Doctors spoilers: Brookside's Gabrielle Glaister and Louis Emerick guest!

(Image credit: BBC)

Two familiar faces from soapland guest star in today's episode of Doctors. Ex-Brookside stars Gabrielle Glaister and Louis Emerick play a married couple.

Anyone who was a fan of Channel 4 soap Brookside back in the day will recognise a couple of today's guest stars on Doctors (1:45pm on BBC One, see our TV Guide for full listings).

Gabrielle Glaister (who was Max Farnham's wife, Patricia) and Louis Emerick (wheeler-dealer Mick Johnson) play a married couple, Gary and Martha Taile.

Doctors, Gary Taile — Stroke survivor Gary wants to get his sex life back on track on Doctors

Gary is a stroke surivivor, who is given a clean bill of health by Al Haskey (Ian Midlane) at the surgery.

Gary is keen to get his sex life back on track. However, it seems Martha does not feel the same way.

Every time Gary tries to get a bit frisky, Martha rejects his advances, claiming she doesn't think Gary is yet ready for that.

Can Al help the couple get to the bottom of what's gone wrong so they can put a sexy spark back into their relationship?

Doctors, Al Haskey, Martha Taile — Al tries to find out why the spark has gone from Martha and Gary's marriage on Doctors

Elsewhere in Letherbridge, Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh) is still feeling unsettled by the possibility her young son Joe (Oliver Falconer) has an imaginary friend called Ozzy.

However, Zara and her partner Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers) are both in for a surprise when they discover Joe's friend Ozzy is REAL!

At schoool, Joe introduces his parents to both Ozzy and his mum Amina Bashara (Sarah Lawrence).

But their relief is short-lived when Joe announces that Ozzy is fasting for Ramadan... so he is going to as well!

Doctors, Emma Reid — Emma and her girlfriend Jasmine were the victims of a homophobic attack a few weeks ago on Doctors

Meanwhile, Emma Reid (Dido Miles) gets ready to appear on a student radio station discussing LGBT + issues.

Radio presenter Tammy Beckworth (Amy Anderson) asks some tricky questions. Then, Emma is thrown when the show becomes a live phone-in.

However, when a caller Raj Malik (Mohan Randhawa) calls and shares his story of a homophobic attack, will Emma be moved to share her own recent experience?

ALSO, Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) returns to the police station for his first shift back as a Forensic Medical Examiner.

But when an alarm goes off and policeman Rob Hollins (Chris Walker) reports the station is on lockdown because of a disturbance with a detainee, Jimmi starts to struggle with his claustraphobia...

Doctors continues weekdays at 1:45pm on BBC One

Simon has long been a fan of soap operas, and especially loves OVER-THE-TOP plots involving evil twins, hair-pulling catfights and natural disasters.

Anyone remember the Sunset Beach earthquake/tidal wave?

Or when Krystle Carrington got locked in the attic and replaced by look-a-like Rita in Dynasty?!

Simon has written for a variety of TV and childrens’ magazines/websites including Inside Soap, Nickelodeon, What’s On TV, Radio Times, Metro, Girl Talk, Disney Girl, Toxic! and Digital Spy.

He has reported LIVE from the red carpet at The British Soap Awards interviewing glammed-up stars from soapland, and hosted a Facebook LIVE session for Metro with Home and Away legend Ray Meagher (Alf "Stone the flamin' crows!" Stewart) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Aussie soap.