Oakdale

Loved Family Affairs, one of my all-time favourite shows. I wish there were more episodes online. Actually I wish I'd recorded them all at the time, seeing as how hard they are to come by. Found this 1997 episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUfnMXib17U and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx2-gGh0g_8 Watching it back, makes me wish they hadn't killed off the Harts. I loved Annie and Holly, and Jack and Elsa were great too. They could have just boosted the cast and featured the family less rather than losing such great characters. Good to see Maria and Claire again, and Idris Elba as Tim! Funny to think he's now in Hollywood. My favourite from that episode though has to be Pete Callan, what a legend. Classic soap bad guy, his volatile relationships with Maria, Siobhan and lastly, the wonderful Eileen have to go down in history. I also particularly liked his relationship with Sadie Hargreaves, how he treated her like his mother and was the one woman in his life he showed full respect. Was lost for words when he was dropped from the show, he had a great exit but it's sad that he didn't see it through to the end. I remember Eileen flushed his ashes down the toilet then torched the Swan! What a woman! Favourite character of all was Yasmin, she was never short of a word or two, and was such a great comedy character. The actress has found moderate success now as a singer (under the name 'Ebony Bones'), but a shame she wasn't snapped up by another show like EastEnders. That said, I can imagine it would be less comedy and more drudgery over there! Same goes for David Easter who played Pete. He's a great actor, should be on television more, I last saw him in an episode of The Tudors in an extra's role! I wonder if Channel 5 ever regret dropping FA, I mean they've never been able to find a good replacement for the timeslot or even come close to the ratings it got. But then I heard it cost them 10m a year to produce, guess that's the direction of TV now though. Less quality drama, more cheap throwaways, which are probably lucrative in repeat fees for the hundreds of lifestyle channels! If anyone finds any more episodes, please post them! I'd be very grateful