dramatic talents- she was top notch during that era. I can't imagine what Brian and Ivy would make of the dotty Gail of today.

Oh To think of all the times that Gail locked horns with the formidable Ivy! The wet fart that is Gail in 2016 would be eaten alive by Mavis, never mind Ivy!

As much as I love the Platts the writing for Gail is a joke.

It would only have been shocking if Chris Quinten had suddenly started acting.

I couldn't agree more with your post.

If my memory serves me right, Gail told Brian quite early on in her pregnancy with Sarah that he might not be the father - and from that point onwards Brian was quite callous about "the kid", adamant that it was not his and that he wanted nothing to do with "it" or Gail. He actually told Gail that if she wanted them to stay together she would have to abort the baby, which she refused - leading to a memorable scene between Gail and Audrey on a park bench where Gail was telling Audrey that she was going to make it through as a single Mum however hard it might be (Helen Worth cited this as her favourite Gail scene for many years). Ian the other potential father proved more supportive during the pregnancy (after being informed of it by Audrey) but promptly upped sticks back to Oz once baby Sarah Lou's blood group proved he wasn't the father. Gail chose to keep this information to herself so for the first few months of Sarah Lou's life, Brian was completely uninvolved and still refusing to have anything to do with Gail or the baby. It was only through Ivy's dog-with-a-bone-like insistence that Sarah Lou must be Brian's and that Gail, Brian and the kids should remain together a a family that it was eventually revealed to Brian that he was indeed the father. Even after that he was not massively involved until some business about Brian trying to kidnap Nicky led to Gail and Brian getting back together and Brian finally being a father to both children.

So yes Brian never had the same connection with Sarah Lou that he had with Nicky; this was echoed in his final scenes with Gail where he yelled at her, "You're not taking my son!", with no mention of his daughter. Sarah in reality would have no memories of Brian to pass onto Bethany; the only father figure she knew was Martin (as opposed to Nicky who did remember Brian). The fact that Martin, who was always a good father and massively supportive of all three kids, has been erased from their lives and rarely mentioned in the last 10 years makes no sense outside of the offscreen reality that the actor left on bad terms with the producers, but that's another story.

Ivy on the other hand was always determined to be involved with Sarah Lou, whether she was Brian's or not (though she was always adamant that she was) - she was the one waiting anxiously in the hospital waiting room when Gail was in labour, and thereonwards constantly pushing to prove that Sarah Lou was Brian's and to get Gail and Brian back together. She even baptised Sarah Lou in secret at her first birthday party!!


And yet it sparked a huge debate at the time about violence on TV - how times have changed since!

What fascinates me is that the last chapter of Gail and Brian's marriage was really carried by Gail and Ivy. I guess Chris had taken time out to start setting up his new life in the States and only came back to film his swansong, but as a result we got some really powerful Lynne Perrie/Helen Worth scenes where Ivy wore Gail down into admitting that she didn't love Brian any more, breaking poor Ivy's heart. And yes, Chris was never going to win any acting awards but he was adequate for the part he played and I really enjoyed the very well-written final Gail and Brian scenes where they thrashed out the state of their crumbling marriage.

Timing wise, Chris couldn't have picked a better moment to ask for time out (from a dramatic perspective rather than his own perspective obviously). The Tilsleys had been the dramatic backbone of the show throughout the 80s, and wonderfully believable, helped by the in-laws Ivy, Bert, Audrey and Alf - yet times were changing, the show was going new places, and Gail had already been outgrowing Brian as a strong, independent character in her own right for some time. The timing just clicked and paved the way for the creation of the Platts, who would become a major part of the show's dramatic backbone for the next ten years.

I always found that there was a very interesting symettry in the recruitment several years later of Adam Rickett to play Brian's son on the same basis as Chris Quentin had been recruited (looks over acting talent), and then having him play out a 90s take on Ivy/Brian/Gail in the form of Gail/Nick/Leanne.

As most of us agree Chris wasn't the greatest actor. But,his performance style often suited the quite taciturn,rather spoilt,sometimes petulant character that Brian was.

Found this great little video here about Gail and Ivy's relationship:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ1wsn2tY58

Never see this before.

Also this picture taken at Lynne Perrie's funeral in 2006 ...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Kv7G3flO_d...09B_55986a.jpg

What Gail and Brain might look like today

I enjoyed Brian - I still rate him as Gail's husband

And Gail was awful to Brian before he left - telling him she didn't love him..

Nice to see them reunited KornerKabin,albeit under sad circumstances.

Broad shoulder. I agree. Gail could be pretty unsympathetic,far more so than most regular characters during that era. She was the one who had the affair,yet she was pretty horrible to Brian. Likewise,she was often very unkind and insensitive to Ivy,particularly after Brian's death.

Doesn't Quinten have a blink-or-you'll-miss-it cameo as a "heavy" (possibly uncredited) in a Hollywood film of the '80s, or have I imagined that?

Robocop springs to mind, or it might even be Die Hard...

I would also like to mention the magnificent performance Lynne Perrie gave in the scene where Ivy is told that Brian is dead. You really feel her whole world collapse with those words. Poor Alf had the job of breaking the news to her and Don.

It's heartbreaking, especially as she crumbles down on the stairs and wails 'not my little lad'

I always had a soft spot for Ivy. She became such a cold, bitter woman in the 90s but she did have good reason, having lost her only son. When Gail re-married to Martin and they had David together and Martin adopted Nick and Sarah they became a nuclear family which Ivy wasn't part of. I recall her being devastated when Nick started calling Martin Dad. Neither Gail nor Martin intentionally pushed her out and Martin was a good dad to the kids but Ivy never really saw it like that. Somewhat hypocritical of her considering she re-married to Don after her first husbands death but it was understandable and a rather real life situation, but she never forgave Gail for replacing her beloved Brian.

I didn't like what they did to her character in the final years. She'd been a fantastic character- very real and multi layered. Yes,she could be bossy and tactless and interfering. But,she was essentially a decent woman- a good wife,mum,friend and neighbour and even a laugh at times. But towards the end,as the show started to become more melodramatic,she was turned into a caricature. Still well played,but not really true to the full character she'd been. Don was hardly the perfect husband,and Gail was not always the most sympathetic either. Yet,Ivy was always cast as the one in the wrong. A sad end for such a good character.

Why would they think a photo of someone who was, at the most, 30 might be their grandad?