[James2001]

I have tried the wayback machine, the various .txt files haven't been archived there, sadly.

[Brekkie]

Not sure how complete it is but is an episode guide here:

thetvdb.com 

Brookside - Aired Order - All Seasons - TheTVDB.com
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  Source: thetvdb.com

[sjames]

For those missing out on episode guides, I'm looking to launch a new Brookside resource site soon. I used to be involved in the old Brookside Soapbox site and have been given permission to reproduce some of their old content. I should hopefully have it ready to launch in a couple of weeks. It's been slightly delayed due to a family bereavement.

I've been watching the STV episodes over the last few weeks, and it's been nice to see episodes in decent quality compared to variable quality that's been available on YouTube/torrent sites. I only started watching the soap around the time of Millennium Club explosion, so got a lot of history to catch up with!

[James2001]

The earliest I remember properly was Mick Johnson being stalked by Jenny Swift, though even that's a long way off from where we are right now!

I do have vague memories of a couple of other things though, like Trevor Jordache being killed, and a house blowing up (which I think was part of the cult storyline).

Heck, just those storylines being mentioned tells you how different the show became compared to the 1983 episodes, where there's nothing in particular happening in most episodes.

[James2001]

Just come across this on YouTube, an Open Air feature from 1987, though sadly the beginning looks to be missing. We see some of the inside of the house on the very corner, which was an office. Interestingly it looks like that house is also three houses in one building (two front doors on one side, another on the other), in a very unusual design!

www.youtube.com 

What Phill points out as being the accounts office portakabin is actually visible on the 1987-91 title sequence as well.

[Alf Stewart]

That's an excellent food find @James2001 thanks for sharing.

I knew make-up and costume used one of the 'unused' houses and there was a canteen in one too but I hadn't realised so much of the other production facilities were housed (no pun intended) there too. It really was a proper little production centre. Must have been a great place to work.

The guy at the very start sounds like me might be an editor as the says he's putting the finishing touches to 652 and Phil says that'll take them up to Christmas so post production must have been in one of the houses as well.

Does anyone know how many of the houses Mersey TV actually owned? I always assumed it was just the half dozen we saw on screen plus a couple of others but in reality it might well have been twice as many.

[James2001]

Brookside episode 652 went out in January 1989 (which would match up with them saying production on it would last until Christmas), so that means the clip must be from the end of 1988, later than the 1987 the uploaded put.

[DJ Dave]

That's an excellent food find @James2001 thanks for sharing.

I knew make-up and costume used one of the 'unused' houses and there was a canteen in one too but I hadn't realised so much of the other production facilities were housed (no pun intended) there too. It really was a proper little production centre. Must have been a great place to work.

The guy at the very start sounds like me might be an editor as the says he's putting the finishing touches to 652 and Phil says that'll take them up to Christmas so post production must have been in one of the houses as well.

Does anyone know how many of the houses Mersey TV actually owned? I always assumed it was just the half dozen we saw on screen plus a couple of others but in reality it might well have been twice as many.

I heard they owned a fair few houses and some where flats that he would rent out to the cast etc/ or they could stay in while filming.

[James2001]

I did read that Brookside owned "13 houses"- though that would depend on the definition of house, whether they classed the semis and triples as one house or two/three. Considering that bloke is shouting from one of the off-close houses, that would suggest the former, which means they probably owned around half of the houses that weren't on the close itself!

I wonder if they moved some facilities away from the houses when they opened all the stuff in Childwall? Probably little need to have things like the post production, accounting, admin etc. actually on the close once they had those facilities.

[WillPS]

I did read that Brookside owned "13 houses"- though that would depend on the definition of house, whether they classed the semis and triples as one house or two/three. Considering that bloke is shouting from one of the off-close houses, that would suggest the former, which means they probably owned around half of the houses that weren't on the close itself!

I wonder if they moved some facilities away from the houses when they opened all the stuff in Childwall? Probably little need to have things like the post production, accounting, admin etc. actually on the close once they had those facilities.

I'm sure one of the houses was freed up - possibly the Farnhams?