[1] He stated "When you're an actor, doing a soap can be very secure, particularly if you have a family to support, and one of the hardest things about acting is if you haven't got any work lined up in the immediate future.
"[1] On-screen, it emerged that Max had been having a long-running affair with a woman named Faye, which led to his wife Susannah Morrisey (played by Karen Drury) throwing him out.
She admitted that she was worried about her own future on the show when Pinder announced his decision to leave, but producer Phil Redmond reassured her that she would be kept on.
Susannah Farnham returns to Brookside after her relationship with Andrew ends badly in terms of finance, leaving her penniless.
The marriage finally breaks down completely when Max is falsely arrested for kerb crawling after he gets lost driving his car and stops to ask a nearby woman for directions, not realising she is a prostitute.
Although Patricia eventually returns to try to make amends with Max after she learns of his acquittal, he walks out on her, remarking bitterly about her lack of support and that he still has feelings for Susannah.
After being told she cannot have children again due to complications from the accident, Susannah, desperate for another child, is delighted when Jacqui Dixon agrees to be a surrogate for her and Max.
Susannah throws Max out and goes on to have affairs herself with three of the main characters, Greg Shadwick, Mick Johnson and Darren Roebuck.
Although there are several people suspected of her murder, it emerges that Max was responsible, but indirectly as she had accidentally fallen down the stairs following an argument with him on the landing.
Max and Jacqui sold their house to Jack Michaelson, a drug dealer who terrorised Brookside Close, until the other residents lynched him from the bedroom window.
[1] The Sunday Mail's Steve Hendry called Max and Jacqui's relationship an "unlikely romance" and observed that it took "11 years, four marriages, one surrogate baby, an accidental killing and a kidnapping – not to mention a substantial age gap – but Cupid's arrow has finally found its mark.
[5] In 2003, Frances Traynor from the Daily Record stated that Max and Susannah's argument and her subsequent death was one of the show's "most controversial plotlines".
)"[7] Geoffrey Phillips from the Evening Standard coined the term "Max Farnham Syndrome" is response to men having two separate families.
[9] Steven Russell from the East Anglian Daily Times branded Max a "puppyish" and "hapless chartered surveyor whose overstretched ambition and weakness at the hands of some quite assertive women got him into plenty of scrapes over a dozen years or so.
"[10] Di Hollingsworth from Soaplife included Max killing Susannah in their list of top ten soap storylines in which characters get away with committing crimes.