Brookside reruns - Part two

[Famua]

A second thread for Brookie watchers….

Yes I agree on the Tony stuff and when it ends on him and his friends as the cliffhanger! I’m like wtf, is this what soaps were like in the 90s?

It’s getting good through with Sue and Barry especially knowing what is too come

Yes thats why im sticking with it
And tbf all the classic soaps have their ups and downs

The Harrison’s must be incoming soon & Father Derek . Not the classic early years but still entertaining- I had my first house by 1991 and wasn’t watching it as regularly as the early years when I was at school / uni . Good to revisit .

Wasn’t father Derek ‘DDs’ brother? I think he had a brief romance with Margaret? Unless Im misremembering?

That sounds familiar

Didn’t the Harrisons move into what is currently Terrys house?

Yes i think so
The parade will be opening soon too and i think there are flats above shops etc where people live ?

I think people did live in those flats above the parade.
Im way behind you all, the interesting thing is Brookside went nine years without a mutual meeting place- there wasn’t a pub like there is in other soaps.
All the characters interacted with each other mainly on the close itself. No meeting hub so to speak.
When the shops opened , it gave opportunities for the characters to meet away from the close- the petrol station , the shop etc.
Im still in 86 and I’m the Nick and Heather storyline is about to unravel .. I’m quite looking forward to it.

I remember Brookie from about 92 onwards so it’s nice to see 80s Brookside.

Yes thats very true
They do mention the " Swan"
But you dont regulatly see them drinking there .

Good point. There is the occasional pub scene however there is no ‘rovers’
or ’queen vic’. I think Brookside was going for more realism and one of the things that makes me happy/sad are the location shoots in places I remember. I expect they reduce when the shops come into it.

obviously we know where the Close is but does anyone know where the shops/set actually were? Is/was it where the Hollyoaks set is now?

Apparently its seven miles from the close i tbink i remember them saying brookside and hollyoaks shared some sets ?

The 'meeting place' was the letterbox 😀

I think Phil Redmond felt that the likes of the Collins family wouldn't go to the same social spaces as, eg, the Grants, so didn't want a Rovers equivalent, but obviously the characters have to have a chance to pass information to one another and have arguments etc, so he included a postbox.

The post box does feature quite a bit 😂

Wasn’t it quite a few years before the post box was put in? I thought it was commented on by a couple of characters. Even this is bitter sweet - I remember much letter writing and anticipation of mail as a teen. Someone referred to waiting for the second post recently too!

Just thinking how attitudes towards physical chastisement of your children changed from the 80s to the 90s with the Ron/Jackie thing. I recall Sheila gave her Karen a slap across the face near the start and no one blinked.

good spot! And there were a lot of cuffs to the head and threats in addition to pushing, shoving. Also one of the characters, Damien Grant, was caned at school.

thinking about it, it was probably the outlawing of corporal punishment in state schools that was the start of attitudes and behaviour changing. Key dates: 1986 outlawed in state schools England and Wales, 1998 outlawed in private schools England and Wales (no more ‘I caN afford to pay to have my child hit!), the under 5s had to wait until 2003 to be protected from slap happy childminders though …

I was a bit confused today when Frank and Chrissy were tslking about how well they thought they had brought up their kids
Chrissy said she had a lot of time for Doreen Corkhill and even Billy but there were times she had ti wonder wether the kids presumably Rod and Tracy had eaten begore they left for school and now look how well they were doing
Doreen had left the close before the Rogers had moved in and Rod and Tracy were already adults
I dont think theres ever been any idication Frank and Chrissy knew Doreen and Billy before moving to Brookside has there?

Sounds like a continuity error to me! Tracy left school at 16 iirc.

I think you’re right!