Shocking storylines

WITHIN three months of starting, Brookside claimed its first life with a sense of melodrama the soap would soon become famous for. Here are some of its highlights:

* Record producer Gavin Taylor suffers a brain haemorrhage in a shocking death just months after Brookside is launched.

* The Grant family was the cornerstone of the Close, often at the centre of the most sensational tales, with Sheila (Sue Johnston) raped during the show’s early years. Her bad boy son Barry went on to become a killer, murdering Terry Sullivan’s wife Sue and child Danny.

* Fireman George Jackson was framed for a crime he did not commit. It laid the groundwork for high-profile miscarriages of justice cases on Coronation Street and EastEnders.

* The close has seen two sieges – in 1985, gunman John Clarke held up the residents of number seven, killing himself and Kate Moses. In 1994, Simon Howe’s cult moved into number five, held Barry Grant hostage and set off a bomb.

* Another explosion to rock the Close was at the shopping parade in 1998 when a gas oven exploded, demolishing shops.

* Number 10 became known as the house of horror for its grisly deaths. They included the notorious body under the patio killing.

* Middle-class drug addiction was tackled when Nicholas Black was revealed as a heroin addict.

* A number of show regulars were bumped off by a mystery plague.

* The effects of bullying were tackled with a tragic conclusion when Anthony Murray (played by Ray Quinn) killed his tormentor, Imelda Clough.

* Brookside broke new ground by featuring a lesbian kiss between Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) and Margaret Clemence.