Brookside was a long-running UK soap opera broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK between November 1982 and November 2003. Set in the fictional Brookside Close in suburban Merseyside, the show was notable for its realistic and socially challenging storylines, even adressing such issues as homosexuality, domestic abuse, and incestuous relationships. It was also uniquely filmed in brand-new purpose-built houses in a real cul-de-sac, situated off Deysbrook Lane in the Croxteth area of Liverpool. Brookside was Channel 4's highest rated programme from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, with audiences regularly in excess of seven million.
Episodes were recently made available for streaming on the STV on-line player.[1]
Links to Peel[]
In the You'll Never Walk Alone Radio 1 special from Liverpool in 1983, Peel meets with Frank Clarke (b.1956), writer for Brookside between 1983-84. On his 23 November 1983 show Peel remarks that he had himself been mentioned in a recent episode of the show. This was indeed in Series 3 Episode 109 aired on 15 November 1983. On being asked by her boss to dispose of a demo-tape brought to a local recording studio by two young budding musicians from Brookside, his assistant retorts:
"I agree with John Peel. He says there are lots of good bands around, they're just not getting the breaks."[2] [3]
According to the Brookside Wiki, Peel was also name-checked in Series 43, Episode 1743 aired on 28 June 1996.[4]
Peel is known to have given at least one play to the 1985 Blazing Saddles single 'Free George Jackson'. The release had been devised by songwriter and producer Steve Wright (not the DJ), co-author of the theme to Brookside. The song refers to a Brookside character who had been wrongly imprisoned, and a victim of criminal injustice. In an effort to heighten interest in the TV series, a "campaign" to free the character spilled over into real life when telecommunications company BT set up a helpline for viewers to call to receive the latest news on the subject. T-shirts, badges and posters were also created and the single was released.
Wirral performance poet Jegsy Dodd's backing band, formed on the suggestion of Peel, was called 'The Sons of Harry Cross', taking their name from a major Brookside character.
In 2003 Peel also gave some air-time to Liverpool indie band Tramp Attack, co-founded by Brookside actor Kristian Ealey (d.2016). Ealey had also played the role of Ringo Starr in the 2000 film In His Life: The John Lennon Story.