{"id":398828,"date":"2025-09-05T02:35:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398828\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T02:35:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:35:27","slug":"brookside-icon-ricky-tomlinson-pictured-as-bobby-grant-for-the-first-time-in-37-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398828\/","title":{"rendered":"Brookside icon Ricky Tomlinson pictured as Bobby Grant for the first time in 37 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 85-year-old has reprised his role as Liverpudlian trade unionist Bobby Grant for a special crossover episode with Hollyoaks\"TheThe Grant’s were a much loved family on Brookside <\/p>\n

Brookside legend Ricky Tomlinson has returned to the Channel 4 soap as Bobby Grant for the first time in 37 years alongside Sue Johnston as Sheila Grant.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ricky, 85, along with camera crews, has descended on the famous cul-de-sac<\/a> as part of a one-off special episode to mark Hollyoaks<\/a>‘ 30th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The Grant family launched Brookside, which began on the first night of Channel 4<\/a> in 1982. Audiences quickly warmed to the married couple as they settled into their first-owned home with their three children.<\/p>\n

Ricky and Sue, who later worked together in BBC<\/a> sitcom The Royle Family, will reprise their roles as Liverpudlian matriarch Sheila Grant, later Corkhill, and trade unionist Bobby Grant following his departure in 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

This will also be the first time that Brookside Close has been on air since it ended in 2003.<\/p>\n

Taking to Instagram<\/a> on Thursday afternoon (September 4), Ricky shared a series of snaps from Brookside close alongside Sue as they filmed the exciting one-off episode.<\/p>\n

In one snap, the on-screen couple stand outside their home and look into the camera as Ricky puts his arm on his co-star’s shoulder.<\/p>\n

In another photo, Ricky sits in the back of a van with a serious expression as a member of the production team holds a clapperboard bearing the word ‘Hollyoaks’.<\/p>\n

Fans of the star wasted no time in commenting on the post, with one person writing: “Can\u2019t wait”, while another stated: “Two legends”.<\/p>\n

\"ActorsSue Johnston and Ricky Tomlinson in character as Sheila and Bobby Grant (Image: TV Times\/Future Publishing via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Icons”, simply added another followed by a love heart emoji.<\/p>\n

Speaking about returning to the show, Ricky has previously said: “It will be lovely to take part in Brookside again especially to work alongside Sue Johnston.”<\/p>\n

He added: “I’m looking forward to being on the close again after all these years.”<\/p>\n

Sue, 81, also added: “It’ll be so lovely to go back and be Sheila for a day as it was such big, enjoyable part of my life.”<\/p>\n

Brookside episodes are available from the start on STV player, after they were digitally restored in a joint project between Lime Pictures and All3Media International.<\/p>\n

The Hollyoaks and Brookside episode is due to air in October<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 85-year-old has reprised his role as Liverpudlian trade unionist Bobby Grant for a special crossover episode with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[93389,4080,411,77,1983,118138,960,137623,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-398828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-brookside","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-channel-4","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hollyoaks","13":"tag-ricky-tomlinson","14":"tag-soap-operas","15":"tag-sue-johnston","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115149361989219262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}