You can Take The High Road, but not Brookside
Brookside fans have stepped up their campaign to see the iconic series released on DVD.
A petition signed by more than 5,000 fans from all over the country has been submitted to Lime Pictures Studios and Channel 4 in an attempt to see a ‘best of Brookside’ collection released.
The production company who made Brookside under its previous moniker of Mersey Television still own the rights to the show says Channel 4 who only have the rights to show it online.
The soap, which ran for 21 years on channel 4, has never had any kind of commemorative DVD in shops since its cancellation in 2003.
Creator Phil Redmond has also been sent a copy of the petition in an attempt to get ‘Brookie’ back on the shelves. He also has plans up his sleeve for the axed soap as it steps closer to its 30th Anniversary in November 2012.
Lee Brady of the BrooksideFans website said: “We hope that the 5,000 plus signatures we have gained will be enough to get a DVD released for all Brookside fans.
“We’ve been waiting to see all the great classic moments & storylines from the 21 years it was running for on Channel 4.”
Scottish ITV broadcaster STV have begun to upload every surviving episode of their ITV soap ‘Take The High Road’ to You Tube as well as having a wide selection on their own stv.tv website of classic programming, including long forgotten serials such as Cannock Way. Channel 4 however have no plans to do this with Brookside currently.
A Channel 4 spokesperson said “We have the rights to show the programme online only as the programme is cancelled. All other rights reverted back to Mersy Television Limited. We may put more episodes on in the future (4od) however we do not have the space for this at the moment.”
Brookside is currently the only successful, long running UK soap opera to air on commercial television in the last 30 years not to be released on DVD. The major ITV sagas have since 2005 all seen high profile releases. Bookside will be 30 next year and therefore a perfect time for a DVD release. Recent soap milestones have seen an Emmerdale 35 Years celebratory DVD, Crossroads a 45th anniversary box set and Coronation Street last year released a 50 years special release.