Ricky Tomlinson loved seeing 'old faces' on Brookside return
Ricky Tomlinson enjoyed seeing "old faces" after reprising his role as Bobby Grant in Brookside's one-off revival in Wednesday's (22.10.25) crossover episode with Hollyoaks to mark the latter's 30th anniversary.
Ricky Tomlinson found it "nice to see old faces" on his return to Brookside.
The 86-year-old actor reprised his role as Bobby Grant for the special one-off revival of the soap on Wednesday (22.10.25) as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for fellow Channel 4 serial Hollyoaks and reflected on coming back to a show he last appeared in back in 1988.
Speaking to BBC News on set, Ricky said of his return: "Strange. But it's nice to see some of the old faces."
The Brookside revival saw Tomlinson reunite with Sue Johnston, who played his onscreen husband Sheila Grant before the pair later starred together in BBC comedy The Royle Family as married couple Jim and Barbara Royle, but he was reluctant to return for the crossover episode at first.
He explained: "Then I thought, because we've both (been granted) freedom of the city of Liverpool, I thought we've got a duty really to promote Liverpool, get more young actors and people into the business working.
"I'm delighted I decided to do it."
Meanwhile, the return of Brookside took Philip Olivier - who plays Timothy 'Tinhead' O'Leary - by surprise he was just about to go on holiday before receiving a call about a revival of the soap, which last aired in 2003.
The 45-year-old star said: "I started this job in Brookside when I was 15 years old.
"If someone would have told me that in 30 years' time, I'd still be getting called Tinhead every single day of my life and not getting paid for it any more, (I wouldn't believe them).
"But let's just add fuel to the fire and let's go back and do it."
However, Michael Starke - who portrays Thomas 'Sinbad' Sweeney - felt as though he had "never been away" from the show.
He said: "It's a bit like the Twilight Zone but we've had such fun."
The returning Brookside stars were also reminded of the late Dean Sullivan, who had portrayed long-running character Jimmy Corkhill, following his death at the age of 68 in 2023.
Starke said: "He's never far from our minds, particularly today.
"As soon as we all got together, he was the first person we spoke about."
Suzanne Collins, who played the character Nikki Shadwick, added: "Dean would absolutely love this. He would just be in his element.
"He would have been the first call they would have made to say come back."
