[JasonB]

Brookside will stream full episodes on STV Player from February 1st. 

Brookside: Actors' delight as STV Player to stream soap from start - BBC News

Brookside: Actors' delight as STV Player to stream soap from start - BBC Ne…
Claire Sweeney, who played Lindsay Corkhill, says the Liverpool-based soap was a…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[tellyblues]

It's not new episodes so isn't the same as with Neighbours.

[JasonB]

It's not new episodes so isn't the same as with Neighbours.

Edited post as the second line of the headline was cut off from a social media source.

[James2001]

Good to hear, been wanting to see Brookside from the start for decades. I think the only 80s episodes I've ever seen properly are the first episode and those around Sheila's rape (I saw the latter both on Channel 4's soap weekend in 1996 and when they put a bunch of episodes on 4OD- they, with episode one, were the only 80s episodes among them as far as I can remember). Interesting it's STV and not Channel 4 doing this though.

Never had access to UK Living/Living TV when they were repeating it, then they moved the repeats to Sky One, skipping several months in the process, then throwing the episodes around the schedule before dumping them in the middle of the night and dropping them.

STV Player have been doing this with High Road ever since STV2 closed down as well, uploading 10 episodes every week.

Hopefully someone will give us Emmerdale Farm and even Coronation Street from the start as well. While we do have televised repeat runs of both, they also both started well into the show's runs and many of us would love to see the early episodes.

Interestingly, in soap news. Network are going to release a massive Crossroads boxset which has every surviving episode from the start until Meg's departure in 1981. Though, unlike Corrie and Emmerdale, most episodes of Crossroads until the mid-70s are missing and there's missing episodes into the early 80s, so it's not going to be a complete run. It's still over 700 episodes though. Probably the biggest boxset ever released in the UK (though there's been some huge ones in Australia).

In one of the shots at the end of the 1982 titles, you can see the security lodge at the bottom of the close, though before the barrier was installed. Was there abandoned for years after the show ended, though in the last few years they've knocked it down and built two new houses in its place

[JAS84]

Good timing with that Crossroads set, considering Nolly is about the actress who played Meg.

Why is Brookside on STV Player? Were All4 not interested? It was a Channel 4 show, so you'd think it would go there. The production company (Lime Pictures, formerly called Mersey Television) does still have a relationship with them considering that they also make Hollyoaks. Also, are STV trying to get viewers outside Scotland to watch their service? Worried that viewers inside Scotland will use ITVX for catch-up because of that service's own exclusives, so needed to make up for lost ad revenue somehow?

[James2001]

A bit of a look, and the security lodge isn't visible on the 1982 titles, it can be seen later in the 80s though- still without security barrier, was that not added until a lot later, or is it still a shot from 1982 that just wasn't used until later opening titles? I find it hard to believe the barrier wouldn't have been there by the time the show was actually on air, or there'd be fans running onto the close all the time, even with security in the lodge.



Being filmed in real houses means Brookside always looked better on screen than the studio bound sets of other soaps, even now with improved cameras and lighting they still don't look as good as Brookie did.

A couple of things here- a Brookside episode guide (did used to be on a proper website, but only seems to be available as these text files now) which gives every episode a title (and, the last year or so when it was only the omnibus, there's still three titles for each one, so clearly still technically treated as three episodes, even though they were basically 90 minutes self contained stories by the end). Interesting they seemingly went to the effort of giving every episode a name when it was never used on screen. Also the way it's seemingly split up into 70 series which also seems pretty arbitrary. Though it looks like most notable changes to the show (new titles, rearranged theme tune, switch to 16:9, addition of the film look, even the episodes Sky One's repeat run began and ended with) do co-incide with the start of a new "series".

www.brooksideepisodes.com 

Untitled

  Source: www.brooksideepisodes.com

And also, the raw footage of the Magic Rabbits, seemingly the only thing that ever seemed to be on TV in Brookside:

www.youtube.com 

The audio's a bit strange, it begins with tone, then a lengthy silence, then we hear the theme music before finally hearing the on set audio. The whole thing is bizarre and even a bit creepy.

[GMc]

Good timing with that Crossroads set, considering Nolly is about the actress who played Meg.

Why is Brookside on STV Player? Were All4 not interested? It was a Channel 4 show, so you'd think it would go there. The production company (Lime Pictures, formerly called Mersey Television) does still have a relationship with them considering that they also make Hollyoaks. Also, are STV trying to get viewers outside Scotland to watch their service? Worried that viewers inside Scotland will use ITVX for catch-up because of that service's own exclusives, so needed to make up for lost ad revenue somehow?

STV Player is now a UK-wide streaming service. Also, the ITVX exclusives you mention are exclusive on STV Player in it's own licence regions.

[James2001]

STV player's been UK wide for years (albeit without the ITV content... though you can get it if you put in a Scottish postcode, just like putting an English, Welsh or NI postcode will give you ITVX content in Scotland), they've had a fair amount of bought in and imported content even before this. Still a suprise to see Brookside though.

[Ash101]

Good timing with that Crossroads set, considering Nolly is about the actress who played Meg.

Why is Brookside on STV Player? Were All4 not interested? It was a Channel 4 show, so you'd think it would go there. The production company (Lime Pictures, formerly called Mersey Television) does still have a relationship with them considering that they also make Hollyoaks. Also, are STV trying to get viewers outside Scotland to watch their service? Worried that viewers inside Scotland will use ITVX for catch-up because of that service's own exclusives, so needed to make up for lost ad revenue somehow?

STV Player is now a UK-wide streaming service. Also, the ITVX exclusives you mention are exclusive on STV Player in it's own licence regions.

That just apply to ITVX Exclusives that will end up on ITV1/STV, not any for other channels. 

For example Riches is on there as that’s set for ITV1/STV but Loaded In Paradise isn’t as it’s set for ITV2.

[James2001]

Looks like it's going to be 10 episodes for the first week, then 5 a week afterwards, going to take the best part of a decade to get through the show's run at that pace.