Brookside Brookside

[Spells & Karma]

Episodes 191 - 195
28 August - 11 September 1984​

Poor George. He really is a man in way over his head. I find his predicament far more troubling than most of those yet seen in the series because for me he’s the epitome of the everyman. Which in turn is because I connect with his usually-placid nature, more than I do jovial, smart-talking Bobby, brash Harry or (much of the time) pompous Paul.

This week’s scenes have seen him spiralling downwards first into grim obsession with finding Tommy McArdle (doing all the things he’s been advised against, from going to The Swan to being seen with his alleged co-conspirator), then into a deep void of depression fuelled by hopelessness.

What this story has done really well is bringing together different cultural worlds that usually avoid one another’s orbits. It’s effectively a consequence of a series of almost coincidental associations that wouldn’t exist if one or two of Brookside’s episodes to date had played out differently. Of course there’s a lot of regret from George about speaking to McArdle and being naïvely duped into drawing the diagram. But we could go back way further and change any of a number of given moments and he may not be in this predicament: George would barely have known Barry if not for Terry’s relationship with Michelle; none of which would have existed if they weren’t living where they live now; which only happened because Gavin then Petra died… and so it goes.

Barry’s black market dealings have long made him part of a criminal subculture. Terry’s invariably part of the same world with varying degrees of willingness. But each has an understanding of that subculture’s rules. George doesn’t. He’s a man whose life is lived by a healthy moral compass, with his optimistic nature reflected in his earnest desire to reason with Tommy and put his cards on the table.

On paper, George getting beaten by McArdle in the gents’ toilets* is horrific: where else on the British soapscape of the time would one see this happen? The most surprising aspect of the scene for me is that in context the inevitability desensitised me from any sense of horror. The scene wasn’t about George taking a physical battering, but an emotional one. It wasn’t about the way McArdle sent his message, but about the message itself: George was on his own.

It’s a frightening situation in which to see a character placed. Frequently in soap there’s a slightly interactive element: thoughts might spring to mind about what choices a character might have made to prevent/alter/improve a situation. Here, though, there are closed doors in every direction and the audience - like George himself - has to fall back on the slim hope that the judicial system will be able to find the needle of truth in a haystack of damning circumstantial evidence.

Marie is on fire at the moment, fists clenched and mouth open as she bellows about the injustice not anyone who’ll listen, and gives anyone with a glimmer of doubt a good talking to.

It’s easy to see why this story was such a gripping one back in 1984. Which makes it feel even more wrong that I don’t even remember this registering on my one and only previous experience during repeats some thirty years ago.

Over at Number Five, Karen has been found out. First Sheila read her like a book and challenged her about her trip to the Lake District. Then Bobby found photos of Karen with Andrew, rather than the friends she claimed were with her.

I found both their reactions great, but Sheila’s in particular felt surprising. Considering her strong Catholic faith, I thought she’d have come down on her like a ton of bricks, but there’s a strong sense of support. Part of me wonders how wise it is of her to trust Karen almost without reservation, but at the same time it’s really sweet. She’s also highlighted the double-standards Bobby has compared with attitudes towards his sons’ sexual behaviours, with Damon currently in London (presumably staying Walford way with Sharon Watts) and Bobby cackling at the prospect of him getting some sex education from visiting Soho.

Bobby has been less happy about Karen’s time under canvas with a hormonal young biker but, like Sheila, the characters’ histories inform their coming to terms with it. Karen reminded Sheila about the business with Jack Boswell, and the fact that Bobby had hit her during the fallout. It’s a case of the best defence being a good offence, but there’s no doubt that it gave Sheila some food for thought.

After some shouting and sulking, Bobby, too, has come round after being reminded by Sheila that this time things are different.

As always, it’s good to see such heated differences of opinions aired by the Grants. The scene I found most quietly impactful was one in which Karen’s boyfriend Andrew quietly apologises to Bobby for deceiving him. It’s not the first such scene - we’ve been here before after Andrew’s bike ploughed into pregnant Sheila - but it’s played for complete truth and feels very real, sincere and genuine.

Andrew’s almost throwaway statement that he realises Bobby might feel concerned about losing Karen to him as she grows up really strike a chord. It’s not really about this situation, but about daddy’s little girl becoming a woman with a mind and life of her own. The fact that this all happens on Karen’s 18th birthday

I also loved the lead-up to it, with Bobby swallowing his pride and making baby steps towards making peace with Karen by allowing Andrew into the house, even though he can’t bring himself to speak at first. Then there’s some bonding/teasing discussion over football teams and the like, before the conversation takes place later on. Ricky Tomlinson really shines in this whole arc.

Michelle has returned from her beautician’s course and apparently collided with the Eighties along the way. As well as a wardrobe that could only be from the middle of this decade, she’s joined Damon in mulletville. And she’s also given poor Heather a heavy-handed makeover with the recipient being inexplicably delighted with the results (let's face it, though... Amanda Burton is a stunner whichever which way she's painted).

More Eightiesness when Edna covets “white with a touch of pink” for the walls of the bungalow. I have memories of going to DIY stores around this time and seeing aisles of paints that were “white with a touch of [colour]” or had names like “Apple White”. The Crosses are due to move in “tomorrow”, so I’m not quite sure how it’s all happening with the chain. They clearly don’t have a buyer since Heather has now planted the seed of Harry becoming a landlord. All of which means we’re getting closer and closer to the era where I first discovered the series.






* Filming it in real-life, well-used pub toilets with the actor spending the latter part of the scene practically sitting in a ground-level urinal adds to the gritty reality. Something about it evoked Scum or something. It also reminds me of a scene from The Supergrass - the following year’s feature film from The Comic Strip team - which had a scene which has forever made me keep my guard up whenever using a urinal.

 

[Spells & Karma]

Episodes 196 - 200
12 - 26 September 1984
​

80% of these episodes were penned by Jimmy McGovern. What a treat.

For most on-screen in these episodes it’s a time of change.

Harry and Edna have officially moved into the bungalow at number 6. It’s a move that feels symbolic of the series itself further embracing mainstream soap convention. Not only are they moving to another home on the same street (next door, if you please), neighbours are involved, physically helping rather than checking out the form from behind net curtains.

Annabelle volunteers Paul to help them. Happily, Paul is extremely reluctant to get hands-on and when required a second time, opts to pretend he’s not home while treating himself to a relaxing bubble bath.

Meanwhile, George is striding over to help when Marie has no choice but to come right out with the fact that Harry has banned George from going anywhere near his valuables. Given what we’ve heard about the community spirit on their old estate, and George’s helpful nature his offer is entirely natural. We know Harry would usually snatch his hand off and would probably have dropped unsubtle hint after unsubtle hint to ensure George would be there. To George, nothing has changed. But to Harry, there’s no smoke without fire (given this idiom, perhaps there’s a deep symbolism that it’s Harry creating both smoke and fire by literally burning his fences to sever anything that might possibly connect him with George). George initially mistakes Marie and Edna’s concern about him helping for polite reluctance and presses the point until Marie says it as it is. As the penny drops with George, Harry walks into frame in the distance behind him, coming out of his house across the Close. George turns and looks at Harry, who gives him a look that could easily be read as victorious. Were this almost any other resident but George, this would be the cue for warfare… combat with voices raised, ugly words and potential violence. George simply walking indoors, disheartened and defeated, in many ways feels even more powerful.

George isn’t the only one on the receiving end of Harry’s petty spite. He’s still bitter at son Kevin living with divorced Sally Haynes - the mother of one of Kevin’s pupils - and takes it out on Sally’s daughter Jessica. Jessica’s eventual confrontation of Harry over his behaviour is one of several examples in these episodes of young people finding a voice and using it. And it yields results: Harry eventually admits that he wouldn’t mind having a granddaughter just like her, and the two reach an understanding.

Sally, too, reaches an understanding with Harry. Ironically, they bond over their mutual irritation with one another. When Edna suggests to Kevin that he and Sally should buy their old house and live next door, Sally deals with the situation by having a quiet word with Harry, asking him how he’d feel about the idea of them being neighbours and leaving it to him to nip Edna’s whim in the bud.

Not that Edna’s entirely under Harry’s thumb. Sinbad has arrived on the Close - with dialogue between him and the residents that tells us he’s already a familiar face to them and has been working his window cleaning round there for some time - and enabled Edna’s gambling addiction, much to Harry’s chagrin. There’s a taste of Sinbad’s devious side when Edna wins big on the horses when her double choices of Bungalow (inspired by their move) and Justice For All (a statement of her belief in George’s innocence) come in first and second but Sinbad claims not to have made it in time to have placed the bet, leaving Edna devastated since she’d already paid out Marie’s share of the winnings and would also owe some to Bobby.

In the end it’s Bobby who gets to the bottom of the situation by making it clear he’d not be happy if Sinbad didn’t pay up (Bobby, who is doing some grouting or filling at the time, hilarious holds a mortar gun to Sinbad’s head to get his point across). Sinbad later gets even by stealing the ladder Bobby was using - on loan from Barry and Terry’s tool hire shop, but Bobby takes this too in good humour.

Ricky Tomlinson is in fine form in these episodes. There’s a lot of laughter, and when Bobby laughs, I laugh. Gordon Collins has fallen for a girl who believed he owed her money (in fact it was Damon and Gizzmo, using his identity) and she’s convinced him that an earring would be a good form of self-expression for him, which he’s duly done: much to the chagrin of Anna and especially Paul. Bobby, though, thinks it’s hilarious and spends several minutes coming out with one-liners about reading palms and parrots on shoulders (Gordon’s unfazed, good-humoured tolerance gives one of several really nice moments for Nigel Crowley in these episodes).

It’s an understatement to say that Bobby’s humour is seriously absent when it comes to Damon’s priorities. Having left school, Damon now has a foot in the adult world and is required to sign on. When he finds out that Damon has chosen to meet girlfriend Linda from school it leads to a blazing row between them where Bobby bellows that if he doesn’t sign on, his parents won’t be paying out to keep him. When Damon talks back, Bobby lashes out with a clout to the face. As always in McArdle-written Grant scenes, the escalation feels both shocking and entirely organic.

Making the moment stronger still, we’d spent much time with Damon that day during his attempts to sign on, being sent from pillar to post and queue to queue by a singularly unhelpful and unsympathetic, borderline sadistic woman at the Social Security office. This meant not only did he fail to get signed on he also arrived to late to meet Linda who was giving him one more chance after the London debacle.

These episodes have really seen Simon O’Brien shine as Damon transitions from mischievous, cocky high schooler to young adult with shattered dreams. The episode after the DHSS red tape and a clout from his Dad saw Damon and Linda part ways, giving the standout moment of the two-hundredth episode when Damon called defiantly after the departing Linda, his words saying it’s her loss because he’s going to be something important, but his voice breaking with pain.

What makes Damon’s mini-monologue fly are the layers behind it. To a large extent it’s a situation of his own making: he chose to go off with Gizzmo and have his fun in London with Sharon Watts and friend and attempt to conceal it from Linda. He also dragged his heels with signing on - and he’s still lying to Bobby about having done so while he meets Linda. But at the same time the scene captures the school-leaver’s landscape under Thatcher’s Government. It’s implicit but, off the back of his eye-opening experiences at the DHSS office, the landscape is one devoid of hope. Even as he speaks his big words, it’s evident that he knows how hollow they ring. Over the years, I recall seeing a different scene with Damon crying to Sheila used in clips a couple of times when the theme of Damon’s unemployment comes up, but for me this scene in the two-hundredth is where it’s at. This is someone facing an unpleasant reality but internalising it all and trying to keep some of that fighting spirit even as it’s knocked out of him (partly literally, since he’s still reeling from Bobby getting physical with him).

It’s heartbreaking to watch, and a contender for a favourite Simon O’Brien scene (it's another scene that got into my head enough for me to take some screen-caps, but they'll be a couple of days coming as I'm not the quickest with them).

George and Marie have been surprisingly low-key given everything that’s going on, and I love how this series keeps big storylines ticking over while giving the entire ensemble their time. Even George rescuing a kid from drowning in a Southport lake feels proportional with other events on the Close.

In perhaps the biggest harbinger of changes to come, Kate, Sandra and Pat appeared in the two hundredth episode, ready to move in as Harry’s new lodgers at #7. It feels like we’re getting very close to the Brookie era I first experienced back in 1985.

On initially meeting just Kate and Sandra, Harry’s initial assumption that the third lodger Pat was a woman brought home how very Man About The House their situation is, with Harold and Edna effectively becoming Brookie’s George and Mildred Roper. Naturally Harold is already taking advantage, having them give him a quick medical and preparing to set up a bell linked to the bungalow in case he needs them. And they haven’t even moved in yet!

 

[Spells & Karma]

It’s heartbreaking to watch, and a contender for a favourite Simon O’Brien scene

The optimistic talk as life kicks sand into his face is something that I'd say is one of Damon's defining characteristics. Even though he's barely out of school, he knows more than most that he faces an uphill trudge with possibly not a horizon in view if he makes it. But he refuses to give up that small spark of hope.

Hindsight only adds more layers to Damon's dialogue. Yesterday I happened to walk very close to the spot where Simon O'Brien filmed his final scenes as Damon. It was by no means a planned tie-in, but realising this has added even more meaning to the hopes for his future expressed here.

 

[Ome]

I don’t know what this is, but I feel like I’ve seen little bits of it before. Certainly don’t remember it or where it came from.

 

[Spells & Karma]

I don’t know what this is, but I feel like I’ve seen little bits of it before. Certainly don’t remember it or where it came from.

I think it's from an aborted direct-to-DVD spinoff with Barry getting revenge on Damon's killers. Presumably they shot at least some key scenes and put a promo together before it was cancelled:

Further DVD episodes were planned included ‘Settling Up’ based around Barry Grant going after his brother’s killer, but were never completed or released.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I don’t know what this is, but I feel like I’ve seen little bits of it before. Certainly don’t remember it or where it came from.

I think it's from an aborted direct-to-DVD spinoff with Barry getting revenge on Damon's killers. Presumably they shot at least some key scenes and put a promo together before it was cancelled:

Yes, this promo was included in the extras of Unfinished Business but because that was so poorly received, no further DVD spin-offs were made.

The only offshoot I watched was The Lost Weekend, which was made during the show’s run. To give you an idea of it’s quality, it opens with Lindsay Corkhill, belting out The Shoop Shoop Song while dressed as Cher, before subsequently being kidnapped by gangsters. On the plus side, it features the return of Sheila.

 

[Ome]

I think it's from an aborted direct-to-DVD spinoff with Barry getting revenge on Damon's killers. Presumably they shot at least some key scenes and put a promo together before it was cancelled:

Ah, that makes sense. I don’t remember paying too much attention to Brookie in its later years, so even a promo on something would have skipped passed me at the time. I remember watching the final episode and something about Barry getting revenge on Damon’s killers, but also thought we didn’t see anything, it was just talk because Barry and Jimmy.

Some of it feels cringy now.


It’s weird right now what I’m watching. As I continue with Brookie each week as they release them, I’m also watching THE BILL from 2001/2 where Paul Usher is playing the great Des Taverner. It’s bizarre watching the actor in is 20s one minute and then next when he’s probably in his late 30s

 

[Ome]

The only offshoot I watched was The Lost Weekend, which was made during the show’s run. To give you an idea of it’s quality, it opens with Lindsay Corkhill, belting out The Shoop Shoop Song while dressed as Cher, before subsequently being kidnapped by gangsters. On the plus side, it features the return of Sheila.

I remember that. I bought three spin offs at the time with this one as the favourite because it brought Sheila back. The other two that followed I don’t enjoy much, though I bought them because I don’t think there was any other way to watch them at the time.

 

[Spells & Karma]

The only offshoot I watched was The Lost Weekend, which was made during the show’s run. To give you an idea of it’s quality, it opens with Lindsay Corkhill, belting out The Shoop Shoop Song while dressed as Cher, before subsequently being kidnapped by gangsters.

That sounds terrifying. And I don't mean the kidnapping.

While I was aware of them I gave these videos a wide berth when they came out. Not only had my Brookside fandom long since waned, the focus in some of them seemed to be on the criminal/vigilante/revenge element that I found off-putting enough in the latter years of the main series.

I enjoyed Brookie having an undercurrent of criminality in its early years (like many, I'm currently rewatching the George Jackson/Tommy McArdle stuff which is wonderful), but it eventually seemed to be there at the expense of character rather than to serve it. The fact that Barry has a whole section dedicated to his kill count and attempted murders on the Brookside fandom page makes me cringe.

On the plus side, it features the return of Sheila.

There is that. I think at the time I feared it would somehow dilute or compromise her character and wanted to remember her the way she was. I am still quite intrigued though.

As I continue with Brookie each week as they release them, I’m also watching THE BILL from 2001/2 where Paul Usher is playing the great Des Taverner. It’s bizarre watching the actor in is 20s one minute and then next when he’s probably in his late 30s

Oh, that's great. Funnily enough, one of the sitcoms I have lined up to watch is Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt. I've never watched it, but I know Bill Dean is a regular (and he also wrote the theme). We almost started watching last night, and I thought how strange it would be to watch him playing Harry Cross at the same time as this sitcom character from a decade earlier.

 

[RandallAdams]

Why is there no wikipedia page for Anna Friel's Beth Jordache? She was a massively impactful character and yet, they have whole wiki pages for minor Brookside characters like Mike Dixon?

 

[Ome]

Why is there no wikipedia page for Anna Friel's Beth Jordache?

She has this little bit.

Beth


As for Mike Dixon getting his page, Beth was only in the show for 2 years, whereas Mike was there for 13 years.

 

[RandallAdams]

She has this little bit.

Beth


As for Mike Dixon getting his page, Beth was only in the show for 2 years, whereas Mike was there for 13 years.

Beth was a Brookside icon.

 

[Spells & Karma]

Episodes 201 - 210
2 - 31 October 1984
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And so Brookie’s second year comes to a close.

Despite some notable events, these episodes have felt mostly very small in scale. Looking at some of them on paper could be easy to take the view that some of them are underwhelming, or simply filler. Damon’s made up with Linda. Harry and Edna have gone on holiday. We had two or three episodes of watching Paul battling with red tape to try and get a machine repaired at work over a weekend, then coming home to grouse about Pat Hancock’s unsightly old ambulance from which he’s selling his dodgy veg.

The nurses (for simplicity’s sake I’ll refer to Kate, Sandra and Pat as nurses, even though technically only 66% of them tick that box) have done very little in their first month on the Close.

Pat’s charmed Sheila, Edna and Annabelle with his silver tongue (hell - he’s even begun to win Harry over) and free knockoff vegetables. Less convincingly he’s had conversations with the skeleton he keeps in the house (which feels too silly to me. I can believe him carrying on such a conversation if he has an audience or even thinks someone might hear. But for him to do this for real takes the sitcom premise of their setup a step too far).

Sandra, meanwhile, has narrowed her eyes at Heather when the doctor she had designs on fell for Heather’s charm (though they did bond over their respective divorces). She’s also put her foot in it with Annabelle by joking about “poisoned vol-au-vents”, forgetting that it was Annabelle herself who contributed them to their party. Annabelle, to her credit smiled graciously and gave a lighthearted response.

Actually, I’ve realised that Annabelle is in many ways the rock of the Close. I’d say she has the broadest range of meaningful connections with her neighbours of any character. She’s arguably the most community-minded character, genuinely interested in those around her and supportive without being intrusive. She’s able to find a rapport with any character, regardless of age, gender or background. She can banter with the nurses, muck in with Marie and the boys or have a highbrow discussion with Heather. It’s a trait that goes back to the very earliest episodes where she smoothed things over with Sheila and had a friendly conversation with Barry as he installed their stolen toilet. And this is the same woman from her posh house on the Wirral who was, in many characters’ initial assessment of her, “them” rather than “us”. She’s really living up to that impassioned speech she made back in August about making the best of where they are.

Many of the social interactions between households for these episodes took place in the last few episodes with the nurses’ housewarming/Hallowe’en party (while Harry was away, naturally). Again, there’s a naturalism to these events that takes me back to house parties with family and friends from around the same time. Pat mixes punch and tops it up with pineapple juice from a long-life carton. Paul drunkenly bonds with Pat over red tape, then letches at Sandra when she dances with him. Damon and Ducksie eye up the women while waiting for their own girlfriends to arrive. When pregnant Sheila comes to find Barry, Sandra insists she comes in for a drink and blows cigarette smoke all over her.

The nurses score also points with me for carving the traditional turnip lantern instead of the more recent imported American fad for the pumpkin.

A good degree of the chatter for these party scenes got lost (presumably unintentionally) under the music playing, which means this was one of two episodes from this batch where I struggled to understand what was being said (the first was when Karen visited Newcastle and a man with a dog and an extremely broad accent had a lengthy chat to her).

These being the last episodes before Year Three begins, there are (I think) two significant departures. Neither of them feels like a true ending, though, and one is positively forgettable.

At the housewarming, Gordon Collins is last seen drunkenly messing about in the kitchen with his girlfriend Cathy and the skeleton. Looking at his list of appearances it seems this is his final appearance. If it is, it’s a terrible shame not only that Nigel Crowley didn’t get a proper ending for the character, but the the audience didn’t get this for his era. Based on this, I’m leaning towards thinking he left abruptly for whatever reason. Either he was unhappy or the powers that be were unhappy with him. Presumably the next episode would take the original cast members into a new contract, so it could be as simple as one party or the other unexpectedly chose not to renew. Knowing where the character goes, I’m very curious about whether this was a factor. With hindsight, it’s difficult not to project some significance into Gordon talking about taking skeletons out of the cupboard while literally doing just this. Worst of all, Nigel’s drunk acting is pretty poor, so it’s not the best ending for a character who has been a key part of the series since the beginning. I’ll be listening with interest for mentions of him in upcoming episodes.

More memorably, George has now been imprisoned following his trial (which felt very grounded indeed for a soap trial. I feel this is more of a reflection of the processes involved. Even Marie shrieking at Barry that he was responsible felt organic and right-sized). That final freeze of George with the clang of the bars sliding across felt very much like a turning point and an ending. But… we then visited George in prison with Marie and so I was conditioned to feel that we’d continue to do so. I was rather surprised to read that this scene of George attempting to be stoical for Marie but breaking down and begging her to stay and get him out when it was time to leave was the last we’ll see of him. It’s certainly haunting to leave him so broken and will no doubt add an urgency to the storyline that will play out for Marie in the coming months.

Terry’s had some of his best scenes yet as he’s finally stepped up and done the right thing by George, dragging Barry into doing the same (by cleverly reminding him that if Terry and Michelle split up, the tool hire business will probably lose Michelle’s financing and go under). It’s all to no end, though, since the police officer (revelling in Barry’s squirming) decides to sit on their confession until after George has been sentenced.

It’s too late for them to retract, but not too late for Tommy McArdle to hear about the betrayal and exact violent revenge. Appropriately, the horrific beating takes place on Hallowe’en. It also employs an innovative-for-British-soap technique of cross cutting flashes of the beating with scenes of raucous revelry at the nurses’ party. The parallel editing works brilliantly and isn’t the only non-standard storytelling in these episodes: there were some rare flashbacks as Marie sat on the sofa and remembered first a moment where she and George sat on the same spot, laughing together, and then George being taken down in the previous episode.

Along with Michelle, it was actually Marie who found Barry and Terry bloodied and barely conscious after the beating from McArdle’s heavies (the way Terry’s hand was twitching really got me. I’m not sure if he was supposed to be shaking, but the way it came across looked pretty horrific and got the mind racing about what could have been done to them).

Best of all, this meant Marie was the one to find Sheila at the party and break the news with some empathy. It’s been ten months since their legendary street barney, and their scenes together have been so sparing and so carefully crafted that the few times they’ve interacted since are heavy with history and regret. This was no exception. I can’t get enough of these two together.

 

[Ome]

I have come to the conclusion that I had the court scenes and the ‘video nasty’ scenes on video and had watched them quite a few times. It was surreal watching them last week, I could speak word for word on almost all the scenes. It felt both joyful and miserable at the same time. Joyful to relive these particular episodes, but then I found myself feeling sad because I was a young teenager at the time and now I’m an old man.

 

[Spells & Karma]

Episodes 211 - 225
6 November - 24 December 1984
​

Brookie keeps its chess pieces moving even when they’re no longer on the board.

Take Gordon: after some weeks of being unmentioned, he’s cropped up in conversation between Annabelle and Paul. There are mixed feelings over him spending so much time with Cathy. Both are appreciating the space and freedom of suddenly finding themselves without children about - giving Annabelle more time to launch her home catering business - but there’s also a degree of empty nest syndrome, and even some concern that Gordon might be going through a rebellious phase, just as Lucy did before him. His physical absence suggests some degree of compromise, with behind-the-scenes circumstances being written around.

There’s something conventional and almost hackneyed about it all. Having watched Crossroads recently, my mind goes to poor Shughie McFee: absent for months or years at a time, with the occasional update from Meg, Jill, Diane or Sandy who tell us they’ve just had a run-in with him in the kitchen. And then he’d reappear for a week or two as though nothing had happened. Part of me feels this kind of scenario is beneath Brookside. Yet at the same time I find myself admiring the way an off-screen character’s behaviour is informing the reactions of those on-screen.

It’s similar for George Jackson who has also been unseen for a couple of months at this point. The latest episode has brought the news of George’s sudden transfer to Haverigg prison up in Cumbria. George may be offscreen, but I still find myself interested in his progress and listening out for clues to his welfare in what’s reported from Marie. Despite Cliff Howells’ absence, this move will prove to be significant for those remaining in the Close, and inform future storylines.

Another absentee is Barry. He had a more satisfying screen departure than either George or Gordon, despite the fact that coming and going is kind of Barry’s “thing” and Paul Usher will be the only one to return. Barry had a degree of closure with both Sheila and Bobby (each covertly gave him money with the understanding that he didn’t tell the other) and a nice scene with Damon where Barry gave Damon some of his prized possessions (such as footie boots and a favourite top). On Christmas Eve, Sheila is hopeful that he’ll return from Nottingham to be with the family.

Not that Sheila’s got time to dwell on this. She’s gone into labour and - unable to get hold of Bobby - purloined the taxi Annabelle was using to send her catering to a client. Annabelle was characteristically gracious about the whole thing - even when Sheila sat herself on a box of mince pies.

The scenes of Sheila looking through the phone book* trying to find someone to get her to the hospital created a wonderful sense of isolation (similar to that Knots Landing scene of Val going into labour alone at home during the evening. This would have aired in its native country a month before this). She rings a pub (presumably The Swan) and tries to leave a message for Bobby (that we simply know from the tone of the conversation won’t be passed on), then tries another number before she realises she’s on her own.

It’s a scenario where the dramatic tension simply couldn’t exist in the same kind of way in the 21st Century where the entire family would have their mobile phones and could phone/text/Facetime/Whatsapp or whatever else they needed to do in order to reach someone. Creating a situation where someone couldn’t reach any of the key people would today require a great deal of contrivance and suspension of disbelief, but in 1984, this is simply The Way Things Are.

Of course, the Christmas birth is now so much a soap stock-in-trade that it’s practically mandatory, but I find myself wondering if this was actually more progressive back in 1984. It’s given Bobby much opportunity to poke gentle fun at the Nativity, while Sheila equally gently chastises him for his blasphemy. There’s also been much fun trying to decide on a name for the new arrival. Among Bobby’s tongue-in-cheek choices is “Council” (which caused Sheila to strike him in exasperation when she said the full name out loud).

continued...
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* The Grants’ phone book is of those flip-up index types with hard casing and the ABC slider on the front. That really took me back - it’s yonks since I’ve seen one. I did feel my anxiety levels rise when Sheila rebelliously started yanking open the pages without correctly closing it and moving the slider. I’d have done such a thing at my peril. But it did subtly get across how panicked she was, which I thought was a lovely touch.

 

[Spells & Karma]

Episodes 211 - 225
6 November - 24 December 1984

continued...
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How refreshing it is seeing characters putting up their Christmas decorations less than a week before Christmas. In fact there was barely a mention of the season until mid-December. Having been into some shops recently, one could be forgiven for thinking Christmas now starts on All Saints’ Day. I think the first noticeable sign of the silly season was when Heather stayed in a hotel that had some tinsel in the dining room.

Heather’s been travelling round the country recently, and we’ve travelled with her which has been nice. I love how Brookie can do this kind of location work without a sense of event. People travel for work and it’s frequently quite humdrum, going from railway station to office suite to hotel interior, and that’s how it’s been. Someone unfamiliar with the UK could be forgiven for thinking the scenes were all filmed locally**, because the temptation to do the familiar touristy iconography has been more or less avoided. Still, we’ve seen New Street station in Birmingham, and - most exciting of all - Granada Studios. Heather’s doctor love interest was aiming to go inside to get souvenirs for his Corrie-mad friends. Heather looked askance at him as though she’d either never heard of it or didn’t care for it, but maintained a diplomatic silence.

The Hilary Kingsley book says The Powers That Be at Corrie took a very dim view of Brookie filming its studios and acknowledging it as fictitious. Despite Heather’s less-than-interested reaction (and, let’s face it, Heather simply wouldn’t sit down to watch a soap opera at 7:30pm. If she wasn’t thinking about dinner or commuting she’d probably still have her head in an accounts book), it was spoken about favourably. To me, it felt like a respectful acknowledgement of the series whose early spirit greatly influenced Brookside, as the older series celebrated a milestone. The 24th anniversary was even specifically mentioned. It’s a bit like EastEnders’ Dot Cotton preparing to watch Corrie’s anniversary episode some 26 years later.

Following his wife’s death, Ralph seems to have become a permanent fixture at the bungalow. Even though I remember him as part of the fabric of the series when I watched it back in the day, I’m unsure how to feel about Ralph. As a guest in someone else’s home, I don’t feel we’re seeing the true him, and this makes him feel somehow artificial. It possibly doesn’t help that Ray Dunbobbin has that sing-song Ringo Starr kind of drone to his speech patterns. I got used to it with Gizzmo, but with Ralph it feels like another layer of one-dimensionality.

I’m curious what I make of him as the series evolves and he becomes even more entrenched. His “thing” seems to be that he’s insufferably nice and helpful. But there’s also this sly undercurrent where he colludes with Edna behind Harry’s back, and with Harry behind Edna.

And on that note, Edna’s child-woman bit continues to frustrate. Thankfully, this characteristic has been acknowledged, and I found myself inwardly cheering when both Kevin and Harry refused to let her off the hook for her gambling addiction because she made her sad face. Kevin has now announced that he’s moving down South, and I feel there must be a soapy reason for this. With the benefit of hindsight, I suppose it’s done to give Ralph even more of a reason to stick around. Ah well, mine’s not to reason why.

A favourite Harry scene was accepting a proffered joint from Paul Collins while at the same time pretending to be offended by it. Not only this, once he found out that Paul had been given a heap of goodies from prospective tenders at the factory (not bribery, he insisted as he enjoyed them and passed them round), it took Harry all of thirty seconds to drop unsubtle hints that a poor pensioner couldn’t afford to buy Scotch. And as Paul left to get a bottle for him, Harry snatched the joint from Paul’s arms.

The younger cast have been less well-represented in this batch of episodes. Gordon and Lucy are gone, as is Barry. Karen and Damon are seen only infrequently of late. Sandra, Pat and Kate float about without actually having plots of their own (Sandra’s got an ex-husband threatening to appear. Other than that, Chirpy Cockney*** Pat is making Terry jealous by spending time with Michelle and Kate saved the day by whipping up a vegetarian meal when Annabelle realised her clients didn’t eat meat). Like Samson, Terry’s strength continues to be sapped by his crew cut (which he hates). The short do improves his appearance no end, but if it stops him moaning I’ll take the return of the bubble perm.

And the Christmas Eve 1984 episode saw the debut of Brookie’s legendary “cast and crew stand on the Close and wave as the entire year’s production team is credited on-screen. Wonderful stuff.







** Even so, I suspect there is a little cheating here and there. Some of Heather’s scenes in one of her distant locales took place in an office suite with distinctive Chesterfield leather look inserts in the doors. During the same office, Bobby had a confab in a Liverpool office which happened to have exactly the same doors.


*** Was Pat’s inclusion in the ensemble a way of pipping EastEnders to the post, I find myself wondering? Yes, he arrived waaaaay ahead of that series, but I seem to remember Enders had a very long pre-production process during which there was a lot of buzz and media hype about the Beeb’s first such “proper” soap.

 

[Spells & Karma]

God - Marie is such a fantastic character. She might well be my favourite Brookie character of all.

She's has some dynamite monologues. Her latest - to a school truancy officer in episode #224 - has once again inspired me to make a few screen caps. The writer is Allan Swift:

 

[Spells & Karma]

There's so much to love about this scene.

The moment where Marie lights up while Mrs Grove looks helplessly on is a winner. Although it's probably both a reflex and crutch, it's also easy to read a degree of contempt into this moment. She doesn't even consider Mrs Grove's comfort. It reinforces that we're on Marie's turf and she'll behave exactly as she pleases, which makes her bluntly laying out her views even more convincing.

In between talk about the boys, the subject of George comes up. Mrs Grove acknowledges she's had some difficulties recently. Marie corrects her that the "difficulties" are the crime her husband didn't do and the prison he's in for not doing it. But she also wearily says that she realises Mrs Grove has heard this all before from prisoner's wives. There's no expectation at all that she'll be believed, but it's plain that she's going to throw in the towel on this basis.

After that final haughty look, Marie simply stands and walks to the door, leaving the shaken social worker no choice but to follow and leave. Mrs Grove regains her composure enough to say what fine boys they look, and to wish her well. Marie chucks out a polite "thanks, love" and that's that. It's almost amicable, and almost strange. I suppose beneath it all is that Mrs Grove doesn't know what to do with what Marie has just said, and Marie bears no ill will now that Mrs Grove has at least heard her out.

The fire we see in her isn't just about the boys being in trouble. It's all part of a much broader picture where Marie perceives her family coming unjustly under attack and treated badly. And she has good reason to feel that way.

This is coming out left, right and centre and it's a marvellous thing to behold. In an episode shortly after George was imprisoned, Marie said "They say the Kennedys are cursed. What about the Jacksons*?" The comparison seemed almost comical at the time, but there's more than a grain of truth to what she says




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* Actually, it might have carried even more weight had Marie said "Joneses" instead of "Jacksons". The family curse theory certainly fits there, what with Petra's young widowhood and Petra and their mum both dying tragically young. But perhaps this is about Marie being possessive about her anguish, especially as there are times when she doesn't seem to feel Michelle really gets it.

 

[Ome]

God - Marie is such a fantastic character. She might well be my favourite Brookie character of all.

She could have been my favourite character too, but Sheila always pipped her to the post. Brookie had some very strong females in the 80s it’s hard to pick any kind of order between Shiela, Marie, Heather, Doreen, Annabelle and Karen. I also loved Kathy too.

I’ve been back over your comments but can’t find what I wanted to quote. You mentioned something about Gordon’s last episode a while back and it’s thrown me. Did they mention he had left because I can’t remember anything other than the party with the skeleton.


I also heard this morning that Dean Sullivan passed away which came as a shocker. I think he was 68.

 

[Spells & Karma]

She could have been my favourite character too, but Sheila always pipped her to the post.

What helps Marie is that she was in it for a brief window of time (in the bigger Brookie picture) and during what is arguably the series' peak so every single one of her scenes have been incredibly strong.

Sheila is, of course, an incredible portrayal, and if I were forced to choose between them, I think Sheila would come a very close second. Again this is based on the bigger picture because of me feeling slightly less invested towards the end when she became involved with the Corkhills as Brookie became increasingly soapy. Based on conversations in this thread I'm hopeful I may feel differently about The Sheila Corkhill Era this time round, so Marie shouldn't get too comfortable.

And I'm glad I don't really have to choose.

Brookie had some very strong females in the 80s it’s hard to pick any kind of order

Yes indeed. For me, I think Annabelle has been one of the most pleasant surprises this time round.

You mentioned something about Gordon’s last episode a while back and it’s thrown me. Did they mention he had left because I can’t remember anything other than the party with the skeleton.

No, you haven't missed anything. It wasn't mentioned at all, and he just disappeared after the Hallowe'en party. I only worked out it was his last episode because I happened to look at IMDb shortly before watching and that was the last credit for him.

My comments about it were really expressing disappointment at this because I think the actor, character and audience all deserved some kind of closure. And I'm still very curious about why the disappearance was so sudden. His last episode was just before Brookie's second anniversary, so I'd guess it had something to do with it being contract time, but it seems either the production team didn't get enough notice of the contract ending to write him out properly (as they did when, say, Rob Spendlove didn't renew) or it went badly for some reason.

I also heard this morning that Dean Sullivan passed away which came as a shocker. I think he was 68.

Gosh, that's unexpected.

When I was reading some Brookie stuff recently, one thing that surprised (and impressed) me was learning Dean had been a teacher for some time before Brookside (in fact, I think he might have continued teaching during his early Brookie appearances). It's something he had in common with Jim Wiggins who'd been a deputy head, and it made me smile that these chalk and cheese characters were played by actors with a similar professional background.