History of Hollyoaks

Suggestions for a serialised television drama that would explore the lives of late-teenage characters were put to producer Phil Redmond in the 1980s by viewers of his Grange Hill school-based drama series. The suggestions came from Grange Hill viewers but Redmond was unable to pursue the idea at the time due to his production commitments with another successful television drama serial, Brookside.^[1]

In the early 1990s UK television broadcaster Channel 4 sought ideas from independent production companies for a serial to be aimed at a teenage audience. At this point Redmond explored the earlier suggestions made to him, developed the theme and pitched it to the broadcaster as The Teenage Soap. He felt that there was a need for a home-grown British counterpart to the imported serials then being aired by other UK broadcasters and which targeted the teenage audience, such as Home and Away, Neighbours and Beverley Hills 90210. Channel 4 chose Redmond's plans from the pitches presented to it and within months production had begun.^[1]

The premise of the serial at its inception was to focus on seven teenagers living in the city of Chester, and in particular to deal with teenage rites of passage. The first episode aired on 23 October 1995 and achieved an audience of three million in the UK. The seven principal characters were Natasha Andersen (Shebah Ronay), Kurt Benson (Jeremy Edwards), Jambo Bolton (Will Mellor), Maddie Parker (Yasmin Bannerman), Dawn Cunningham (Lisa Williamson), Louise Taylor (Brett O'Brien) and Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard).^[1]

The series, which aired once per week, was initially panned by television critics and was subject to adverse press attention. However it proved popular with the teenage audience at which it was aimed. In 1996 a second weekly episode was commissioned. Redmond did have to adjust the style of the series somewhat as audience opinion was found to be that in fact the programme concentrated too much on humour and not enough on serious storylines. An early example of the change in style to issue-focussed storylines was seen when Redmond wrote out the character of Natasha, killing her off with a spiked drink.^[1]

Later in the 1990s a further two weekly episodes were commissioned to bring the total output to four episodes per week. Audiences rose to four million, before they fell to an average of around nearly 2 million per week.^[1]

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By March 2000, Redmond had handed over his production responsibilities to Jo Hallows and in that year a series of open auditions were held around the country using the title On The Pull. The number of attendees was far in excess of anticipations - indeed, there were thousands - but it is claimed^{[by whom?]} that all were seen and the most promising of them were called to further auditions in Liverpool. As a consequence of this process, several new cast members were engaged:

• Marcus Patric and Andrew Somerville were cast as Ben Davies and Theo Sankofa, respectively, having attended the initial auditions in London;
• Elize du Toit attended the Edinburgh auditions and was cast as Izzy Cornwell;
• The Belfast auditions produced Lesley Johnston to take the role of Laura Burns.^[1]

In 2002, Johnston left the programme to become a midwife.^[2] On 21 April 2003, Hollyoaks celebrated its 1000th episode which saw the unmasking of serial killer Toby Mills.^[3] The serial was broadcast by TVNZ in New Zealand and was such a success that in 2004 the BBC soap opera EastEnders was axed there in order to accommodate it in the schedules.^[4]

The same year saw Mikyla Dodd leave her role of Chloe Bruce after four years in order to pursue other projects.^[5] Helen Noble also left but agreed to return for four more episodes in 2005 and has claimed that the possibility of returning again remains open. A similar claim was made by Sarah Jayne Dunn who played Mandy Richardson, who left in 2006 to pursue other projects^[6]

The departure of Alex Carter and Gemma Atkinson, who played siblings Lee and Lisa Hunter in 2005 caused producer David Hanson, who had taken over from Hallows in January that year, to write out the characters' parents Les (John Graham Davies) and Sally (Katherine Dow Blyton).

At the same time Du Toit left for an acting career in Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

Bryan Kirkwood replaced Hanson as producer on 16 January 2006. His task was to rejuvenate the series and change a perception that because the cast were good-looking they were therefore unable to act.^[7]

Kirkwood introduced the new character of Mercedes McQueen, played by Jennifer Metcalfe.^[7] He also recast the role of Clare Devine from Samantha Rowley to Gemma Bissix^[8] and removed several characters including Jeremy Peterson (Simon Cole), Joe Spencer (Matt Milburn), Olivia Johnson (Rochelle Gadd), Mel Burton (Cassie Powney), Sophie Burton (Connie Powney), Sam Owen (Louis Tamone), Rob Owen (David Prosho), Carrie Owen (Jaq Croft), Nicole Owen (Ciara Janson), Bill Ashworth (John Jardine) and Foz (Benjamin Hart). Sam Owen, Olivia Johnson, Joe Spencer, Sophie Burton and Mel Burton were subsequently killed off in an explosion at The Dog in the Pond.

The issue of carbon monoxide poisoning was addressed by the programme in 2007. It emerged subsequently that the storyline had help to save the life of a viewer who was actually suffering from such poisoning at the very time of watching the broadcast. Beth Cordingly, the viewer, said that "The only respite I had in the middle of all my pain was Hollyoaks. I can't believe I owe my life to it."^[9]

2007 also saw Kirkwood sack relative newcomer Devon Anderson, who had played Sonny Valentine, because of timekeeping issues^[10] while Guy Burnet quit the role of Craig Dean after five years.^[11] Sarah Jane Buckley filmed her final scenes as Kathy Barnes in the same year and left in a storyline in which she started harassing the Ashworth family,^[12] At the same time Jessica Harris, who had played Jennifer Bidall, was also written out as she decided to concentrate on theatre roles.^[13] On the incoming side, Kirkwood introduced Hannah Tointon to play the character of Katy Fox, but she left a year later^[14]

In May 2008, the returns of Cindy Cunningham (Stephanie Waring) and Mandy Richardson were announced due to the departures of long-term characters Max Cunningham (Matt Littler) and Sam "O.B." O'Brien (Darren Jeffries).^[15] James Sutton then quit his role as John Paul McQueen.^[16] Around the same time the character's on-screen boyfriend Kieron Hobbs was written out, seeing actor Jake Hendriks last appear,^[17] however the announcement came after mass online petitions were set up try and change the producers mind on axing the character.^[18] In November the established sibling characters of Ravi (Stephen Uppal) and Leila Roy (Lena Kaur) were joined by their fictional family of Govinda (Anthony Bunsee), Bel (Nila Aalia), Anita (Saira Choudhry) and Ash (Junade Khan).^[19]

In October 2008 it was announced that Kirkwood had decided to quit and that his deputy, Lucy Allan, would take over the role, although it was not until 1 June 2009 that she was credited as executive producer on screen because of filming lead times.^[20][21] In the same month as Kirkwood's announcement Roxanne McKee left her role as Louise Summers after three years in the serial.^[22]

November 2008 saw Emma Rigby, who had won Best Actress at an awards ceremony in 2008, announce that she was to leave the show in order to pursue other projects.^[23] However, she then extended her contract by a further six months after Allan convinced her to stay.^[24][25]

Allan's first signings were Loretta Jones (Melissa Walton) and Cheryl Brady (Bronagh Waugh), both of whom had previously featured in the spin-off series Hollyoaks Later.^[26]

In April 2009, Stuart Manning quit his role of Russ Owen in order to try new projects.^[27]

In June 2009 Zoe Lister quit her role of Zoe Carpenter.^[28] and Loui Batley also left.^[29] Batley's character, Sarah Barnes, died in a skydiving accident caused by Lydia Hart (Lydia Kelly). The storyline was a first for British soap opera^[30] and the scenes went on to win the category of "Spectacular Scene of the Year" at the British Soap Awards.^[31] The scenes also earned nominations at the 2010 Inside Soap Awards in the categories of "Best Exit" and "Best Stunt".^[32]

In July 2009 three members of the recently introduced Roy family - Ash, Bel and Govinda - left the programme.^[33]

In October 2009 the series came under the media spotlight for airing scenes that involved Rae Wilson (Alice Barlow) and Barry Newton (Nico Mirallegro) attempting to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge into water below.^[34] The storyline came into the media spotlight after two young girls in Scotland jumped from the Erskine Bridge into the River Clyde, subsequently dying in their suicide pact.^[35] The serial's broadcaster decided to go ahead and air the scenes, citing that any similarities were entirely coincidental and they had carefully thought out the decision.^[36] The real-life care home in which the two girls were housed issued a statement criticising the broadcaster for airing the scenes, stating: "The decision to air this show is likely to cause further distress."^[37] Allan later revealed they were her favourite scenes of 2009.^[38]

In November 2009, the character of Loretta Jones became the centre of controversy when various media outlets revealed that Loretta would be part of a child murder storyline.^[39] The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, Denise Fergus, condemned the storyline and when interviewed by Click Liverpool, she criticised the decision to air a plot without consulting her first.^[40] Channel 4 released a statement defending the plot,^[40] but it was abandoned soon afterwards.^[41]

In December 2009, Hollyoaks became the first British soap opera to air a 'flash forward' episode whereby the storyline looked six months into the future.^[42] The episode focused on the second wedding of Calvin Valentine (Ricky Whittle) and Carmel McQueen (Gemma Merna). It also saw Calvin's murder, starting a six-month-long whodunnit.^[42] 2009 also saw the first time in the history of Hollyoaks that it received praise from reputable broadsheet newspapers, being The Times^[43] and The Guardian^[44] who claimed the soap had become compelling viewing.