Brookside

[ReggieKrayDoYouKnowMyName]

Unashamedly uncool thread.

Was in Liverpool for a few days last week and fulfilled a long held ambition to visit Brookside Close. Husband and kids didn’t get it, but it made my week.

Anyway, had an afternoon to myself today and have been watching old episodes on YouTube and wondered if there are any fellow former Brookie fans on Mumsnet who wanted to chat about it.

My favourite era was mid-nineties with the body under the patio and all of that, I LOVED Anna Friel and definitely had some confusing feelings about that lesbian kiss (I was about 10 at the time).

I also had a long time crush on Max Farnham and was very happy when he married Jacqui Dixon in the early noughties. The peak of my young life was when the actor who played Max was appearing in a play in London and I happened to be on the same tube as him one evening. He was with a fellow actor and I plucked up the courage to speak to him. He was very charming and kissed me on the cheek, was marvellous! Sadly it was before camera phones, so this thrill of my girlhood exists only in my memories 😆

What are your favourite Brookside memories?

I loved it, and have a letter and signed photo of Simon O'Brien who played Damon. I wrote to him in 1983 when I was 12. I definitely want to visit the set.

The Brookside set was also used for the film Salvage, I remember watching the film and thinking it looked very familiar, and then it clicked it was Brookside Close! great film btw.

I loved Brookie from the very first episode. Loved Jimmy Corkhill and Bobby and Sheila aka Queen, the Body under the patio, the Dixon's etc etc wish it would come back!

Just found this. Would wear 😆😂scouseclobber.com/collections/brookside/products/scouse-clobber-brookside-beth-jordache-scouse-meme-t-shirt

OMG Reggie I love those t-shirts they've got Tinhead!

Labtest so jealous. I wrote to him and he didn't reply to me. I did have a bit of a Brookie claim to fame though. My dad's cousin played the older man that Sammy Rogers was going out with!

I used to watch Brookie. I recall it jumped the shark when there was a gas explosion (at the chippy?) and they had to amputate Sinbad's legs to free him from the rubble.

When I lived in Liverpool as a student I saw the first actor who played Leo (who was sacked for being a massive scally IIRC), on a bus with a scarf tied round his face. He was clearly trying to do some discrete scallying, but it was obvious it was him.

PS wasn't the incest sister actress whatsername who won celebrity masterchef and is now shacked up with John Torode?

No Lisa Faulkner was a half-sister of Nate if I recall. I think the actress who played Georgia was Helen Grace (incidentally she's married to the actor who played Rob Titchener in the Archers)

I’d forgotten about the incest storyline

Ah Google has informed me that Lisa Faulkner played some solicitor woman's adopted daughter and that solicitor woman ended up dating Ollie (Nate and Georgias dad). I'm lost in a Brookside wormhole

I remember the incest story line! I was so gobsmacked by it! I’m going hunting on YouTube for brookside episodes now!

I see the actors who played Debbie and Damon quite a lot. In fact I saw Debbie just the other day. The stabbing of Damon was one of the most brilliant and profound bits of TV I have ever seen.

Another one here who would love one of the channels to repeat all the episodes. I remember the first episodes had loads of swearing to make it realistic, but there were so many complaints they had to stop!

It was real cutting edge tv. I loved it and I particularly loved the Magic Bunnies.

wasn't the actress that played Debbie the actress that played the mad woman in Emmerdale recently that had abandoned her sons when they were little, after trying to suffocate one, and ended up killing her husband?

I thought Nisha was very beautiful . The actress who plays her has been in loads of stuff but will always be Nisha to me!

I loved Brookie. Or at least the early days with the Grants and the Corkhills. Especially Karen Grant because she was such a moody cow. She could’ve won an Oscar for her eye rolling. And poor Sheila who was always ironing!

Me and DH used to love when Mick had a big storyline because when the episode ended there was always a cliffhanger of Mick looked worried, upset or confused and he’d move his eyes side to side like Action Man . Or actually more like this

Loved it back in the day but not sure I could cope with some of the storylines now that I have DC - anyone remember when Max and Susannah's kids were both killed in a car crash?

It made me shudder at the time and that was long before I became a mum.

I did love it though. I saw the sister of the incest story on stage playing the mum of Baby in Dirty Dancing about 10 years ago.

I think Patricia Farnham, or rather the actress who played her, turned up in last week's "The Unforgotten", looking a bit dowdy, quite unlike her Brookside character.

Aw I forgot about Patricia. Of course she was “Bob” in Blackadder.

I saw her in a park a few years ago and she was very chatty and pleasant.

My favourite dreadful storyline was the Brookside plague where the whole street had to be cordoned off.

I think only one character died in the end.

It was awful and hilarious all at once.

I loved it. I live in York and always think of Damon and Debbie when I'm on the steps where he was stabbed.

I remember the siege in the nurse's house - the tension was unbearable.

And the Jordache trial - and poor Sheila's rape. It was quite strong stuff really.

Yes it was the same actress who was Emma in Emmerdale who played Debbie, Damon’s girlfriend.

Oh memories!! Loved Brookie!! I was in love with Barry grant! I wanted to live there
Loved most of the characters, even when I see them on programmes now I still think of their brookie names
Wish they would rerun it again like they have done Corrie and now eastenders