[WillPS]

To be fair, they were probably right that people probably wouldn't remember a minor character played by the same actor with the same name from several years earlier.

Yep absolutely, the programmes were not designed to be watched the way we are all now watching and we have to offer some extra suspension of disbelief as a result.

I don't know any other soaps well enough to know if this neglect of long term canon is just an accepted thing within the genre.

Some of the later stuff in Brookside really pushes it IMO, stuff happens that makes no sense given stuff which would have happened less than a year before in original broadcast time. More on that when we get to it (hopefully!).

[James2001]

Though you could argue it's not a continuity error, just that in universe it's a co-incidence that there's someone with the same first name who looks the same

[WillPS]

Though you could argue it's not a continuity error, just that in universe it's a co-incidence that there's someone with the same first name who looks the same

True. I think it's most likely they just didn't expect anyone to remember this minor character (very fair if several hundred episodes appear between now and the Rogers' arrival).

[James2001]

I don't think Brookside was hugely watched in its early days either, so likely many of the viewers who were around when the Rogers came in weren't even watching when the other "Frank" appeared.

[WillPS]

I don't think Brookside was hugely watched in its early days either, so likely many of the viewers who were around when the Rogers came in weren't even watching when the other "Frank" appeared.

Really? That's interesting.

I thought Brookside was one of the launch line-up hits for Channel 4.

[Blubatt]

I don't think Brookside was hugely watched in its early days either, so likely many of the viewers who were around when the Rogers came in weren't even watching when the other "Frank" appeared.

Really? That's interesting.

I thought Brookside was one of the launch line-up hits for Channel 4.

From what I've read, it wasn't for a couple years until the show's milk teeth came out and it became successful

[James2001]

I don't think Brookside was hugely watched in its early days either, so likely many of the viewers who were around when the Rogers came in weren't even watching when the other "Frank" appeared.

Really? That's interesting.

I thought Brookside was one of the launch line-up hits for Channel 4.

I imagine there would have been a lot of people who watched the earlier episodes out of curiosity who then tuned out. That certainly happened with Countdown.

With early Channel 4's income being guaranteed, I imagine low viewing figures weren't the issue they would have been post-1993, so they could stick with shows that weren't rating brilliantly and hope for them to grow... or just entertain the audiences they had. I'm sure I read somewhere that at some points in 83 they were only getting around half a million viewers (or maybe it was a million- still low in the scheme of things, especially by 1983 standards, the same number that got the show axed), though I could be misremembering.

[Alf Stewart]

As an aside I always thought it was odd that Brookside had two characters with the same name (albeit spelt differently). You had Jacqui Dixon and Jackie Corkhill in at the same time.

Soaps, as a rule of thumb, tend to avoid having characters with the same name at the same time as it does be become confusing. If Jacqui D had married into the Corkhill family there would have been two Jacqui/Jackie Corkhill.

Jimmy: eh, Lindsey have you seen Jacqui/Jackie?
Lindsey: which one?

The only other I can think of that's similar is Bet and Betty in Corrie but they're different enough to not cause a problem. And of course Annie Walker used to refer to Betty as Elizabeth for the avoidance of doubt.

[James2001]

In Corrie in the 90s, you had Bet, Betty and Liz working behind the bar- 3 characters with the same name!

[Alf Stewart]

In Corrie in the 90s, you had Bet, Betty and Liz working behind the bar- 3 characters with the same name!

Oh yes I forgot about Liz!