Brookside is a British television soap opera, set in Liverpool, England, which began on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003. It was produced by Mersey Television and conceived by Grange Hill and Hollyoaks creator Phil Redmond.

Brookside was Channel 4's highest rated programme from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, with audiences regularly in excess of seven million. Initially notable for its realistic and socially challenging storylines, Brookside is remembered for broadcasting the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television, featuring the first openly homosexual character on British television, and a domestic abuse storyline resulting in murder. From the mid-1990s the show began raising more controversial subjects under producers Mal Young and Paul Marquess, and experienced an extreme backlash from viewers in 1996 following a hugely controversial storyline focusing on an incestuous sexual relationship between two siblings; from thereon the show became synonymous with outrageous and improbable storylines that affected its popularity. Viewing figures were in terminal decline by 2000, and low ratings eventually led to its cancellation, with the final episode airing on 4 November 2003.

From February 2023, Brookside has been available to stream from the first episode on STV Player.

Brookside's location and former cast members were involved in a crossover episode with Hollyoaks on 22 October 2025, as part of the latter's 30th anniversary. Elements from the show were also included in the late night Hollyoaks Later special that also broadcast on 22 October 2025 with Brookside Close featuring at the beginning of the episode.

Phil Redmond has first conceived the idea for a drama serial centred on a newly-built housing estate as early as 1973, while writing for sitcom Doctor in Charge. He pitched the programme to several ITV production companies, but it was not picked up and Redmond abandoned it. In 1981 he attended a lecture given at the Royal Institution of Great Britain by Jeremy Isaacs, the chief executive of newly-commissioned Channel 4, who was looking for independent producers that could provide content for the channel, which led to Redmond promising Isaacs a format for a drama serial and revisiting his original concept. After previous clashes with the BBC during production of Grange Hill, Redmond established production company Mersey Television to maintain control over his future programmes; Brookside would be its first product.

In early 1982, Mersey Television purchased 13 houses on a cul-de-sac in Croxteth, Liverpool, on land formerly a part of Lord Sefton's estate. Six of the houses would be seen on-screen as sets, while the remaining seven were used for administration, post-production and canteen facilities. The cul-de-sac backed onto the River Alt, which lent the programme its name, replacing Redmond's original title Meadowcroft (which would later be recycled for the show's in-universe soap opera, Meadowcroft Park). The houses cost a total of £25,000 and were custom-built by Broseley Homes. Using houses on a real new-build estate added to the desired realism Redmond wanted.

Ahead of the first episode in November, Redmond gave an interview to Liverpool Echo in March 1982 describing the show as "a cross between Knots Landing [...] and Coronation Street", and stated his intention to have Brookside deal realistically with issues faced by its potential viewers. The article also included a overview of the characters, including mention of a black family called the Manchesters, who were later scrapped during the production process. Actors that were unfamiliar to the public were cast to enhance the credibility of the characters; the ensemble was smaller than other soaps, having only 16 regular characters and only three of the six houses occupied. This was an intentional choice made to reflect the reality of new-build estate occupancy, and it was over a year until all the houses were full. Shooting for the first episode began on 6 September 1982.

Central to much of the show's early publicity were the working-class Grant family - socialist factory worker Bobby (Ricky Tomlinson), devout Catholic Sheila (Sue Johnston), and their three children Barry (Paul Usher), Karen (Shelagh O'Hara) and Damon (Simon O'Brien) - who moved into 5 Brookside Close from a rundown council estate. Bobby and Sheila's turbulent marriage proved popular, as Bobby's socialist principles clashed with Sheila's traditional family values. The Grants contrasted their conservative, middle-class neighbours Paul (Jim Wiggins) and Annabelle Collins (Doreen Sloane), and their children Lucy (Katrin Cartlidge/Maggie Saunders) and Gordon (Nigel Crowley/Mark Burgess), who downsized from a large home on the Wirral to Number 8 after Paul was made redundant from his executive position at a chemical plant. Much of the early storylines were driven by the social and political differences between the left-wing Grants and the right-wing Collinses. Number 9 was occupied by solicitor's clerk Roger Huntington (Rob Spendlove) and his wife, ambitious accountant Heather (Amanda Burton), and together the Huntingtons represented the "yuppie" subculture that was developing at the time. Roger, who was ashamed of his working-class roots, sided with the Collinses against the Grants; Belfast-born Heather was friends with both families. Low-class newlyweds Gavin (Danny Webb) and Petra Taylor (Alexandra Pigg) arrived next-door to the Huntingtons at Number 10 at the end of November, and Gavin infuriated their neighbours by selling stolen gas cookers from his front lawn.