Please help with 1993 - the cult leader from Manchester
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Brookside
kwalstedt-1 — 18 years ago(September 25, 2007 12:11 AM)
HelloI'm wondering if someone can help me. I watched Brookside from 1993-1994 (I'm an American who lived in Britain those two years and got hooked on Brookside.) Yes, I was there for the lesbian kiss! After I left the U.K. I couldn't watch anymore, but I still remember nearly everything about it except unfortunately for the names of some of the characters.
I remember there was a young man from Manchester who was a sort of a fundamentalist Christian/cult leader who was gradually indoctrinating more and more of the young people into his cult. He even had them all living in a house together. Then someone who I think thought he was stopping some sort of great evil from happening planted a bomb and blew up the house. I remember the bomber as being the man that
Jacqui
Penny was in love with (was that Barry Grant?) That is, if Penny was the glamourous brunette who was being blackmailed by a tabloid because she had had an affair with an MP
What I'm wondering is what was the name of the Mancunian cult leader? I can't remember if the bomb killed him or not. What became of him?
While I'm at it, what happened to the sweet 14 year old boy whose family had to move to Brookside because he had put a girl in a wheelchair when he hit her with a car when he was out joyriding? And he had just returned from two years in a juvenile detention facility (I'm afraid I don't remember what those are called in Britain.) I remember every name in that family was always prefaced by "our" so it was "Our Lee" and "Our John."
Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who can help. -
philc1987 — 18 years ago(September 25, 2007 04:17 PM)
Hi kwalstedt-1
The religious cult leader who you are refering to was called Simon Howe. It was him who blew up No5 Brookside Close. I can't remember the details (it was 1994 after all!!) but i think it was because he wanted to 'cleanse' the house as they were moving on to another place. Barry Grant was the hostage and the man with the moustache was Terry Sullivan.
The bomb was intended to go off after 30 mins but it was accidently set to 30 seconds, and the bomb went off as they were all running down the stairs to get out. They all survived the blast but a few weeks later, Simon commited suicide by filling his car up with fumes by attaching a pipe from his exhaust into the car. Terry tried to save him but he was too late.
This is what Brookside did best, fires and explosions. Easter 1998 saw half of the row of shops completely destroyed by two gas explosions caused by Ron Dixon trying to install a gas cooker by himself. There is a clip of the second explosion on YouTube. Just type in 'Brookside 1998 explosion'. Or just type 'Brookside' for anything to do with the show!!
Lee Banks was I think the name of the charachter you are refering to as the joyrider. I can't remember what happened to him unfortunately.
Anyway, I hope this helps. Any more questions? -
kwalstedt-1 — 18 years ago(September 25, 2007 07:49 PM)
OH, thank you so much! Now I remember that Simon himself set the bomb. Who was the man that Penny had a flirtation with but which they kept not consummating? Too bad for poor Simon, nutter though he was. I really like his accent - it was Mancunian, right? Do you know if Lee Hartney is from Manchester?
Yes, it was "Our Lee" Banks. Why did everyone in that family have "Our" before their first names?
I left before the body under the patio was found, but I read about it afterwards (I do feel a bit pathetic that I remember even this much or worse, that I care what happened!) I hope Beth's mother didn't go to prison.
I can't believe so many shops blew up. I suppose they always had to do something more dramatic to keep people watching.
Thanks again and thanks for the tip about Youtube. I will go there right now! -
philc1987 — 18 years ago(September 26, 2007 02:23 AM)
I think it was Barry who Penny had a flirtation with because she thought he had gone missing when he was being held hostage but I could well be wrong.
The reason why everyone had "Our" before their names is because it is quite common in Liverpool and many other U.K cities. It useually referres to a relative. For example, if I had a brother or cousin called Paul, I would refer to him as "Our Paul"
When Trevor's body was found, Mandy, Beth & Rachel Jordache along with Thomas 'Sinbad' Sweeny all ran off to Ireland. When they were eventually caught, Rachel and Sinbad were released but Mandy and Beth were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder. Two endings were filmed. One was were they were found guilty and one when they were found not guilty and not even the cast members knew which ending was going to be shown
They were found GUILTY!!!
There was a good ending for Mandy but not for Beth. Most residents of the Close set up an appeal for them to be released. On the day of their appeal hearing, Beth tragically died from a heart condition while Mandy was freed. Soon after, she left the close
Anything else you want to know? -
chuffnobbler — 18 years ago(January 11, 2008 11:08 AM)
Wow. All this is coming back to me. Brookie was absolutely mad, but totally addictive, in the mid-90s. It went off its rocker and became unwatchable in approx 1997 though. Mad Simon had brainwashed Miserable Katie Rogers (miserable because her family members kept dying). The hosue explosion was a great moment!
Penny Crosbie's husband was a Tory MP who killed himself after having affairs, etc. She ended up broke and living with her husband's brother (Bing Crosbie) and his 100% brilliant wife Jean. Penny then had a dingdong with Barry Grant, before leaving the Close with a rich businessman she had only known for 3 episodes. -
colbhoy — 17 years ago(July 17, 2008 08:53 AM)
"They all survived the blast but a few weeks later, Simon commited suicide by filling his car up with fumes by attaching a pipe from his exhaust into the car. Terry tried to save him but he was too late."
Ah, this comes back to me now. What actually happened was that Simon had brainwashed Terry into committing suicide with him. Barry Grant came along and found them both unconscious in the car. He pulled out Terry (his best friend) and was in the process of pulling out Simon when he changed his mind and put him back in the car and left him to die, pulling Terry away to safety.