Family Affairs

[DRW50]

I think there was a lesbian Hart - that must be who I'm remembering.

Yes, he played Sean.

It seems like a lot of the lower-rated soaps started having high cast turnover in the late 90s. The soaps that need it most, like Corrie, never get it.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah, Holly Hart, I think was the lesbian. She's the only Hart I remember by name, anyway.

Corrie's cast is ridiculous. They have, like, 60+ characters, and I'm sure that's not including the kids/babies. It's so ridiculous. Half of them could easily go.

Which other lower-rated soaps are you thinking of?

[DRW50]

Hollyoaks, as you mentioned. I think this was also when Brookside began dumping people, but I'm not sure.

[Ben]

I hope those make sense, story wise. Nikki's love life got a bit complicated for a while. It made more sense on screen.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Ben

[DRW50]

I don't see anything very "hunky" about that mechanic.

Sara's stories sound very confusing, especially with her mother's boyfriend. How long was she around? It sounds like she was around much longer than Arlo.

[Ben]

Yeah, from those, I can see how Sara's stories could be confusing. She stayed with the show for about 1.5 years. She became a lap dancer, and used that money to buy cocaine. She OD'ed, and Arlo skipped town, fearing she was dead. The whole thing with her mother's boyfriend wasn't good. He was coming on to her, but no-one believed her, and her jealousy got in the way; he eventually left town under a cloud. Up until that story, things made sense with Sara, until TPTB decided to write her out in 2001. She had a lame exit.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Ben

[DRW50]

OK, so they bring in a new character who is married to a mentally ill woman, cheating with an established character, and also having an affair with his sister (also a new character)? What was the rush?

The Davenports also seem to be rushed in the stories.

Laila went on to be on Primeval, and Sarah Jane Adventures, and had a very unpleasant Strictly Come Dancing experience mostly remembered for her being injured and being in a "race row" with her partner Anton.

Did Conor ever have any stories (besides what they mentioned)?

Do you have anything about that story where the woman cheated with her gay best friend's boyfriend (who I think was magically revealed to be secretly bi all along, which is such a copout writing choice).

[Ben]

This was a rushed period, it seems. The brother/sister story wasn't that interesting, as they were all new characters, including Tanya, and no-one cared that much. None of them stuck around for long, either. It was sad to see Declan leave as he had been with the show for 3 years, but in the third year, he was on the backburner a lot, and was given bit stories that did nothing for him, so it was time for him to leave as you could tell they didn't know what to do with him.

Laila also starred in Hollyoaks and Footballers Wives, and up until a few of months ago, Holby City. I do like Laila, but she never stays with a show for long.

The Davenports were a disaster. They were so boring and uninteresting. Cameron stayed around for the longest. The father should have gone with his wife and daughter. He didn't work with Cat at all. There was also the false rape allegation that Cat's niece Geri, lobbied at him somewhere in there.

Conor stayed for a few months, and from I remember, that was his only story. Bit of a pointless character, IMO.

The characters sound familiar, but I don't think I do. The only character to have a gay best friend was Tanya (not the same as above) with Sean (the Will & Grace couple). Unless you're referring to Melanie Costello, whose boyfriend Brendan cheated on her with Sean, and it was revealed Brendan was bi? I have something on that.

[DRW50]

Pete took a lot of breaks...

So how many did Marquess fire? Did he fire the woman who played Nikki?

The "edgy" British soaps (ie, not the main three) always seemed to want to tell incest stories, even though they rarely work out well. I don't think Crossroads ever did either, although that would have sort of explained Benny...

I think it was a woman and her gay friend's boyfriend, the guy was a cop or something. I thought it was Sean but have never actually seen any of this so I can't say.

How long was Sadie around? That plastic surgery and stroke story sounds very grim.

[Ben]

Pete had been with the show since 1997, and it was only in 2002-ish that he started taking breaks.

Well, the show was left with Pete, Sadie, Yasmin, Dave, Cat, Geri, Eileen, Lucy, and any randomly new characters that were being brought in. This was when Roy, Nikki and Sara, Andrew, Luke, Becky, and her brother (the Warringtons) were written out, along with Matt and Karen, Jim and Paul Webb. Paul chose to leave to take up a role in Shortland Street. FYI: Matt was Nikki's brother, a fact that was never portrayed well in screen. I'd completely forgotten that they were even related.

I guess the smaller soaps could get away with telling more risqué stories, and they probably saw incest as a ratings grabber.

Sadie's plastic surgery story was a sad one, especially when she realized she couldn't have the actual surgery and could have been worse off. Sadie arrived during the first revamp, after the Harts were blown up, and stayed until 2005, when they wrote her out along with Dave Matthews, Lucy Day and Pete Callan. This all occurred when Sean O'Connor took over as Executive Producer, only for the show to get cancelled. I disliked that Sadie and Pete weren't around for the end (it was only 4 months off!). The finale end up being about new characters who nobody really cared about.

After some research, I now know who you are talking about. Clive Starr and his best friend Gabby Johnson; the cop was Adam. This happened in late 1999-early 2000. I vaguely remember this story, but I don't remember Adam's character at all. Clive used to bug me, as he was the stereotypical gay guy - flamboyant, loud, bitchy - think a fatter, warmer version of Corrie's Sean, with some heart. I didn't watch much when they were on. And I have nothing on this story. Sorry. Ooh, Adam was the same cop who returned to investigate Josh Matthews' murder. Nice bit of continuity that went over my head at the time. That's how much I paid attention to his earlier story with Clive and Gabby.

[DRW50]

I wonder if O'Connor would have improved the show. I know they won several awards the year they went off, but were those for stories before he took over? It's sad how little is around. I think the only clip I've seen of the finale is a clip from one of those women in bondage Youtube channels!

Thanks for the extra info. I didn't realize the show had two Sean type gay characters.

Who were Lucy and Dave? If they were already in earlier articles, my apologies, I'll look them up.

[Ben]

The awards the show won were for stories before O'Conner took over. He came in right at the end of 2005, with apparent big ideas, like renaming the show!

Oh, yes they did. It wasn't all bad. Clive was a nightmare, but when they introduced Sami in 2005, he was as camp as a Christmas tree, but he was a really good character. It took me awhile to get to like him, but once they peeled back the flamboyant façade, he had a vulnerability about him, and his friendship with Yasmin was sweet. He was soaps first gay Muslim, a fact that gets forgotten about now that Syed exists.

I don't think I've posted anything on Lucy, yet. But Dave has already appeared in the last page, I think. The one about him fighting custody against Pete.

[DRW50]

How long were the Costellos around?

Why was Chrissy sectioned? Was their daughter a self-harmer?

I kind of like the initial idea (rich family losing everything) but wow that got very dark. It's too bad.

[Ben]

The Costellos stayed until the end of the show (minus daughter Melanie, who was a poor man's version of Sara Warrington. She made a return in the final episode).

They did give the Costellos a lot of dark plots. If you think that's dark, following on from this was a paedophile story involving Chloe and young family friend, Bradley. From here it launched into the next big story, and the reason why Chrissy was sectioned.

[DRW50]

Thanks for sharing those. The story sounds very good, and very well thought out.

I read that she was the first actor from Family Affairs to win a BSA.