Lunch-time soap Together was short-lived and not as revolutionary as some may now think!Andy writes:
I've just read that Together, the Southern TV soap of 1980-1981, was filmed in real newly built houses and as such pre-dated Brookside! Is that true?! Also, the on-line article states that cutting edge lightweight cameras were used to give the show a "documentary feel". Surely 1980 would have been rather early?
There is no evidence from viewing episodes of Together that anything other than traditional studio cameras were used. The use of light-weight cameras in the 1983 play Woodentop, the pilot episode of The Bill, gives a strikingly different feel to the show. There is no indication in publicity material for Together from 1980 that such cameras were being used for this show.
As for Together being filmed in real newly built houses or flats - it definitely wasn't. Together was filmed on studio sets at the Southern TV studios. I think some confusion has set in via the show's original publicity blurb which stated that the setting, Rutherford Court, was a "purpose built block of housing association flats". Yes, in the story, it was, complete with communal area, and it was very modern accommodation at that time.
But that was in the story. In reality, Rutherford Court was several sets in a TV studio. I'm not sure where, if anywhere, was used for outdoor location filming in Together. But it was definitely Phil Redmond's Brookside in 1982 which was the first soap to feature the interiors of real, newly built houses as the central locations.
Watch any episode of Together and the show positively screams "STUDIO SETS!" at you.
A very studio-lit Martha Finch (Kathleen Byron) faces up to a crisis on a nasty green telephone in 1981.The TV Times published an artist's impression of Rutherford Court - as it had published artists' impressions of the Crossroads Motel, the town of Weatherfield and the village of Beckindale over the years. All were non-existent - hence the need for artists' impressions!
Amazing how myths can flourish on the Web, isn't it?
However, Together did have its revolutionary moment - introducing a gay story-line in March 1981, the same year the show was broadcast live! Unfortunately, with Southern TV losing its franchise, the writing was already on the wall at Rutherford Court...
Read our Together feature here.
Absurd to think that Southern TV would fork out so much on a little lunch time soap in 1980. And that we viewers wouldn't have been highly impressed - or at least interested. I remember Together and I thought it pretty bog standard and hideously studio bound. The "live" gimmick in 1981 seemed to make the actors and actresses highly nervous and spoiled the thing even more. The fact that Brookside was being flmed in real houses - was the very first soap to do so - and was using cutting edge cameras was trumpeted in 1982 and I was fascinated. This is one case in which Brookside's thunder cannot be stolen, although I did think that show turned into a heap of sensationalised trash in the '90s.
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