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Steve Murray: Steven Fletcher
Tim O'Leary: Philip Olivier
Abby: Lisa Hogg
Kelly: Sarah Jayne Dunn
Tanya: Claire Harman
Terry Gibson: Greg Milburn
Hotel Cashier: Pete Farrar
Sarah Dunn prepares for a 'date'
Brookside: Unfinished Business
is the one-off DVD episode (and on video, for the uninitiated) which finally
brings the story of Tim's wife's murderer, Terry Gibson (Greg Milburn)
to a conclusion.
Brookside itself was brought to a conclusion on Tuesday November 4th
2003, when its final episode was broadcast on Channel 4. Creator Phil Redmond
blamed the station's Michael Jackson for cancelling it, hence the creation in
the final month of drug dealer Jack Michaelson, probably the soap's first
character to routinely use strong language naturally and both caused and
received some interesting violent scenes. However, what was once a soap that
dealt with real-world issues such as unemployment, rape and drug abuse, ended
up going too over-the-top and things took a turn for the worse in the mid-to-late
'90s when the posh Simpson family found their children were lovers and Lindsey
Corkhill pulled a gun on her no-good husband Gary, to get across the fact that
she'd really had enough.
In the last year of Brookside, most of the scripts were completely
pointless. After the siege at its 20th anniversary, characters were killed
off at random or just simply left the close. The Gordon family never had a plot
to cling to except moping around after their Dad was kidnapped by Gibson and
later wound up dead. This led to one of the programme's worst-ever death scenes
when Mother Gordon was in a traffic jam, then we were led to believe that
off-screen she managed to hit the car in front so badly (at little or no speed?)
that she cracked her head on the windscreen and when we returned to her she was
sat slumped in the driver's seat with blood pouring out of her ears. Lucky
escape for her(!)
I saw most of the episodes from its last year, but fast-forwarded through most
of them and when any were devoted entirely to Mike & Rachel and/or Dr Parr &
his psycho wife Gaby I don't think I watched a minute of those since they were
such dreadfully dull characters.
Who's that girl?
Before the soap came to a close, a rumour went around saying one or two major
characters would die in the final episode, namely Ron Dixon having a final
heart attack, or Jimmy Corkhill getting accidentally shot when someone brandished
a gun against the Cinerco company for wanting to buy the residents out of house
and home. It was also rumoured that with the demise of this, and the extension
of Hollyoaks to five nights a week at the same time, some of the close's
occupants would make the transition from one to another, presumably the younger
cast member. This is why I thought the late introduction of the stunning Lisa
Hogg (right), as Tim's new girlfriend Abby, was something to substantiate this
rumour. And with the addition to the cast of this spin-off of one of the
Chester-based soap's longest running actresses, Sarah Dunn (top right), I figured
she'd be the link between the two, but since she's someone else called Kelly
then I guess that dashes those rumours, sadly.
So, back to the title in hand and we're introduced to two new girls in the cast,
call-girl Kelly (Sarah Dunn) and her flatmate Tanya (Claire Harman, bottom right), who
thinks emulating her friend's occupation will solve her huge credit card bill
problems. However, her first client turns out to be you-know-who and guess
who's called on for their limo services?
Lisa Hogg joins Tim in his limo
It doesn't take a genius to work out
how things will turn out, since we were told beforehand this is the final
appearance for Terry Gibson, but even for an 85-minute TV movie there's an awful
lot of padding. A couple of gory-ish moments bring about the reason for the
18-certificate, but while it'll make for a reasonable evening's rental, it's
not worth the full asking price.
I even spotted an uncredited cameo from an old workmate, Pete Farrar,
who's now a model/actor/presenter and has appeared on BBC1's The Heaven &
Earth Show, showing up here as a hotel cashier (Hi, Pete! :)
Apparently Phil Redmond wants to let Brookside live on in DVD form, in a series
of one-off specials such as this. If that's to happen every three months as
planned, then expect the next one to be about Barry Grant (Paul Usher)
who disappeared part-way into the final TV broadcast after telling the others
that his brother Damon's killers were being released that day. However, if
Redmond couldn't get the viewers to watch for free, how can he realistically
expect them to pay a penny short of £20 a time?
Claire Harman gets ready to meet Gibson
This special is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, as the programme
was, and looks perfectly fine bitrate-wise although it still suffers from the
comparitively recent decision to "treat something shot on video to look like
film" when they should've left it as it was. There's no problems with the
sound either, but not much goes on in this Dolby Surround soundstage.
The extras are as follows:
Featurette: The Story So Far (2½ mins):
Well, more a brief summary of what led up to this manhunt, shown as clips
from the siege episodes - sometimes with and sometimes without the dodgy
'pretend film' effect, including when Gibson shot the police helicopter down
and it blew up the petrol station which was never rebuilt and/or conveniently
forgot about.
Behind the scenes (18 mins):
Does exactly what is says, but isn't wildly exciting or revealing. Don't
watch it before the main feature though.
Interviews (15 mins):
Between 4-6 minutes apiece with Steven Fletcher, Philip Olivier and director
Adrian Vitoria talk about their part in this drama. The interviews are
reasonably interesting as they each give their take on things, but then
it was far from the best drama I've ever seen.
Picture Gallery:
30 pics in all, with a few for each of Steven Fletcher, Philip Olivier,
Sarah Jayne Dunn, Claire Harman and Greg Milburn. It says here that Sarah's
character is called Kelly Martindale, yet we see her credit card bill says
Kelly Hall, not that it's a big plot point, you understand.
Featurette: Ten of the Best (30 mins):
Counting down in reverse order...
1. Mandy and Beth kill Trevor (1993)
2. Sheila is raped (1986)
3. Damon dies (1987)
4. Billy drives over his neighbours' lawns (1987)
5. Antony drowns Imelda (2002)
6. The first episode of Brookside (1982)
7.Jimmy confesses he killed Tony Dixon (1994)
8. Beth and Margaret kiss (1994)
9. Jimmy crashes into Frank Rogers' car (1993)
10. Jenny Swift takes Mick hostage (1995)
"Brookside: 100 Greatest Moments" trailer (1½ mins):
15 births, 23 marriages, 24 families, 70 deaths, 2932 episodes.
The video/DVD release of this can't be far off.
"Brookside: Settling Up" trailer (4 mins):
Barry Grant seeks revenge on his brother's killers. Jimmy Corkhill joins in,
and the trailer also features a present-day Simon O'Brien as Damon.
Audio commentary:
From the two male leads Steven Fletcher and Philip Olivier.
Most of the menus have music, the main one also mixing in clips from the
programme. Just 8 chapters and no subtitles though, which is a shame.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
