Carlton Television saga London Bridge coming to DVD
The short-lived 1990s Carlton soap London Bridge is coming to DVD.
The cast of London Bridge in 1996. Image: Carlton London Broadcasting.
The short-lived saga was shown by Carlton in the London area and was its first attempt at producing a soap opera – in the early 2000s Carlton revived the midlands motel-based serial Crossroads.
London Bridge originally launched in 1996 as a late-night drama but was re-booted after its first season as a twice weekly soap opera. Despite not being broadcast outside of the London area it still attracted quite a few actors who have since gone onto better things.
Related Feature: Forgotten Regional Soap Operas.
Carlton also tried to remake ATV’s Crossroads, which lasted less than three years. Image: Crossroads in 2001. Carlton-Central.
Amongst the cast of London Bridge actors such as Simone Labibib and Miranda Jones, both of whom would later star in Bad Girls together, were amongst the cast.
Brookside/Casualty actress Sunetra Sarker, also known for her role in No Angels, was also part of the regular performers. Other cast members included Sean Francis, Jo-Anne Stockham and Ellen Thomas.
London Bridge came to an end in 1999 because, as it was not networked across ITV, it was relatively poorly rated for Carlton. It’s end came at a time when the ITV Network were reducing the number of ‘regional opt outs’ leaving few slots to air the programme in.
Network DVD are releasing London Bridge on DVD – comprising of the first batch of episodes. It was be available on DVD from 24th October.
