[Si-Co]

And I've just had an advert for the Scottish SPCA and a Scottish fraud protection scheme, looks like some Scotland specific ads have started popping up for me again for the first time in weeks.

Out of interest, did you register with your own postcode or a Scottish postcode? I registered with a Scots postcode (to allow me to stream STV live, amongst other things) and I seem to get about 90% Scottish ads.

[Brekkie]

This week's Brookie-fest has appeared on Sky, but the first episode is randomly missing.

Seems to be an issue every week with the uploads to Sky.   Indeed surely they won't support this on demand system too much longer duplicating content (or not in many cases) from the app.

[James2001]

And I've just had an advert for the Scottish SPCA and a Scottish fraud protection scheme, looks like some Scotland specific ads have started popping up for me again for the first time in weeks.

Out of interest, did you register with your own postcode or a Scottish postcode? I registered with a Scots postcode (to allow me to stream STV live, amongst other things) and I seem to get about 90% Scottish ads.

My own postcode.

[James2001]

One thing I've noticed is the area where the path to the parade will be built is currently part of the Collins' garden- which must be around twice the size of the rest of the gardens on the close.

By the time the parade's built, the Dixons are living there, and I wouldn't be suprised if Ron was happy to give up some of his garden seeing as it was a path to his shop.

[Stuart]

One thing I've noticed is the area where the path to the parade will be built is currently part of the Collins' garden- which must be around twice the size of the rest of the gardens on the close.

By the time the parade's built, the Dixons are living there, and I wouldn't be suprised if Ron was happy to give up some of his garden seeing as it was a path to his shop.

The width isn't the issue. This is the first wormhole identified in the universe, which can instantly transport you 7 miles from West Derby to Childwall.  Perhaps they wanted to avoid saying it was "bigger on the inside".

[James2001]

Typing Brookside into Screenocean brings up a handful of episodes, mostly seems to be random episodes, only episode 1, Mandy and Beth murdering Trevor (which after watching, I can actually remember seeing from first time round) and the Beth Jordache kiss seem to be particularly notable ones, a few omnibus editions from 1987 and 1988 as well:

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Most interesting for people here is probably the 1994 episode which involves a couple of characters appearing on GMTV (complete with on screen clock!) and Eammon Holmes and Lorraine Kelly playing themselves.

Interestingly the VT clocks for all but the 2001 episode say "Brookside Productions Ltd" rather than Mersey TV.

Two of the episodes on there have VT clocks with dates that don't match the broadcast of the episode (one being 30/3/93, broadcast on 23/4/93, the other being 15/12/93, shown on 14/1/94), presumably they're edit dates rather than airing. The VT clocks on the other episodes aren't dated.

[WillPS]

Interestingly the VT clocks for all but the 2001 episode say "Brookside Productions Ltd" rather than Mersey TV.

It's not uncommon for copyright to be managed in this way. As a more recent example the copyright for each series of Line of Duty was assigned to a different company, each a subisidiary of what you'd probably think of as the actual production company.

Among other organisational advantages, It means that those particular assets can be hived off relatively easily by just selling the company - think Ragdoll selling off the Tellytubbies as a real-world example of this.

The only weird thing about Brookside's implementation was that they went as far as to give the subsidiary its own branding.

[James2001]

Noticed a couple of clips STV used in their launch promo were from episode 81, seems suprising they used clips from an episode from this far in when all the other clips in it were from the first 20 or so episodes.

[WillPS]

I wonder to what extent Petra and Roger's exit after less than a year on screen was planned?

Gavin dying 2 months in felt like classic Redmond to me but the way these two characters seemingly had a between episodes change in direction makes me think that it was not intended. Actors had enough (was it not such a great production early on?)? Changes deemed to be needed as ratings not good?

Interesting that Barry had an extended break so early on too.

[James2001]

Apparently Alexandra Pigg left because of how miserable and depressed they'd made Petra- which you can understand after watching the show. Can't speak for Roger though- but apart from a couple of minor appearances in 84 and 85, his final appearance was in episode 104, the 1st anniversary, which would suggest a 1 year contract which wasn't renewed.