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Could Brookside have been saved?


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Old 25-11-2005, 14:54
SparkleBabe
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I still maintain that Brookie was treated appallingly by C4 and could have been saved if there had been a clear out of all the deadwood characters that had run out of steam like Mike, Rachel, Ron, Bev, Jackie, Max. Basically everyone bar Jimmy, Tim, Emily and Sinbad. Brookie was full of pointless characters that had past their sell by date, had they been in Corrie or Eastenders they probably would have been axed. But for some reason the producers saved them, also it went completley weird before it finished. I can't explain it but the feel of the show changed and it was like some obscure drama towards the end.
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Old 25-11-2005, 14:55
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IT could have been saved! I used to watch it - When it went to Sat nights i couldn't watch it anymore.. It is STILL very popular - how about a comeback and on at a good time on a weeknight.. I would love that!
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:03
MaxCherry
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BBB

BringBackBrookie

It could have been saved but they were more interested in promoting Hollyoaks
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:06
SparkleBabe
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Originally Posted by MaxCherry
BBB


It could have been saved but they were more interested in promoting Hollyoaks
Grrrr Hollyoaks is aload of Jouvenile rubbish! Brookie was a proper grown up soap aimed at those over the age of 12!
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:14
Soap Drama
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They should have brought Katrin Cartlidge back.
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:24
SecretLifeoBees
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I believe it could have been saved. I blame Channel 4 for the way they moved it's times around so much no one was ever really sure when it was on. I think once that happened and it then got moved to the Saturday afternoon and then axed from that to the 2 hour episode once a week (or whatever it was) even the people at Mersey TV got disheartened and couldn't be bothered any more, which is understandable in a way. It's a shame though because Brookie was a little bit different from the others. I would love for one of the channels to decide to do reruns.

Loved the Brookie reunion on Holby last week. Tinhead, Daddy Shaddy and Victoria all in a few scenes together

Also I enjoy Hollyoaks it is nowhere near the great standard that Brookside once was.
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:29
ChrisFLover86
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Yes i think Brookside could of been saved bring back Brookside!!!! Brookside was the best soap on tv.
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:36
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I seem to remember Sky One showing old episodes of Brookie from around the early 90's during the day about three years ago. But they seemed to stop all of a sudden.
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Old 25-11-2005, 15:51
Live82005
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I think Channel 4 did treat the show appalingly, that's not to say the show hadn't lost it's way near the end. But I remember in an interview Phil Redmond said he he had shown Channel 4 his plans for Brookside but they wouldn't listen. They were obviously more interested in making more airtime for Big Brother and what not!
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Old 25-11-2005, 16:00
The_Irish_Rover
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OF course it could have,I just think that they were pushed into giving up too easily,The way channel 4 ****ed around with its timeslots was the killer.

It wasnt even to do with storyline shortage.Soaps now a days seem to be able to come up with and repeating storylines out of no where.

Channel 4 totally screwed Redmond over.

Claire Sweeney was a big part of that soap in my opinion.And the evil boyfriends were excellent,I'll never forget the scene where she collects the gun in a toilet stall to threatened the ginger fella.and she does it in the car,****ing brilliant
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Old 25-11-2005, 16:06
kymbal
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Originally Posted by Soap Drama
They should have brought Katrin Cartlidge back.
... for Brookside Most Haunted, you mean. She's been dead since 7 September, 2002.

Having said that I always preferred her interpretation of Lucy Collins but she upped sticks and went on to bigger and better things before her untimely demise.
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Old 25-11-2005, 16:08
KarlaJoanne
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Completely agree with Secretlifeof..

I absolutely loved Brookside but every day it as on I had to look at the TV mag to see what time it was on (before the days of my sky)... and if I didn't have a TV mag then I would miss it!

Then when it started airing really late at night like 11.30 I stopped watching a few episodes cos couldn't stay awake!!

An absolutely brillient soap with WACKY plots like the plane crash and the lottery win, oh and the insest, oh and the banged up in a Thailand jail! Just remembering how good it was now!

There was a petition on the web a while back for bringing back repeats of brookie on Living TV, but not sure if anything happened with it.
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Old 25-11-2005, 16:25
Conall JG
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TBH, I can see why C4 axed it. It started as a gritty, realist soap but descended into cults and helicopter crashes to bring it back. Although towards the end, the whole Night & Day thing they had going on was good, it just wasn't what they were producing back in the 80s and it wasn't what Channel 4 (or the viewers) wanted.
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Old 25-11-2005, 16:32
Hippyste
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Brookside was far too over the top by the end and didn't really have sufficent hardcore viewers to survive.
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Old 25-11-2005, 17:26
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Yes I think it could have been saved but Channel 4 didnt want it.
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Old 25-11-2005, 17:34
Matthew W
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Brookside could easily of been saved, but the 90-minute format was terrible, I remember one episode, it was just Niiki Chadwick and her mum for the entire 90mins, maybe a little of bit Jimmy as well.

Brookside back in its day could of been saved, of course, it needed a strong, shocking, controversial, well-advertised storyline, and it would of gained viewers.

Yes Brookside at times did go a little bit silly, but don't all soaps. I'd say brookside was easily the best soap going, when it was good it was bloody good and outshined the others by far.

The storylines were inventive, they were fresh, the writers had a great imagination.

whereas most other soaps were simply lacking.
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Old 25-11-2005, 19:21
anastacia-mania
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havent they sold off the houses it was filmed in? this means brookside returning is very unlikely, not impossible though... it just would probably be set somewhere else, perhaps in studios.

thats what made brookie wt it was, it wasnt set in studios, they wer proper houses and u cud have camera shots running into the house and str8 into the kitchen, nt like in other soaps!

if it was to return, it wudnt be the same, although it wouldnt stop me watching... Channel 4 could do with some decent primetime stuff!
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Old 25-11-2005, 19:24
Lozzie85
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Originally Posted by SparkleBabe
Grrrr Hollyoaks is aload of Jouvenile rubbish! Brookie was a proper grown up soap aimed at those over the age of 12!
A.G.R.E.E.
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Old 25-11-2005, 19:27
SecretLifeoBees
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Yeah they've sold the houses off, apparently the rumour is that some property developer type bought the lot (not sure of the validity of the info, mind).

Would loved to have seen some sort of spin off episodes following the different characters as they started their new lives.
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Old 25-11-2005, 19:36
Laurat
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Originally Posted by The_Irish_Rover
Channel 4 totally screwed Redmond over.
I blame Redmond for the demise of the soap. He totally lost the plot. It was very difficult for Channel 4 to revive Brookie as he had so much control over it. They put huge amounts of money into it and Phil Redman ran it into the ground ultimately I don't think they had a choice. From the Nikki Shadwick rape onwards everything was just so repetitive. Some episodes were just Jimmy talking. The man was a good actor but he couldn't carry the whole show.
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Old 25-11-2005, 23:14
Soap Drama
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Originally Posted by kymbal
... for Brookside Most Haunted, you mean. She's been dead since 7 September, 2002.

Having said that I always preferred her interpretation of Lucy Collins but she upped sticks and went on to bigger and better things before her untimely demise.
Dead! How did she die!

She'd only be 30 odd.

You sure about this?
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Old 25-11-2005, 23:20
Thriller
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Even though the viewing figures went on a terrible decline, everyone had heard of Brookside - to me it was part of the big four until around 2000/2001 when I lost interest.

I don't think it could've been saved, I think it became a laughing stock in the very end especially with it being moved and chopped about in the schedules. Brookside would've gone out with dignity if it had never lost its primetime slots. Plus, people started to think of it as a soap that was only about sensationalist plots and stunt disasters, which it basically became.

Sad because in it's very early days it was as relevant as Coronation Street in terms of dialogue and character building.
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Old 25-11-2005, 23:22
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Originally Posted by Laurat
I blame Redmond for the demise of the soap. He totally lost the plot. It was very difficult for Channel 4 to revive Brookie as he had so much control over it. They put huge amounts of money into it and Phil Redman ran it into the ground ultimately I don't think they had a choice. From the Nikki Shadwick rape onwards everything was just so repetitive. Some episodes were just Jimmy talking. The man was a good actor but he couldn't carry the whole show.
ITA. The problem with Brookside is that by the end, it was either too REALISTIC, as in utterly boring drawn out long scenes of meaningless crap like Diane's IVF or Mike and Rachel's money troubles (ZZZZ) or SESATIONALISED OTT RIDICULOUSNESS (heliocopter crash, drug seige)

Redmond is not the genius he proclaims himself to be, in fact he's quite a bland visionary in my opinion, and certainly no storyteller. I dont think he wanted to be a storyteller anyhow, he wanted Brookside to be a hyper real docudrama and unfortunatly that means real life. Which means no melodrama and no extreme larger than life characters. Just real, dreary people.Think about it, Brookie's canvas the last few years... where were the Beth Jordaches? The Sheila Grants? The Barry Grants? There were no compelling types whatsoever and any who HAD been compelling (Bev, Susannah, Jackie) were either bastardised, toned down or killed off!
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Old 25-11-2005, 23:23
Tyler James
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your rite it was terrible before it ended they had a cast of like 10 ppl stupit storylines
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Old 25-11-2005, 23:26
AdamArmand
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another thing about Brookie that i found pretty laughable was Redmond using the character of Jimmy to air through his political views, and this was constantly. The character was always on his soapbox, blabbering on about something.

Indeed, the final episode was absolutely trite, Nikki and Jimmy on a sofa before the Close was demolished and Jimmy talking about the days when TV was engaging and made you think, obviously Redmond talking about his Brookside of the 80s, his political tool etc etc. The anchor of the show in the 80s was Sue Johnston's Sheila Grant, a fantastic strong fascinating character and she was primarily what steered to show in the right direction.

Saying all this, i was an avid fan of Brookie in the mid 90s when it was a SOAP. Psycho Jenny, the Jordache saga and Brenna's revenge, Georgia & Nat, Susannah/Max/Patricia and the heartwrenching story of Matthew & Emily's deaths and the early sages of Lindsey becoming somewhat of a mob moll. And Bev & Ron, wonderful comic relief there.
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