A Brookside star famed for a controversial incest storyline in the 90s is unrecognisable 28 years later.
She played Georgia Simpson and horrified viewers when her character began a relationship far beyond showing sisterly love with her brother Nat Simpson.
But today, the actress looks unrecognisable in her role on CBBC TV show Hetty Feather – 28 years since the controversial incest storyline aired.
The Channel 4 soap ended in 2003, six years after the actress had left Brookside, which also starred Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney.
She went on to pursue roles on BBC One’s Roger Roger, Lewis, Midsomer Murders, Bad Girls and Cold Feet.
A Brookside star famed for controversial incest storyline in the 90s (pictured), is unrecognisable 28 years later
Helen O’Brien looks completely different playing an older character, Lady Asquith, in CBBC show Hetty Feather
That’s right, it’s Helen O’Brien.
The Brookside incest storyline caused uproar at the time and even some MPs were asked to give their opinion of the plot.
‘We’re adults, we love one another,’ was one of the lines Nat said to his on-screen parents to justify being found in bed with his older sister, Georgia.
The producer Phil Redmond had to admit the show had gone too far and the Simpson family was written out of the soap.
The Liverpool-based soap was a hit with viewers in the 1980s and 1990s – drawing 8 million at its peak – before things went downhill and bosses axed the show in 2003.
Now, Helen is a mother of two and is married to British actor Timothy Watson, who starred in the BBC Radio 4 drama, The Archers, in 2016.
Timothy’s manipulative and nasty character Rob Titchener is married to a woman called Helen but he couldn’t compare his on-screen marriage with his real-life one.
He told MailOnline: ‘Believe me, I’m nothing like him. Honestly, I couldn’t be more different from Rob. Well, except that we both have wives called Helen.’
He said: ‘How would my real life wife Helen react if I began behaving like Rob at home? She would spot it in an instant and would run a mile.’
After the second series of CBBC drama Hetty Feather, Helen’s character Lady Asquith – a hospital benefactor – moved to New York and she left the show.
Helen’s character Georgia Simpson got up to some controversial bedroom antics with her on-screen brother Nat Simpson
After the second season of Hetty Feather, Helen’s character moved to New York and she left the show
Helen is married to actor Timothy Watson who starred in BBC Radio 4 drama The Archers in 2016 and they have two children
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