Hollyoaks: Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Interview with Gemma Bissix. Spoilers.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a156248/ge...-hollyoaks.html

[Y&RWorldTurner]

New interview with Lucy Allan:

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a156722/lu...-hollyoaks.html

[DRW50]

Thank you. I'm not sure if calling this "Stunt Week" is a great idea. I was hoping for more with Myra, but at least she'll still be around. I was also hoping they'd do more with Darren than him making more mistakes.

I wonder who Spencer will live with.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The Loft Fire/Clare Returns Promo:

This is Kirkwood's final storyline, so his name will be gone from the credits soon.

[Difficult Diva]

Emma Rigby has great hair and even though I don't like Russ, the actor is gorgeous and was absolutely WASTED on the show.

[Toups]

Clare!!! It was so great to see her again. She's so evil, so much fun to watch. Loved her tying Warren up and taunting him. LMAO at Warren saying to Clare he always wins, thinking Calvin was going to save him.

The Rhys and Hannah scenes were really good too, where he didn't let her out of the room and then eventually he does. Andrew Moss is a pretty good actor too. He does comedy and drama very well. And of course Emma Rigby rocks.

[DRW50]

Russ actually had some good-ish stories for a few years. I never saw his storyline about testicular cancer, but his romance with Dannii, the destruction of their relationship as Russ' brother Sam and his friend became rapists, Sam blowing up the pub and killing himself as well as Russ' new girlfriend Sophie, Russ' relationship with Mercedes. I'm not sure why they stopped writing for him. He is, as you mention, gorgeous, and a good actor, and one of the few genuinely nice guys on the show. I don't know why they stopped writing for Russ and Justin, especially since they can't seem to stop writing for Calvin, who is so smug and self-righteous and not played by a very good actor.

There are many good actors on the show who don't get a lot of material (like Rhys).

I'm enjoying some of this week. I LOVE the cast integration, and Gemma Bissex is fantastic as ever, she plays the b&tch so well, she always plays her with vulnerability. I wish she could stay around. I'm even going to almost miss Warren, he's at his best with people like Clare and Justin. They shouldn't have moved him towards Louise and Sasha and Mandy.

The weird thing is these episodes were scheduled to air during the time of a huge football match in the UK, which means less people are likely to watch. I don't get that.

Here's a good article, although I should point out that Hollyoaks did have years of gripping stories before Kirkwood took over, it's just that the last few years before him were seen as poor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandrad...ks-new-producer

[Toups]

I've always liked Warren as the bad guy. Who's going to take his place as the resident bad guy? All the young bad guys I don't like - Ste, or the guy who picks on Anita.

I didn't like Sasha coming into Warren's orbit either.

Was Kirkwood responsible for the fantasy elements (which I love) at the beginning of the episode or was that of the show since the beginning?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Hollyoaks always had a reputation of being the British soap that lacked substance and was all about looks and nothing else. My English cousin dismisses it as, "Pure wank material!" That seems to be the dominant mainstream feeling about the show in the UK, it was never taken as something credible. Kirkwood's tenure might have had some problems, but I feel like he tried to make the show a little more credible, and he did succeed, IMO. The show seems to be looked at as less of a joke now than what it was before he joined.

Yeah, I believe the stuff at the start of each episode was all Kirkwood. I don't remember it being there in episodes before he joined.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Y&RWorldTurner

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Aw, I love Gemma Bissix. I loved how she says in interviews how she was the first person Bryan Kirkwood hired at Hollyoaks and how she was the last person he brought back at the end of his tenure. It all came full circle, Clare was one of Kirkwood's biggest accomplishments.

Kirkwood had a great run for the most part. I'll miss him.

[DRW50]

I think Warren was a great bad guy, a rogue who also had a softer side. I didn't like the relationship with Louise (I didn't think they had chemistry and they dragged each other down) and I thought the character suffered when they tried to make us feel sorry for him. I think that first year was Warren's best year. My favorite time was when he was sleeping with Clare while being best mates with Max, and when he was sleeping with Mercedes and first got involved with Justin. There was such amazing charisma with him at that time -- he looked like he wanted to make out with every other person he was in a scene with. I wish they'd done a bisexual story with him, I think he would have been perfect, especially since he was so much about his image. He would have gone crazy at the thought of having feelings for Justin, or Calvin.

Oddly enough, considering he's a former drug dealer and woman-beater, I like Ste. I think Kieron Richardson is a great actor and he's done wonders with a character who shouldn't have been redeemable. I think there are some other young characters on the show with potential but the show sometimes seems to have a hard time bringing new characters in or knowing what to do with them.

Hollyoaks has always had that wank material mentality, which Kirkwood did help clear up (even with the calendars still being around) but in earlier years the show won awards for some stories, like the one about Luke Morgan's rape.

I think Kirkwood was the main force behind the fantasy sequences in the opener, in the past they had them at times but they also had more traditional openings.

Jamie's sister is Charley Webb, who plays Debbie Dingle on Emmerdale. She's brilliant, one of the hearts of that show now.

The last interview with Jamie.

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/a157274/ja...-interview.html

Edited May 29, 2009 by CarlD2

[Toups]

I hope Lucy Allen keeps the fantasy elements then.

I made Clare edits for today's ep.

I love the directing! All the close ups, different angles, and the mirror shot. I also love the show's background music - I think I appreciate it more because BG music isn't used a lot but when they do, it's awesome.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

How ironic that Clare makes a return like a year after Max's death, considering the hell she brought into Max's life.

The only thing that sucks about Clare's return is that Max and OB aren't around. They were her first targets and probably the ones she harmed the most.

[Ann_SS]

Russ is gorgeous. They have never known what do with him.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Russ sucks, and Stuart Manning is a craptacular actor, IMO.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Y&RWorldTurner