Brookside is back!

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I think I have joined you guys, I watched 5 episodes this morning and I'm up to the most current one.

I enjoyed it, we're still quite far off from my era, as I was only a kid and can only remember 1995 onwards. But with the Farnhams and Johnsons we've got characters I remember.

The second theme tune must be soon, that's the one I remember.
 
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That ending when Sheila was just about to tell Terry something, I had to Google, I'd totally forgotten about that!!!
 
That ending when Sheila was just about to tell Terry something, I had to Google, I'd totally forgotten about that!!!
I think I know what it is as I'm sure I've read about it before, what day do the episodes drop?
 
I’ve watched all the reruns over the past 6 months from the beginning. I used to really like Sheila when she was with Bobby but her character is all over the place with Billy. The moral high ground she’s always taken and now she’s going to drop this bombshell. When I watched it originally I was shocked but now comments she’s made are fresh in my mind. Like when she was grape how she’d cried she had only ever been with Bobby. I feel the producers were desperately trying to get their ratings up without staying true to the past or the character. As if she’d tell Terry that to make him feel better in the real world when she’s never told a living soul.
Looking forward to the Farnhams and the Dixons.
 
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Sinbad is really annoying in the repeats at the moment, has he been like this since he arrived? 🤣
 
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I spotted the patio of number 10 today, in a few years from today's episode it will be the most famous patio in the UK!
 
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Young Katie is really cute, I'm only old enough to remember her as a really annoying adult 🤣.
 
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Seen this weeks episodes and Sheila told Billy that someone called Paddy was Barry’s real Dad. I thought it was Matty. I googled a while back for a refresher on the episodes as I couldn’t remember a lot. Does anyone know if it is actually Matty or was google lying to me 😂
 
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Seen this weeks episodes and Sheila told Billy that someone called Paddy was Barry’s real Dad. I thought it was Matty. I googled a while back for a refresher on the episodes as I couldn’t remember a lot. Does anyone know if it is actually Matty or was google lying to me 😂
Paddy was Bobby's brother and it's definitely Matty who's the Dad. I googled as well to see what the hell happens next coz I don't remember! 100% Matty though!
 
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Oh wow don't think I've ever heard the N word being used in a soap before!
 
Now caught up
I know there's a warning about some language used at the time but was still shocked they let those disgusting words in in that scene with Nisha.
 
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Now caught up
I know there's a warning about some language used at the time but was still shocked they let those disgusting words in in that scene with Nisha.
I think this became the issue with Brookside in the 90. For me, it was about shocking the audience, for shocking’s sake.
The incest storyline is an example.

Brookside was groundbreaking in 1982, as it was nothing like other soaps - but then it felt like they needed to continue to be controversial, at every turn.

The writers also experienced a form of amnesia, forgetting who the characters originally were. The early storylines featuring Sheila, were centred on her catholic faith (Bobby’s vasectomy, Karen using contraception), but then they decide years late - that Matty was Barrie’s father. I found it quite ridiculous.

The stereotypes were heavy too. We had both Sheila and Theresa, as catholic women - their faith important to them.
I grew up in Liverpool in the 70s and 80s, in a catholic family with many friends / neighbours also catholic. Most of us not in any way strict, but the stricter catholics I knew, were nothing like Sheila and Theresa.
They went to mass every Sunday and had holy communion, but other than that - lived very “modern” lives. Living together before marriage was to be frowned upon, but not forbidden - and contraception was certainly not taboo.
I always found the characters of Sheila and Theresa quite extreme in that respect, and found them hard to relate to.
 
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@Miss Havisham thanks for that, it's a very interesting insight.
I could never understand the storyline about Barry's father, that felt like it came out of nowhere as Sheila was portrayed as such a staunch Catholic, but Brookie liked to shock, and it sure did that over the years!!
 
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