Hollyoaks: Discussion Thread

[Sylph]

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

Edited January 30, 2010 by Sylph

[DRW50]

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.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

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?

[Toups]

Woah, PM's past storylines are

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

[DRW50]

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, 2010 by CarlD2

[Y&RWorldTurner]

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.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

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, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[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, 2010 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Bright Eyes]

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

[Chris B]

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!

[LondonScribe]

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, 2010 by UK LAW

[DRW50]

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.

[DRW50]

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

:o

Edited February 1, 2010 by CarlD2

[LondonScribe]

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

[DRW50]

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, 2010 by CarlD2