For the Canadian actress see Debra McGrath

Debra McGrath

Debra McGrath is a Canadian actress and comedienne.-Education:Debra McGrath was born in Toronto in 1954. She studied theatre at Ryerson University.-Career:...

Debbie McGrath is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in the Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 soap opera Brookside

Brookside

Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...

, played by a then-14-year-old Gillian Kearney

Gillian Kearney

Gillian Louise Kearney is an English actress best known for playing Jessica Harrison in the long-running BBC television medical drama series Casualty, and her early role as Debbie McGrath in Channel 4's Liverpool-based soap opera Brookside and the spin-off mini-series Damon and Debbie.-Early...

, from 1986 to 1988. The character was Kearney's first television role, and featured in a plot line which launched both actress and character into the national consciousness.

Debbie McGrath was introduced into the soap as Damon Grant

Damon Grant

Damon Grant is a fictional character in the defunct British soap opera Brookside, played by Simon O'Brien. The character was part of the initial cast, appearing from episode one in 1982 until 1987...

's girlfriend. She was both younger than Damon Grant and also under the age of consent

Age of consent

While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...

, two facts which caused friction between the parents of both characters, a plot-line which saw one critic refer to it as like "Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

 in trackies". When their parents objected to them dating, the couple decided to elope in a story shown in the first UK 'soap bubble', Damon and Debbie

Damon and Debbie

Damon and Debbie was a three-part 'soap bubble' from Brookside, broadcast late on Wednesday evenings on Channel 4 in November 1987, with an omnibus edition over the Christmas period of that year. A Mersey Television production, it was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, directed by Bob Carlton, and...

. According to Annie Leask of The Sunday Mirror, the spin-off was a result of the characters' popularity with the viewing public. The events of the spin-off show saw Grant murdered, and the McGrath character returning briefly to the show, where it was revealed she was carrying Grant's baby. After the birth of her son, Simon, she made a brief return to the Close to introduce her child to his grandmother, before departing for university.