History of Hollyoaks
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.
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.
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] 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.
[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.
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).
"[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[50] In the same month it was announced that former Emmerdale actress Sheree Murphy would join the cast as Eva Strong, the biological mother of Anita Roy (Saira Choudhry).
[56] It was also announced that Footballers Wives actress Phina Oruche would join the cast as the mother of the soap's new four-member mixed race family.
The characters announced were, the Costello family consisting of mother Heidi (Kim Tiddy), father Carl (Paul Opacic), sons Riley (Rob Norbury) and Seth (Miles Higson) and daughter Jasmine (Victoria Atkin), the Sharpe family consisting of mother Gabby (Phina Oruche), father Phil (Andonis Anthony), son Taylor (Shaun Blackstock) and daughter Amber (Lydia Lloyd-Henry).
Confirmed regular characters slated to be involved were also revealed, Mercedes (Jennifer Metcalfe) and Malachy Fisher (Glen Wallace), Michaela (Hollie-Jay Bowes) and Theresa McQueen (Jorgie Porter) as well as newcomers Carl, Riley and Seth Costello and Mitzeee.
[61] In the same month it was revealed that Hollie-Jay Bowes who plays Michaela McQueen had been sacked by Marquess due to her behaviour as well as being dropped from spin-off Hollyoaks Later.
[62] In early June it was announced that Marquess would introduce Kevin Smith (Cameron Crighton) who would befriend Elliot Bevan (Garnon Davies), in a new sci-fi alien storyline.
[64] In June the family were unveiled as the O'Connors consisting of stepmother Diane (Alexandra Fletcher), father Rob (Gary Cargill), daughter Sinead (Stephanie Davis) and son Finn (Connor Wilkinson).
[69] It was also announced that Marquess would introduce three new students to the series, consisting of Jamil Fadel (Sikander Malik), Doug Carter (PJ Brennan) and Leanne Holiday (Jessica Forrest) who would also appear in new internet spin-off Hollyoaks: Freshers.
[70] Carley Stenson became the longest serving female cast member, being a part of the serial for ten years, but then announced her decision to quit.
[71] Paul Marqess brought forward Allan's previous plans to tackle the issue of cervical cancer using the character of Steph to portray it.
[72] On 9 July 2010 Ashley Slanina-Davies, Glen Wallace, John Pickard and Garnon Davies all announced their decision to leave their roles of Amy Barnes, Malachy Fisher, Dominic Reilly and Elliot Bevan retrospectively.
[98] Discussing the news, Philips said: "I have really enjoyed working in the script team at Hollyoaks and it will be a huge honour to take the reins of Channel 4's flagship youth drama.
