There will be no Brookside on Saturday the 12th of April as this episode features a rather dramatic storyline between Tim and the drug dealer that killed Emily.

It will be shown on Thursday the 10th of April at 23:30.

I think Brookside's best chance at surviving could be a late night version like this where they could show some more adult drama. Hopefully not like Night and Day's late night episode which was pointless. 23.30 is a bit too late though, 22.30 would be a good slot.

I hope this one-off late night slot is a sign that Channel 4 still have a bit of interest in Brookside, although I notice that next weeks showing is at 15:20, so sadly this makes me think they'll start moving it around all the time to shake off the 1.6million viewers it still has, and then axe it.

Brookside has been the most watched programme on Channel 4 on Saturdays quite a few times, so they should be axing all the other crap on Saturdays and not trying to kill off Brookside.

An annoucement regarding Brookie's future was due in March, but as we're almost in April it doesn't look like anything will be confirmed this month. Maybe theres some discussions going on behind the scenes.. hopefully with a positive outcome.

Doubt it will last any longer, and I'm sure last I heard the viewers were less than 1.6 million. I recall 1.6 million being the figure when they made the desision to shove is on Saturday. Can't really see it lasting myself, it's jsut got terrible over the last few years, especially over the last year or so.

According to the Brookside websites it still gets around 1.3-1.6m every week.

I agree its not as good as it was, but have you watched any of the new style 90 minute episodes?

Each week deals with a different subject, we've had storys about Drugs, Child Abuse, Debt etc.. so far.

Brookside is now back to its original issue driven format rather than sensational storylines and explosions every other week.

I'd rather we'd just get repeats from the 90s. The show was great back then and I never used to miss it. Unless the show gets like that again 9which I doubt), I don't think it will ever survive. it certinally will never get the 6 million odd viewers it used to get.

Hmm. So Saturdays 3:20 edition is up against the Grand National.

Perfect chance for Channel 4 to axe it when the viewing figures come in for that edition.

I think Channel 4 is a completely stupid channel, their Saturday 4pm slot didn't have the desired effect so now they have to move Brookie around and put it head to head with one of the nations biggest sporting events to try and kill it off.

Why couldn't they schedule the crappy western film thats on in Brookies usual time slot head to head with the National? Because they're doing anything and everything to get rid of Brookside.

What a stupid channel C4 has become, if they want to axe Brookside why can't they just do it, instead of leaving us in months of uncertainty and then messing about with the scheduling to kill it off.

I hope Brookside contiunues to beat the rest of the trash on that channel and leaves Channel 4 really embarrased when programmes that get huge promotion like Boys And Girls fail to beat a soap that has very little/no promotion anymore.

I agree with you Chris E. Brookie has always been my favourite soap but I must admit that I'm one of the viewers who has trailed off in the last year or so. Not specifically because of the storylines as I believe all soaps go through bad phases, but purely because of the crap scheduling.

I kept forgetting what night it was on and thus missing it. I've just started getting back into it (due to working on Saturdays and not getting to the shops) and I've been really enjoying the new format, now I find it's been moved AGAIN and it's too early (won't be back from work in time).

Shame on Channel 4 for treating one of their flagship programmes like that.

Brookie gets treated ALMOST as badly as Night and Day.
At least it still has a slot in the day time as opposed to the 12.00 - 1.00 graveyard slot!

Brookie should be treated with more respect.

Me and My Sister stayed up last night to watch this.

Her comment at the end? " well, that wasn't worth staying up til 1.00 for, was it?"

what happened? Did anyone die? what was so horrific it had to be screened so late? I used to love Brookie, especially in the mid nineties but in the last year it's just been too difficult to stay commited to it, especially with the Saturday slot being so inconsistent. I've also given up Family Affairs since they cancelled the sunday omnibus - I hardly watch anything now!

Well, the main story revolved around Tim and Steve going to Manchester to track down Terry.

It was one of the most madcap jaunts i have ever seen, but anyway, they found him, he realised who they were, and this led to a chase up to his flat.

When Tim and Steve got him cornered in his flat, Tim made Steve hold a gun at Terry's head, whilst he went to the van to get the pack of cocaine (which he stole off Terry during the seige). Tim planned to kill Terry by making him take the whole 600k worth of cocaine, but while he was gone , Terry managed to talk Steve round and convince him that it would be wrong to kill him (Yeah right).

So when Tim gets back, he's horrified that Terry has managed to work Steve round to his way of thinking (that he's innocent), and theres a scuffle, and a shot.

Tim falls down injured and Terry gets away....................

Nobody dies though, Tim wakes up in hospital and is mad at Steve for getting an ambulance and letting Terry get away!! LOL

The rest of the episode was quite tame, but i think the scenes in the flat would have meant Channel 4 would have been unable to show it at 4pm on a Saturday - don't see no reason why it couldnt have been shown after 9pm watershed though!

I liked that episode. Very good acting, storyline, and good use of music to make the scenes more tense.

I've been thinking, If the people at C4 do axe Brookside, assuming it finishes on the Saturday closest to its 21st Birthday, there are only 29 episodes left!

I really hope they don't axe it, Phil Redmond has done exactly what he said he would - take Brookie back to its more thought provoking days, and every episode leaves you with somthing to think about.

It was apparantly Channel 4 who decided Brookie should become more sensational and over the top back in 1998.

So Phil and the team did that, it lost a load of viewers, then Channel 4 finally realised it wasn't working and agreed on the £1.5m revamp last year. Then, C4 decided to move it to Saturdays before the revamp has even occured! Its almost as if they wanted to axe it back in 1998 and so planned a slow death.

Strange channel.

i watched classic brookie on living for 2 years then on sky one for 6 or so months but now we have no re runs .


brookside was at its best 1993-1996 in my opinion the killer virus,body under the patio,incest etc.


if any one knows if and when its coming back (classic brookie) please feel free to email me

cheers

I stoped watching about 4-5 years back and tuned in during the week and thought it was great, mind you it was up against The Club my current fav TV show so i could not watch it for long but what i saw of it was fantastic.

I tape the omnibus edition of brookside on a saturday and watch it when I can,but forgot it was on thursday ,so thanks Carene for the synopsis-did Jackie & Max get their house?.
I can't stand the new family in brookie,I don't find any of them believable.

Seymour - Thanks a lot!
I did my best on the synopsis for the Brookie ep! I have never wrote one for it before -however i do write synopsises for every episode of Night and Day.

I really hope that Brookie doesn't get axed either!
I generally watch most soaps (with the exception of Family Affairs and Neighbours) I dont mind if i miss an episode of Emmerdale, Corrie, EE, etc, as i find it easy to catch up.
However, Brookie is one soap that me and my family have watched religiously since the very beginning.

I wonder whats taking so long with this decision that was meant to be made a month ago regarding the future of Brookside on Channel 4?

I can only hope that the delay is due to on going discussions between MerseyTV and Channel 4.

I think Brookside are doing everything they can to save money, notice how each edition is focused on just a few characters, and so if its true that the actors only get paid for the episodes they appear in, and of course there isn't an explosion every week anymore, so MerseyTV will be saving a lot of money which in turn might convince Channel 4 to keep it for another year due to the reduced production costs. (At the moment I think Brookie costs £17 million a year to produce.)

If Channel 4 do axe it then hopefully the BBC will pick it up, after all MerseyTV produce Grange Hill for the BBC.

Whatever happens, I hope theres a future for this soap. Those people who used to watch but gave up on it, i'd urge them to watch it again for a few weeks then see what you think.

Can anyone think how many of the original cast are still in Brookie?I can only think of Ron and Katie,I seem to think they replaced Mike&Jackie at some stage.I could have cried when they wrote the window cleaner out,and Mick Johnson they were good characters with some great story lines.I didn't realize it cost £17 million a year to produce-a lot of money, but lets hope it doesn't get axed

characters who have been in brookie at least 12 years include

ron
max
jimmy
rachel
katie
mike
jaqui

You guys have obviously not been watching from the beginning!
Of those you have listed, none of those were there right from the start although Jimmy Corkhill has been in longest, so maybe he was at start (but I was only a toddler then!)
But yes, they have all prob been there about 12 years.

FYI, the Dixons have been around since about 1993, and Jacqui and Mike are still the original actress / actor.

Katie and Max have been there slightly longer, although they are the only remaining members of the families, that they had when they first made an appearance!!!

The window cleaner! - you mean Sinbad, and Mick were in Brookie long before some of the above.
I reckon they appeared in mid eighties!

Jacqui and Mike first appeared on Monday the 1st of October, 1990.

There was a flashback of their first appearance during the episode shown on Saturday the 5th of April.

Whoops! Oh right, thanks for that Chris!

I knew they had been a while, but they are deffo still played by the same people, which you will know if you see the flashbacks!

I like it when they flashback to the early Dixon years - i saw the episode on april 5th. They also did it when jacqui was planning to marry Nathan! I wish they'd repeat some of them!

Just out of interest, how'd you know it was 1 / 10 / 90 ???

The Brookside Soapbox forum, where this is somone who is an expert on Brookside and knows just about everything about the programme!

I apologise!