Sinbad (Brookside)
| Sinbad | |||||||||||||||||
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| Brookside and Hollyoaks character | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Michael Starke | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1984–1985, 1987–2000, 2021, 2023– | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 18 September 1984 (Brookside) 3 June 2021 (Hollyoaks) | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 6 October 2000 (Brookside) 22 October 2025 (Hollyoaks) | ||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Jimmy McGovern | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Phil Redmond | ||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances | Brookside: The Lost Weekend (1997) Brookside: Friday the 13th (1998) | ||||||||||||||||
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Thomas Sweeney, commonly known as Sinbad, is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap operas Brookside and Hollyoaks, played by Michael Starke. The character debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on 18 September 1984. Sinbad was originally only supposed to feature in a couple of episodes but continued to appear on a recurring basis until Starke was promoted to the show's regular cast in 1990. Starke began appearing in fellow soap opera, Hollyoaks, playing a taxi driver named Benny and appeared in the series between 2021 and 2024. Starke reprised his role as Sinbad for a 2025 Brookside and Hollyoaks cross-over episode, in which his character was revealed the be actually Sinbad under an alias. Starke continued to appears in Hollyoaks during 2026 episodes.