Tim "Tinhead" O'Leary is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera's Brookside and Hollyoaks, played by Philip Olivier. The character debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on 22 May 1996. Tim remained on-screen until the final episode of the series in 2003. Tim subsequently appeared in a video spin-off, Brookside: Unfinished Business. Olivier returned as Tim in a 2025 Brookside and Hollyoaks crossover episode as part of latter series’ thirtieth Anniversary. Olivier continued to appear in the role during Hollyoaks episodes broadcast in January 2026 when the show had him enter into a relationship with Liberty Savage (Jessamy Stoddart) as well as having links to gangster character Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas).
Development In his early years, Tim was portrayed as a "bad lad" and school bully. Tim dislikes Danny Simpson (Andrew Butler) because he is a snob and bullies him. He forms a friendship with Leo Johnson (Steven Cole) but becomes a bad influence on him. Tim begins to commit petty crimes such as breaking into the Simpson's house and stealing a computer. He then hides a load of stolen alcopops at the local youth group. Jimmy Corkhill (Dean Sullivan) identifies Tim as the culprit but decides to help him avoid being caught by the police. Tim's bad behaviour eventually leads to his expulsion from school, despite his mother works at the local school as a governor. Writers continued to use Jimmy in transforming Tim's character and he is portrayed investing more time trying to correct Tim's wayward behaviour. He offers Tim work delivering pizzas but is shocked to discover he has been overcharging customers for their meal. Jimmy's wife Jackie Corkhill (Sue Jenkins) tries to discourage him from helping Tim anymore. Jimmy ignores her wishes because he does not want Tim to end up like his son Little Jimmy Corkhill (George Christopher).
A writer from the show's official website described Tim as being "the cause of much consternation" for his neighbours "as he stomped around with unchecked bravado." It was "inevitable" that Tim's "outlandish behaviour" got him into trouble with the law. However, writers used Sinbad Sweeney as a father figure for Tim and with his guidance Tim became "more settled and mature". Writers later paired Tim with Emily Shadwick (Jennifer Ellison), who led Tim back into his old ways. Tim's "resistance to Emily's feminine wiles is practically non existent". His involvement with Emily ultimately ends up with Tim being sent to prison. In 2002, Olivier stated "it's fun playing a bad lad". He added that he was nothing like his character because "Tim is a lot more daring and jumps before he thinks."
Olivier also played the role in a direct to DVD spin-off, titled Brookside: Unfinished Business. The spin-off was released following Brookside's finale and focuses on Tim and Steve's rivalry with Terry Gibson (Greg Milburn). In the story, Terry lures Tim and Steve to a woodland hideaway for a violent showdown.
On 1 September 2025, it was announced that Olivier had reprised her role for a Brookside and Hollyoaks crossover episode as part of latter's 30th Anniversary. Of his return, Olivier stated that it was "a delight and surprise" to be asked to reprise the role and would "relish returning" to Brookside Close. He added that he would not have believed at aged fifteen, when he joined the cast, that people would still call him "Tinhead" thirty years later. The episode was broadcast on 22 October 2025 and featured Tim on-screen with his old neighbours, Nikki Shadwick (Suzanne Collins) and Sinbad (Michael Starke). Olivier reprised the role again and Tim returned to Hollyoaks in January 2026. His return was announced alongside Suzanne Collins and Starke, who play Nikki and Sinbad respectively. Writers paired Tim in a new relationship storyline with the established Hollyoaks character, Liberty Savage (Jessamy Stoddart). Though it was revealed that Tim would have an "ulterior motive" for being in Chester.
Storylines 1996-2003: Brookside Years "Tinhead" made his first appearance in Brookside as a school bully at Brookside Comprehensive in 1996. Danny Simpson (Andrew Butler) was Tinhead's main target, as he tried to bully him into helping him with his schoolwork. Tinhead was the leader of a gang of boys who continued to terrorise other pupils despite protests made to the head teacher by their parents. Later Danny gave Tinhead some schoolwork, knowing that he was going to take the credit for it, but Danny deliberately made the project complete nonsense so Tinhead was made to look a fool in front of his classmates. Tinhead decided to teach Danny a lesson, so after school he chased Danny and his mate Leo intending to give Danny a good beating, but when he escaped it was Leo who was left battered and bruised. Leo tried later to become part of Tinhead's gang by helping him steal a computer from the Simpsons' house on Brookside Close. Mick (Louis Emerick), Leo's father, tried to get Tinhead expelled from school for bullying, but came across an unexpected problem when he discovered that Tinhead's mother Carmel O'Leary (Carol Connor) was one of the school governors. Carmel refused to believe that her son was the ring leader of the gang of bullies.
Sinbad later became involved in a relationship with Carmel and did his best to help her to try to get Tinhead to change his ways. Tinhead had other ideas, and took every opportunity to try and cause trouble between them. Jimmy also had a run in with Tinhead when he discovered that he was responsible for bringing alcohol into the youth club .
As tension in the O'Leary house continued to mount with Tinhead and Sinbad still at loggerheads, Tinhead left home having decided to squat in the flat above Mick Johnson's Pizza Parlor. While there, he thought he could make some easy money by selling the washing machine that was in the flat. Tinhead's plan backfired when he tried to remove the machine without turning off the water supply which resulted in him flooding the flat and causing extensive damage to Mick's shop below. Both Mick and Sinbad suspected that Tinhead was involved, but Carmel refused to believe he was the culprit. In an effort to make Tinhead a more responsible person Sinbad convinced David Crosbie (John Burgess) to give him a job at the petrol station, but it's not long before Tinhead, who resented being made to work, caused trouble when he put diesel in Ron Dixon (Vince Earl)'s petrol car.
Tinhead only started to see the error of his ways when he nearly killed his younger sister, Melanie (Elizabeth Lovelady). While playing with fireworks he caused a lorry to swerve, and crash into his house where Melanie was sitting watching television; luckily, she was not badly hurt. After this incident Tinhead had a change of attitude, and with encouragement from Sinbad, tried to join the Army. Tinhead passed the entrance interview and test with flying colours and really looked forward to life in the army, but was very disappointed when he arrived at the training camp only to be told that he could not join the Army after all because of a problem with his hearing. After this setback Tinhead refused to go out the for weeks feeling very dejected, until he found employment at a builders yard. It was not long before he was up to his old tricks, making money by selling building materials direct to customers and pocketing the cash.
The bad feeling between Tinhead and Sinbad got worse after Sinbad was found to be partly responsible for an explosion at Brookside Parade, which resulted in Tinhead's brother Ben (Simon Paul) being crippled for life. Despite Ben not blaming Sinbad for his injuries, Tinhead could not forgive him and started to seek revenge. After trying unsuccessfully to run him down in a stolen car, Tinhead eventually corners Sinbad near the edge of a lake with nowhere to run. Tinhead bore down on him in the car, but Sinbad jumps out the way just in time. Unable to stop, Tinhead ends up in the lake and the car sinks out of sight. Sinbad dives in the lake and pulls Tinhead clear of the car. Even after Sinbad had saved his life, Tinhead still refused to be friends until Ben finally managed to convince him that he should not blame Sinbad for what had happened to him.
When Sinbad offered to let him stay with him in Brookside Close, Tinhead agreed to put the past behind him and make a fresh start. To help him achieve this, Sinbad persuaded Mick Johnson to give Tinhead a job at his chip shop. At first Tinhead had few friends on Brookside close but later he and Leo became good friends, along with the Leo's cousin Jerome (Leon Lopez). Since the Shadwick family moved into No. 6, Tinhead had always shown an interest in younger daughter Emily (Jennifer Ellison), but it was some time before he had the courage to ask their out. Their first date did not go as planned as it coincided was his first day working at the New Millennium Club. Lindsey Corkhill (Claire Sweeney), his new boss, asked him to work late and he was unable to meet Emily at the arranged time. At first, Emily refused to accept his excuse, but with later encouragement from her friend Kelly she agrees to give Tinhead another chance.
Since Sinbad had decided to look after him, Tinhead tried to stay out of trouble with the police. Emily after death of her brother Jason (Vincent Price) and father Greg (Mark Moraghan) had a change of character, and began to steal from her neighbours - particularly Susannah Morrisey (Karen Drury), who she blamed for her father's death. Tinhead was infatuated with Emily that he agreed to help her seek revenge on Susannah, first by entering her house while she was out and later stealing her car so that he and Emily could go to Blackpool. While in Blackpool, Emily persuaded Tinhead to help her steal from one of the other guests and later on the way back to set fire to Susannah's car. Tinhead continued to help Emily with her vendetta against Susannah, but when she turned her attention to other innocent people he began to have doubts about her real motives.
Tinhead decided he could no longer be involved in her criminal activities after he agreed to help her break into a house only to see her start to wreck the place for no apparent reason. Tinhead told Emily they were finished, but later had a change of heart after Emily begged him to take her back and promised to change her ways. Tinhead and Emily thought they would never be caught for their crimes against Susannah, but their luck ran out after they returned from a camping holiday. While on holiday Emily had accidentally recorded on video a taped confession where she admitted carrying out various crimes during her vendetta against Susannah. It wasn't until they decided to watch the holiday video that they realised it contained their confession. They tried to stop anyone else seeing the tape but Mick picked it up and took it to Susannah's, thinking it was a comedy video.
Susannah was horrified when she saw the video, which confirmed her suspicions that Emily had been behind the hate campaign. Although furious with Emily, Susannah decided not to involve the police and just tell her grandmother Jessie Hilton (Marji Campi) instead, as she thought Emily had suffered enough with the deaths of her father and brother. However, when she called round, Jessie she was out. Susannah instead told Emily's sister Nikki (Suzanne Collins) about the video but said she wouldn't be reporting it to the police. Nikki immediately called Emily home from college and told her about the tape. Emily panicked by the thought of Susannah seeing the tape sought reassurance from Tinhead.