All Soaps: Vintage Articles

[Ben]

Last part of the Drew & Libby articles.

2001-2002

2002: Libby & Taj

[DRW50]

That 18-year old looks about ten years older.

What did you think of Drew and Libby?

I wonder if Dan Paris is still with that woman. Apparently he left acting to follow his photography dream.

Sounds like Tess was around for a few years. What were her other stories? I guess the guy who ran over Libby was Tess' abusive ex, right?

What did you think of that Geri woman who had a feud with Libby? How long was she around?

I didn't know Susan's amnesia story ran at the same time as Drew died. How awful for Libby.

[Winchester91]

Any early Hollyoaks stuff? Like, mid-to-late 90's?

[DRW50]

I have some, but I'd rather wait until Ben finishes his, unless he gives me permission first.

[Ben]

I loved Drew and Libby. They don't do romance stories like that these days; everything is rushed and instant couples are formed over night. The investment isn't there. D&L fitted each other perfectly. He was a nice guy, but some fans thought he was too boring. I don't get why some people think nice guys come across as being dull, b/c I thought he had personality, he wasn't a himbo, he was normal and relateable in that respect.

I think Libby has only ever suited to guys: Drew and Darren Stark. Darren was a bad boy - he had a bit of an edge, so quite different to Drew.

Yeah, Dan did leave acting to be a photographer. I wondered the same thing as you, Carl, when I posted the article (re: if he's still w/ Tanya).

Yeah, Tess' abusive ex-Brendan mowed down Libby and Steph - he died shortly after from a heart attack brought on by his injuries from the crash. Tess was around from 1999-2001. Interestingly, Tess met teacher, Dan Fitzgerald (the same man who would return in 2008 and get with Libby), who she started to fall for, but he was falling for Steph. That relationship didn't work out, and Dan soon left. Tess then moved in with Dee Bliss. They later formed a love triangle with Darcy Tyler, who was cheating on Dee with Tess. After the truth came out, Darcy and Tess became an official couple, and they were even set to get married, but Tess had second thoughts and realized that Darcy was not to be trusted (he was plotting to oust Karl from the doctors surgery and render him unemployed), so jilted him at the altar. She patched things up with Dee and left town to visit family.

Geri was a pretty awesome character. She was a recurring guest from 1998-2001, so would randomly pop up every now and then. She was a bitch, with a bit of a comedy side to her. She had the hots for Drew, and at one point I think they dated for a brief period at the very beginning, but his love for Libby spurned her hatred for Libby, which was made worse when Libby got a job at the same paper as Geri. Once Libby and Drew married, they had exhausted all story possibilities with Geri, which is why it was good bringing her back to wreck havoc on their honeymoon for one last time.

Susan having amnesia when Drew died really packed an emotional punch. They were all getting a long much better before Drew died, but when he did, Susan couldn't connect to Libby, and it added to her grief. I think it gave the story an extra layer.

I do indeed. I'll dig them out and scan in the next week or so.

Feel free Carl, to post your HO stuff. Any help is always appreciated.

[DRW50]

What did you think of some of these stories (the pregnancy story, and what about the triangle with Steph? It doesn't even sound like a triangle, as Drew had no feelings for her).

What was that story with the psycho woman about? Who did she turn out to be?

[Ben]

The interesting think about the triangle is that it was unrequited on Drew's side. It was written well, as you could really identify with Steph, being in love with someone who didn't feel the same way (I guess there was a sense of irony, as Libby had rejected Drew fallowing the crash). I loved the moment when Steph opened up to him, even though she knew he'd reject her, she still had to tell him how she felt. I think Libby found it hard to deal with, as she often used it against Steph in later years. Steph and Drew remained really close even after all this.

A pregnancy story is never really all that interesting, but they managed to keep it fresh by having Libby deal with things that came from being pregnant. I loved the story where she was discriminated against for being pregnant; it was a good topical issue at the time, and one that suited Libby's character - fighting against injustice. When she gave birth in the barn, it was the season finale, and she flatlined shortly after. it was a great cliffhanger. But once they became a happy family, TPTB struggled to find decent storylines for them. Case in point: Drew's dark secret. An old mate turned up with a limp, and there was all this mystery surrounding how he got it, and Drew was acting shifty and guilty, allowing this guy to move in and mooch off of them. It turned out Drew had shot him accidentally when they were kids, and supposedly Drew had been carrying around all this guilt for many years. It was never mentioned before, and was never mentioned again. Then there was the story of their upstairs noisy neighbour, and the local cop moving in next door, and Libby randomly falling twice, and the cop thought Drew was a wife beater and arrested him. It then turned out that the cop was staking out their noisy neighbour, and Drew and Libby got tangled up in a police sting. It was such a bizarre and messy story, designed to give D&L something to do.

The stalker story was OK. Ronnie never really got a chance to do much of anything (sabotaging her car, planting her jewellery in their flat), before Libby was on the case. It turned out that Ronnie was a missing person called Veronica, who had disappeared after her husband's death. She latched on to Drew b/c he looked liked her husband, and the poor woman was in a state of grief. In the end, Libby reunited Ronnie with her parents.

[Ben]

These are all I have from the 90s - not much! (Maybe Carl has more?) I do have some articles from 2000-02 and the serial killer Toby Mills story.

I can't give much b/g on these as I wasn't really watching the show back then.

[DRW50]

9/18/98 Inside Soap

10/16/98

12/11/98

11/26/99

[Ben]

A few Night And Day articles - Part 1

[DRW50]

Thanks. I've seen a little of this show, but not much. Never thought it sounded right for UK viewers. Then again no new soaps have worked in the UK in years.

I guess Jane was like Laura Palmer.

[Ben]

I think the show was on the wrong network. It was dark and Gothic in every way possible and, I guess it was supposed to be Sunset Beach meets Twin Peaks. I can understand why it didn't work the way it was intended. It would have been better in a 1 hour weekly prime-time format, instead of airing at 5pm, like Neighbours and Home & Away. N&D never suited that time of day, and never fitted with ITV's output back then. The other problem was revolving the show around Jane's disappearance and not having any other solid stories supporting it. When that was on the backburner, they gave us the Virgin army, and random supernatural weirdness like, is Josh a werewolf? I think the only other decent story (that didn't stem from Jane's disappearance, like the baby switch and incest) was Fiona & Mike's marriage breakdown, and him being secretly gay.

[DRW50]

I remember hearing a lot about the wedding fantasy episode.

The whole flash forward thing (which I'm never a fan of) was ahead of its time.

The story with Fiona and Mike - the end sounds ludicrous.

I guess Cathy Tyson's character wasn't around long. That's too bad. She would have been interesting on a soap. I think she had a short, pointless role on Emmerdale a few years later.