In Profile: Paul Marquess

Last week it was announced that Lucy Allan was quitting her role of producer on Hollyoaks to be Lime Picturesreplaced by Paul Marquess. Allan had taken over from Bryan Kirkwood in January 2008 having previous produced the first season of Hollyoaks Later. Kirkwood was indeed a hard act to follow after such a successful run of good storylines, strong ratings, a string of awards and critical acclaim so any new producer was always going to have a tough time living up to Kirkwood's legacy. One year on and after some of the soaps worst ratings in years and some poorly received storylines Lucy Allan has decided to step down. Replacing her is Paul Marquess; the man who blew up Sun Hill police station and killed off countless characters in The Bill.

As we stated in our introduction it won't be the first time that Paul Marquess has produced a soap for Channel Four having previously worked on Brookside for several years. As you probably all know Hollyoaks and Brookside were both created by Phil Redmond and over the years the two soaps – while Brookside was on-air – featured a few crossover elements. Paul Marquess was producer on Brookside between 1999 and 2001 during its declining years. The Liverpool soap had seen better days and its heyday was long behind it. A series of sensationalist storylines over the years had seen viewers turn off the soap in favour of "lighter soaps" that didn't tackle such taboo subjects as incest. An over-reliance on these plots and stunts – such as huge explosions and car accidents – had also taken their toll on audience levels.

The ratings for the soap were falling and within a few years it was cancelled but Paul Marquess tenure at the soap represent its final watchable days before the rot really set in. It was by no means back to the golden days of Brookside in the 1980s but it was better than what came later when Phil Redmond took back control of his soap in 2002. By this time the soap had got a reputation for being depressing and the storylines that would be introduced by Marquess would not alter the public's perception of them. One of the more memorable storylines from his time on the soap was the bullying storyline of Anthony Murray [Raymond Quinn] which resulted in the young lad accidentally murdering one of his bullies. The storyline which controversial and prompted some complaints from viewers but it did also receive good reviews from critics and also an award at the British Soap Awards. The storyline was a long-running one and dealt with the full implications of Anthony's ordeal and the devastating effect it had on his family. One of the actors heavily involved in the storyline was Bernie Nolan who played Diane Murray – the actress would later quit the soap to follow Paul Marquess across to The Bill.

Another storyline which was well received and seen as relatively ground-breaking at the time was the murder of Suzanne Morrisey/Farnham in 2000 sparking a whodunit storyline. The storyline progressed as a series of flashbacks revealing her final hours and the confrontations she had with various enemies who were all suspects. Eventually the killer was revealed in a final flashback. The use of flashbacks – while common in American soaps – were not a typical convention of British soaps at the time but within the next few years flashback segments would feature on Hollyoaks, Night and Day and EastEnders. However, a poorly received storyline was the bizarre lesbian love triangle involving Lindsey Corkhill [Claire Sweeney], her mother Jackie [sue Jenkins] and another female. The character of Lindsey had been transformed, over the previous years, from a down-trodden chip-shop worker into a gun-toting, bisexual gangster and then producers decided to turn Jackie Corkhill bisexual as well in one of the soaps worst love triangles ever. Needless to say those who were still watching by this point were not impressed.

In 2002 Paul Marquess was made the new producer of ITV's police-drama The Bill. The series wasn't performing as well as the network wanted and they particularly wanted to attract a younger audience to the series – they wanted the serial sexing up. Paul Marquess was ruthless in his goal of turning around the fortunes of the show and injecting younger blood into it. Six characters were axed from the soap almost immediately, several of them long-running characters who were popular with audiences. In a storyline about racial tension in Sun Hill riots broke out resulting in the death of one character while an explosion in the police station itself killed off a further five characters.

In their place newer characters – most of who were acted by ex-soap stars – were brought in. Roberta Taylor, Beth Cordingly, Pal Aron, Diane Parish, Todd Carty, Russell Floyd, Natalie J Robb and Jane Danson were just some of the new actors introduced to the series all of whom had regular stints in other soaps before joining The Bill. The character of PC Luke Aston [scott Neal] was brought back for the shows first gay romance storyline in order to cover the topic before rival series Merseybeat did. Paul Marquess openly admitted he wanted to screen a gay male kiss between two officers before BBC One's Merseybeat did and so a love triangle between Luke, Kerry [beth Cordingly] and Craig Gilmore [Hywel Simons] was crafted. Following the conclusion of this gay love storyline two more followed with DS Debbie McAlister suddenly turning bisexual at the drop of hat and later the poorly received character of PC Lance Powel being introduced – later killed off by a "gay serial killer".

The Bill moved away from being about cops and robbers as it shifted its focus towards the personal lives of the officers and a series of sensationalist storylines were introduced; serial killer, serial rapist, serial sniper, rape, murder, suicide and incest were on the menu under Marquess reign and more and more characters were killed off. Several were victims of murders [stabbings, shootings, drownings] while others were victims of deranged killers – such as PC Cathy Bradford [Connie Hyde] who was a fully fledged bunny-boiler who wrecked havoc during her stint at the station. Other storylines included the abduction of DS Sam Nixon [Lisa Maxwell] daughter Abigial [Georgia Moffett], the disappearance of DC Eva Sharpe's daughter, the suicide of Superintendent Tom Chandler [steven Hartly] and the drug addiction of Nick Klien.

ThamesIn 2003 Marquess launched the shows second attempt at a spin-off series with M.I.T Murder Investigation Team in which the first episode saw yet another Sun Hill regular killed off. Samantha Spiro and Lindsey Coulson lead the cast of the first season while the second season saw Diane Parish' character cross over and half the cast axed with just Coulson and two others returning. The spin-off was axed after it second season as ITV lost faith in the series and constantly delayed its broadcast.

It was also in 2003 that he was made head of drama at Thames Television meaning he also took on a Thamesrole as Executive Producer on the company's other soap – Family Affairs. The Channel Five soap had always struggled with ratings and over its short span – it launched in 1997 – had undergone numerous revamps designed to boost ratings by various producers. Each revamp met with little success although in its last few years the soap did enjoy wider recognition thanks to a series of high-profile storylines which boosted its ratings somewhat and also lead to several awards at the British Soap Awards. Alongside these higher profile storylines were the casting of familiar faces to audiences such as Gary Webster, Kazia Pelka and Kim Taylforth amongst others. Later on Webster and Pelka would both go on to have recurring roles in The Bill when the axe fell on Family Affairs in 2005.

ITVMarquess' other notable credit is as the man behind Footballers Wives – the ITV glossy/trashy drama series from Shed Productions. While Brian Park and his Shed team developed the drama for ITV it is Marquess who is credited as having come up with the concept for the series. Footballers Wives didn't really take off until season three when the shameless antics of its characters, such as Tanya Turner [Zoe Lucker] reached a peak with the introduction of a bisexual couple Amber [Lalia Rouass] and Conrad [ben Price], the death of Frank [John Forgeham] via too much sexless and other bonkers storylines which won it millions of fans.

In 2005 Marquess left Thames Television for a role at Endemol bringing about his end as producer on The Bill. His replacement was Jonathan Young who had produced the second season of Murder Investigation Team. Under Young the series has shifted its focus yet again with more emphasis on the typical criminal investigation story rather than the personal lives of the officers. While certain storylines do still involve a personal aspect of their lives the drama has got more of a balance now than under Marquess.

LimeSo what will he bring to Hollyoaks? Will half the cast be killed off in a huge explosion? Will Hollyoaks suddenly be populated by a load of former soap-stars? Will it suddenly feature a series of sensationalist storylines involving bisexual gun-totting gangsters, serial killers, incestuous lovers, crazy cults and psychopaths around every corner?? Well going by his past history the er signs aren't good but then maybe this time Marquess will try something new, original and a little bit more realistic?

http://www.atvnewsne...e-paul-marquess

Edited January 30, 201015 yr by Sylph

I guess Marquess is being restrained so far. There have been no firings as of this first week. I wonder if he's just going to let people leave when their contracts are up.

I wonder if he'll start off with some big explosive stunt?

Didn't Kirkwood's first batch of episodes involve Sam setting The Dog on fire, where Clare left Mel and Sophie there to die?

Woah, PM's past storylines are

You guys weren't kidding when you said PM's likes the sensationalism.

I wonder if he'll start off with some big explosive stunt?

Didn't Kirkwood's first batch of episodes involve Sam setting The Dog on fire, where Clare left Mel and Sophie there to die?

I think Kirkwood's episodes started a month or two before then, but that was the big event.

To be fair to Clare , she didn't know what was going to happen (she was even packing to leave town when she heard about the explosion), although she did see some strange man in a hoodie outside the Dog.

Those episodes were so harrowing. I still remember poor Joe and his cell phone. The main thing was the day to day episodes were also quite strong.

Edited January 31, 201015 yr by CarlD2

I guess Marquess will inject a shot of adrenaline into this aimless and boring show.

Hopefully, he doesn't get too carried away. I think Tony Wood and the brass at Lime want to intentionally go in the opposite direction of where Allan took this show, and I can't say I blame them.

Crap, I didn't know Emma Rigby was on Brookside when Paul Marquess was there. She apparently played a character that was sympathetic to Anthony (the boy who murdered his bully).

From what I saw of that bullying storyline, it was so hard to watch. Anthony was such a gentle and good kid. I felt so bad watching him being tormented and driven to the point where he had to kill one of his bullies. It was a great storyline, but hard to watch.

Too bad such little of it is on YouTube, and none of the important parts are on there.

Edited January 31, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Here's Ray Quinn receiving his British Soap Award for the bully story. You see the part where the mother of the bully he killed confronts him in the presentation clip.

You also see some more clips from the story after he accepts his award.

Edited January 31, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

Brookside I love what I've seen of that show.

I guess Marquess will inject a shot of adrenaline into this aimless and boring show.

Hopefully, he doesn't get too carried away. I think Tony Wood and the brass at Lime want to intentionally go in the opposite direction of where Allan took this show, and I can't say I blame them.

Yeah I hope he doesn't get too carried away as well. I don't want him to fire half the cast, I like the fantasy/music montage scene that opens the show. And I do like a lot of these characters. I just feel they haven't been given anything interesting to do. They're also poorly paired and this writer can't commit to anything. I wonder how he's going to handle the flash forward. With Calvin murdered in May, he can't make too many plans. Since they have to revisit that, at least the characters featured should be safe until then. Then again, those were mostly strong characters so I'm hoping he wouldn't cut any McQueen's or Zak.

I can't wait for his first interview!

Paul Marquess has become somewhat of a 'fixer' and does not waste time.

When he took over as the Executive Producer at Family Affairs, 5 characters were written out by the end of the first week (Matt, Karen and Jim left for Spain on Wednesday and Fern and Robert were killed when Jake drove one of Gabriel's dodgy cars [that he was meant to ditch in the river] through the cafe entrance).

This period began (if I remember correctly) on the 1st September 2003. By Decemeber, about half of the cast had been removed (including the last remaining original character, Roy Farmer). He and Alison Davis (Series Producer) did admittedly make the show much better. Ultimately, it suffered from being on Channel 5 and from not having much money thrown at it.

When he took over at The Bill, by the end of 8 episodes, 2 long-serving characters were part of the 7 out of 8 that died in fire-related incidents. The 8th resigned before being prosecuted for beating up a racist suspect. The aforementioned explosions (linked below) being in retaliation to the beating done by DS Singh.

Derek Conway's death (Episode 6)

The Big Explosion (Episode 8)

Marquess (similarly to Bryan Kirkwood) has no problems prolonging a story if there is mileage to it. That approach doesn't always work, but I will credit the man with turning The Bill around and possibly saving it from the axe. His first 6 months, culminating in Superintendent Tom Chandler's suicide were a good watch, even if you did have to remind yourself at times it was called The Bill

So happy were ITV with what he did that a 'Golden Handcuffs' deal was put in place guaranteeing the show remained on air until at least 2010.

So I would say his first 6 months (to a year) if he is allowed free reign should be pretty interesting, although mark my words, the show will probably be rendered unrecognisable. Whether we like what the end result will be remains to be seen...

Edited February 1, 201015 yr by UK LAW

Thank you so much for adding your insights! I have not seen a lot of The Bill and have never seen Family Affairs -- why are there so few clips of that on Youtube? I can mostly only find the lesbian stories -- so you giving us more information is a big help. Why do you think all the revamps of Family Affairs never worked? Did he add any gay characters? I know they had some earlier on, although from the Wikipedia descriptions it sounds like most of them were killed or turned out to be bi.

Hollyoaks has already changed so much of its identity over the past few years anyway, and is now left a hollow shell, there's no real reason for him not to gut it. I just hope he will keep the better actors around. Like Jessica Fox. I can't stand Nancy, but Fox is a very strong actress.

Apparently someone on Twitter said that one of the crew congratulated Andy Moss (Rhys) on staying around, so I guess that either means he has signe a new contract, or Marquess decided not to fire him. I do think Rhys and Neville add to the show with the right stories. Suzanne is OK.

Thanks for the clips. I was reading this about Conway's death, and the aftermath.

He was later killed in a car-bomb attack. After his death, the station organised a memorial fund for him, but it didn't go as planned. PC Des Taviner gave Inspector Andrew Monroe £50 notes, but later realised they were counterfeit. He attempted to retrieve them, but Monroe had locked his door where they were kept. Taviner had another plan however - when Sun Hill was faced with a powercut, a petrol-bomb riot escalated at the station and Taviner threw one himself inside the Inspector's office, not knowing gas cylinders were there. As a result, the station went up in flames, killing Inspector Monroe, PC Ben Haywood, PC Di Worrell, PC Sam Harker, DC Kate Spears and DC Paul Riley.

:o

Edited February 1, 201015 yr by CarlD2

Thank you so much for adding your insights! I have not seen a lot of The Bill and have never seen Family Affairs -- why are there so few clips of that on Youtube? I can mostly only find the lesbian stories -- so you giving us more information is a big help. Why do you think all the revamps of Family Affairs never worked? Did he add any gay characters? I know they had some earlier on, although from the Wikipedia descriptions it sounds like most of them were killed or turned out to be bi.

Hollyoaks has already changed so much of its identity over the past few years anyway, and is now left a hollow shell, there's no real reason for him not to gut it. I just hope he will keep the better actors around. Like Jessica Fox. I can't stand Nancy, but Fox is a very strong actress.

Apparently someone on Twitter said that one of the crew congratulated Andy Moss (Rhys) on staying around, so I guess that either means he has signe a new contract, or Marquess decided not to fire him. I do think Rhys and Neville add to the show with the right stories. Suzanne is OK.

Family Affairs suffered mainly because it was on Channel 5. Even now (with its stability and decent quality programming) it still suffers from tha old stigma of being 'that cheap one with the dodgy porn and shitty docs'. Family Affairs was originally made by both (Talkback) Thames and Channel 5, whose Head of Drama was Corrine Hollingsworth (Former Eastenders and Eldorado producer). Thus she was listed as Exec Producer. Her Series Producer was Jane Harris. In the early years, that role was occupied by Mal Young (co-creator of the show who went on to be Head of Drama at the BBC).

When Channel 5 realised the show was suffering badly, they handed the production to (Talkback) Thames and their Head of Drama was Paul Marquess. He drafted in his own Series Producer and many of the writers and technical staff from The Bill (such as writer Steve Hughes and senior writer Catherine Cooke).

Another reason the show had problems was because it was on at 18:30- the exact same time as Hollyoaks, which had younger and more attractive actors. Now make no mistake, Hollyoaks was largely diabolical at the time, but all they had to do was put the character Natalie Osbourne (for example) on screen in a low cut top and that was it.

As for gay character, one of the first Marquess introduced was Sean Steele, who with best friend Tanya Woods became the Will and Grace (if you will) of Charnham. And he was paired with Brendan Boulter, who hid his sexual orientation (I believe he was bi) on account of his family and the fact he was black.

I'll not get carried away as this is the Hollyoaks thread, but Paul Marquess helped the show for a while. Gave it a new lease of life.....

Goodness me, I clearly have too much space in my head if I remembered all of that

Thanks for the details. I've read a bit about Sean, I can't remember if he was killed or if I'm thinking of someone else. I know they had a guy who dated a man who turned out to be bi and slept with his female friend, and then later they had an Asian gay man and his boyfriend who ultimately returned to his wife and children.

Was Marquess part of the team that blew up the whole main family on the boat?

It does seem like Hollyoaks was in a rough state from about 2003-2005 or 2006, although I liked what I saw of 2005 (mainly the stories involving Max and OB coping with the fire, and the Justin/Ali bullying and murder story). Do you think that killing off Mr. C was a mistake? What about the Toby serial killer story? I've heard a lot of bad stuff about that.

A part of me wonders if there's still a chance for Hollyoaks but I still want to see it succeed. I think when these shows go they leave a void. Like Brookside. From what I've seen of that show, it had a very unique voice.

If you want to talk about Family Affairs more or post clips we could start a new thread on it. I'd love to hear more. It's so hard to find anything, especially since that's also the name of the show with Buffy, Jody, and Mr. French.

Edited February 1, 201015 yr by CarlD2