31 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Has his son learned to act yet?

Hard to Tell cause the acting has gone worse on Hollyoaks for ages by most of the cast. 
He got a Bit better but his tantrums and his over the top outbursts are laughable lol

I’ve been watching some episodes of Hollyoaks from its first decade, and I’ve always known that it was stylistically very different back then, but it’s still pretty hard to believe that this is the same show. It begs several questions:

Did ALL of the UK soaps just melt into a blob of generic sameness by 2005 or so?

Has Oaks ever been rerun regularly in the UK or abroad? It’s so easy to find tons and tons of classics eps of the other main soaps, but there are only a few handfuls of pre-2005 Hollyoaks.

When the show glammed up and went the way of camp during the Kirkwood era (did that start with him or before him?), was the general consensus that the show needed that kind of change? Not just for ratings and relevance but for quality.

They went from one episode per week to five episodes per week rather quickly (over the course of eight years). Was it necessary? Did that have a lot to do with the change in tone? We know that the once-weekly soaps are held in a different box from the daily soaps in the UK, so was the rapid expansion part of a plan to get Corrie/EE-style attention?

In the long run, have the McQueens been that popular or are they seen as having eaten the show at times with all the various relatives with quirky/tarty names popping up? I do love Nana (RIP) riding her power scooter in the current opening sequence.

5 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I’ve been watching some episodes of Hollyoaks from its first decade, and I’ve always known that it was stylistically very different back then, but it’s still pretty hard to believe that this is the same show. It begs several questions:

Did ALL of the UK soaps just melt into a blob of generic sameness by 2005 or so?

Has Oaks ever been rerun regularly in the UK or abroad? It’s so easy to find tons and tons of classics eps of the other main soaps, but there are only a few handfuls of pre-2005 Hollyoaks.

When the show glammed up and went the way of camp during the Kirkwood era (did that start with him or before him?), was the general consensus that the show needed that kind of change? Not just for ratings and relevance but for quality.

They went from one episode per week to five episodes per week rather quickly (over the course of eight years). Was it necessary? Did that have a lot to do with the change in tone? We know that the once-weekly soaps are held in a different box from the daily soaps in the UK, so was the rapid expansion part of a plan to get Corrie/EE-style attention?

In the long run, have the McQueens been that popular or are they seen as having eaten the show at times with all the various relatives with quirky/tarty names popping up? I do love Nana (RIP) riding her power scooter in the current opening sequence.

BBC America briefly repeated some of mid/late 2006 and early 2007 (that's where I first saw the show). I don't think it has ever been repeated otherwise.

Jo Hallows was producer of the show from early days until about a year before Kirkwood took over. She had steadily made the show more glam and more melodramatic (she did the first serial killer story) but it was always more down to earth until Kirkwood.

I don't get the impression the McQueens have been popular with viewers in a long time. 

2005 does seem to be when all the soaps started becoming what they are now, sadly. 

With the 30th anniversary coming up, and the classic characters having briefly returned, I've been on a huge classic Hollyoaks kick today. 1995-2008, I would binge through in record time if I had the chance. And if you threw all of Night and Day in there, I'd be in absolute heaven. However, the elusive Taylor James character still has yet to cross my sights. 

In current times, let's all praise all-time soap hunk Philip Olivier for still being absolutely gorgeous in 2025, judging by the screenshots of his return.

Edited October 15Oct 15 by Bright Eyes

They just pulled off a big return without a single leak; kudos to the team at Hollyoaks for achieving that. Not an easy feat in today's age.

The recasting of Tony's children made me feel that the show future isn't ending anytime soon, but for some reason, James' return from the dead then made me start to feel they're getting ready for the end, and they're doing this for Ste's happy ending (gag!). Then a more horrifying thought happened ... if this is a short-term return, what if he was just brought back to get a happily ever after with John Paul when he leaves? That is worse case scenario.

2 hours ago, Bright Eyes said:

The recasting of Tony's children made me feel that the show future isn't ending anytime soon, but for some reason, James' return from the dead then made me start to feel they're getting ready for the end, and they're doing this for Ste's happy ending (gag!). Then a more horrifying thought happened ... if this is a short-term return, what if he was just brought back to get a happily ever after with John Paul when he leaves? That is worse case scenario.

I figure James is there to make us feel sorry for Ste or Ste/Rex, rather than any story of his own, but I hope I'm wrong. 

There are rumors John Paul is going to die. Amazing how irrelevant such a genre-changing character has been for so long.

John Paul's initial stint will always be so important to me, being that I was in my late teens at the time, so he'll always have a special place in my heart. It's really sad and pathetic how he hasn't had one remotely good story since he returned the first time and things have just deteriorated beyond belief with him. The only saving grace is how much of a stud James Sutton, who was always gorgeous, has become. I've literally had a crush on him my entire adult life.

Edited October 17Oct 17 by Bright Eyes

THAT is how soaps are done; right when I was out of Hollyoaks, I am pulled right back in!

If anyone knows where I can watch Hollyoaks Later, DM me, please and thank you.

Hollyoaks Later is what I need the main series to be, because wow... last night was insane. So glad I didn't wait for the American edit to drop on YouTube.

I Thought it felt a bit flat. The Main Anniversary episodes . The later one was great.

The Brookside Crossover is a letdown cause it gets Overshadowed by the other Stuff. It felt so forced on the main show.

i wonder if we lose Nancy. I always wanted them to free the salary and get rid of that overrated character!

Grace got killed off and we lost Peri.. Im so upset about peri though  the actress of grace said she couldn’t Take the hate anymore because of the exploiting story and stuff. Damn. Sounds Like the Fandom Managed to get rid of her lol Crazy.. But yeah. There was no way we could Look past that. We loved Gangster Grace but This was not it. Claire on the other hand is OK. Cause she has always been Evil since the Max/OB/Tom Days in the 00‘s and we never saw her as redemption material lol