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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Victoria Johns

Channel 4 soap Brookside is returning to TV screens for the first time in 20 years

Brookside fans will be delighted to know the show is returning to TV for the first time in 20 years.

The iconic Channel 4 soap broke boundaries when it aired in 1982, tackling social issues, including rape, bullying and incest.

Now viewers can stream the programme from the start for the first time ever, after STV Player struck a new deal with distributor, All3Media International.

Casualty actress Sunetra Sarker played Nisha Batra in Brookside and credited the soap for giving her an incredible start in TV.

She said: “I owe a lot to Brookside as I was lucky enough to have been spotted at a bus stop when I was 15 and given the role of Nisha. Had I known then that Brookside Close would be the road that led me to my surprising and eventful career, I would never have believed it!

Brookside fans will be delighted to know the show is returning to TV for the first time in 20 years (PA)

“I am thrilled that STV Player is airing Brookie again after all these years. I never fail to hear fans tell me how much they still miss the show," she told Metro.

Richard Williams, Managing Director of Digital, STV added: “It may have been two decades since Brookside drew to a close, but the love for the show from its passionate army of fans has never waned. We’re so pleased to be the first streaming service to bring this legendary piece of TV history back into viewers’ living rooms for free."

STV Player will drop the first 10 episodes of Brookside on February 1, and five new episodes will land each week thereafter.

Sunetra Sarker credited the soap for her TV career (PA)

The soap was one of the first programmes to share helpline details on screen as its ground-breaking storylines aired - including British TV’s first lesbian kiss as well as the ‘body under the patio’ storyline.

At the height of its popularity the show, which launched the careers of stars including Anna Friel and Sue Johnston, had massive audiences of 8 million viewers, peaking at 9 million in January 1995 when Trevor Jordache’s body was discovered at the back of Number 10.

Claire Sweeney, who played Lindsey Corkhill in Brookside, said the soap should never have been cancelled (Channel 4)

But by the early noughties numbers had plummeted to less than a million and Brookie’s final episode went out in 2003, almost 21 years to the day since it started.

Claire Sweeney, who played Jimmy's daughter Lindsey Corkhill - who became an accidental drug smuggler - told the Mirror the show should "never have been cancelled".

Recalling her fondness for the soap, she said: “I had a ritual with my mum where we’d go to the market and come home to watch the Saturday omnibus every week. We loved it.”

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