Not that Channel 4 are making too much noise abou their 25th anniversary, with most archive stuff hidden away on More4, but I did catch the first ever episode of Brookside.
Now, Brookside was a show I was in love with for about 15 years. It was fantastic from when I started properly watching it in 1985 (the seige, where the nurses were held hostage by Robert Pugh), to when it went shit, shortly after the body of Trevor Jordache was dug up.
In an old job I'd travel up there all the time, and I loved being on the Close and meeting the cast, who were by and large all really friendly. No prima donnas in Liverpool, except for Phil Redmon of course, but that's another story.
Needless to say, I was really sad when Brookie took a turn for the worse. All those sensational storylines about explosions and diseases and lesbians, etc took their toll. It went off quite fast. When the time came to put it out of its misery, they did the right thing. Too much Dean Sullivan pontificating. Now there's a twat.
Anyhoo, the first episode was bleak beyond belief. Overcast, dank empty gardens, a treeless new estate of boxy houses with zero character. They don't build them like that anymore, thank God. So what was it about? People downsizing, people on the rob, talk of redundancy and trade unions, digital alarm clocks, bare walls, no money, washday, 2CVs, early mornings - real life! It was great.
What struck me was the first half had so little dialogue, there must only have been about seven lines spoken. Imagine this programme launching today. People would have switched off after about five minutes, what with their being so little action. I'm not sure what type of reviews it got at the time, but it was certainly very different. There was no soap machine in operation in those days, churning out hundreds of substandard episodes a year. Twice a week was your lot, and all the better for it.
It was a scene-setting episode, in which we met the Collins family, the Huntingdons and the Grants (no sign of Karen Grant though, my student pin-up). Weren't the early Eighties bleak, decor wise? Thin duvets, magnolia, wicker-effect kitchen cabinets - ugh.
I really wanted to see more of it though, shame they're not repeating it all. Remember top storylines like Heather's heroin-addicted husband, Doreen Corkhill and the dentist, Annabelle's affair, Sheila Grant's rape, anything to do with Tracy Corkhill, Shiela getting together with Billy Corkhil? Really brilliant characters and writing.
But only up until 1996.
