Don’t miss Hollyoaks, Hollyoaks Later and the crossover with Brookside from Monday 20 October on E4 at 7.00pm
How did this special celebration of Hollyoaks and Brookside come about?
This year is Hollyoaks’ 30th anniversary, and while we have loads of action and brilliant story and unmissable stunts planned, I kept thinking about how important a moment this is in the culture and in the TV landscape right now, for Hollyoaks as a show, for the genre of continuing drama, for the wider Liverpool area. The 30th is such a massive achievement, I started racking my brain about how else we could make noise to make people sit up and notice and give the audience something they hadn’t had before.
Why did you want to do a crossover?
We ask our audience to invest in Hollyoaks and believe in our characters and our world. Soap viewers often watch more than one soap so to respect those fans who invest in a number of different universes, bringing them together is a really exciting prospect. Hollyoaks uses much of the same sets Brookside did, we have crew who started their careers on Brookside. It came to me in a thunderbolt moment, then a few months later ITV announced their crossover with Emmerdale and Coronation Street which is happening next year! I thought it was interesting we were thinking on the same lines of respecting the soap viewer in this way.
How did you go about making it happen?
Channel 4 were incredibly excited about it from the get go. Where there’s a will there’s a way! It’s been a very big strategy in terms of making this happen. We needed to get the Close which had been sold off, all these houses that used to be owned by Mersey TV are now people’s homes. And I didn’t want to approach the cast until we had the Close. It’s been a massive collective effort by everyone, so much love and passion has gone into it.
What made Brookside so special?
Brookside put working class Liverpool on the map, and showed real people on screen like Tony Warren sought to do with Coronation Street. Brookside broke ground in terms of telling a different tone of story and subject matter. It said: ‘This is our working class reality, serious things happen in our community and we’re not going to shy away from talking about them, and being a bit political with it’. It made waves, told hugely iconic stories – Sheila Grant’s rape and the body under patio is referenced in every soap writers’ room constantly as totemic, defining TV moments.
Has Hollyoaks inherited Brookside’s mantle of breaking taboos in soap?
Yes, Hollyoaks took on telling bold stories but from a younger perspective. It didn’t shy away from showing young people dropping dead from taking an ecstasy tablet, showing self-harm, the first depiction of male rape. Phil Redmond’s genius was to serve both demographics with the same kind of tone, and that is now a huge part of our signature Hollyoaks hallmark: brave, bold issue stories that aren’t told anywhere else in soaps.
How else has Brookside influenced Hollyoaks?
The irreverence and cheekiness, both shows were not afraid to be disruptive and mess with the mould, shake things up and be a bit naughty. It’s about pushing it as far as we can and not worry how people might respond. Are they still going to like it anyway, and get the fizzy feeling? If it makes them uncomfortable, does that matter? That’s what Phil did with Brookside and we still aim for that with Hollyoaks. That is what is so important about this celebration, two shows made in Liverpool that earned their place in the cultural landscape. We hope the audience that comes to this because of Brookside carries on watching Hollyoaks.
Who was your favourite Brookside character?
Sheila Grant was the original matriarch. She stuck out to me as a child, Sue Johnston performed it with such grit and strength. Always so stoical and brave, which is incredibly reflective of the Liverpool identity. Sheila sums up the spirit of Brookside for me.
Could there be more crossovers with Brookside in the future?
Never say never. Most importantly, I am so proud we have opened the door to that universe and now it exists and is inscribed in Hollyoaks history. Hopefully we can continue to reference it and I’d love to see characters crossing back in as much as we can, we don’t want to forget it.
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