Jake Dean is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kevin Sacre.

[1][2] In March 2010, Sacre was axed from the series by Paul Marquess during his major revamp and cast cull.

[4] In early 2010 it was announced that Lucy Allan had stepped down from the position of executive producer, Paul Marquess then took over the role.

[5] It was soon revealed that he planned revamp Hollyoaks, changing the productions team,[6] then began a cast cull starting with the axing of three established characters.

[7] Stephanie Waring (who plays Cindy Hutchinson) then revealed that all remaining cast members feared their characters would be next to depart from the series, stating that there was a general feeling on unease.

[8] One month later the cast cull continued as Marquess announced his plans to axe a further 11 characters, during this it was revealed that Jake would leave the Hollyoaks once more at the end of Scare's current contract.

[9] He is set to finish filming in early 2010 and depart on-screen after the conclusion of a story about his unbalanced love-interest Loretta Jones (Melissa Walton).

[9] The first signs of Jake's nasty personality started after discovering wife Becca Dean (Ali Bastian) had been having an affair with former school pupil Justin Burton (Chris Fountain).

Becoming aggressive and manipulative, Jake beat up Justin several times and, on one occasion, physically attacked pregnant Becca.

Domestic abuse charity Tender praised the soap opera's portrayal of Jake attempting to rape Nancy.

A survey conducted by the group found that 96% of participants thought the scenes were effective in bringing the issue to viewers' attention.

Discussing the reasons behind the attempted rape, 68% thought Jake craved control, while 30% put his actions down to mental instability and 1% blamed abuse suffered when he was young.

The poll also revealed that 54% of respondents thought Jake should receive counselling and 45% felt he should serve time in prison.

Tender stated, "As a national platform, Hollyoaks played a vital role in educating the public about the issue of abusive relationships.

"[10] On 11 April 2008, Kevin Sacre announced his departure on the Hollyoaks website, and confirming he has filmed his final scenes.

"[11][12] In July 2009, it was reported by entertainment website Digital Spy that Kevin Sacre had agreed to return to Hollyoaks briefly later on in the year.

Instead of a long prison sentence, Jake is given a two-year probation, driving a wedge between the Dean and the Valentine families.

The couple's relationship is accepted by their friends Tony Hutchinson, Carmel McQueen, Darren Osborne and Zoe Carpenter.

When Craig and John Paul McQueen prepare to leave for Dublin, Jake stops him and tells him he will never understand, but cannot let him go without saying goodbye as they are still brothers.

When Nancy begins tutoring Jake's foster brother Barry Newton, he becomes even more jealous and suspects an affair.

Jake takes her back and forces her to wear conservative clothes and stop dyeing her hair different colours.

Nancy and Jake plead with doctors to run tests to see if either of them is eligible to donate their bone marrow to Charlie.

Warren gets Darren to tell Jake he will give Jack money to pay off his debts and to get Justin to agree to stay away from Charlie and help Frankie get custody.

However, Nancy's friend and flatmate Loretta Jones (Melissa Walton) admits to Jake that Hannah only sent one letter and she sent the others.

He confronts her when she takes him hostage along with Loretta in the hospital with a syringe, but seconds before the police arrives; a struggle ensues and Caroline is stabbed by the needle.

When Steph finds out she has cervical cancer, Jake starts to help out with his sister which causes a lot of jealousy with Loretta.

Loretta tells Jake she once suffered from leukemia in order to gain attention but when he finds out shes lying he kicks her out.

Jake shows up and Loretta holds Nancy hostage before revealing that she had been sexually abused as a child and no one had believed her.

Zak and Kris meet at the Loft, with the bags they're taking with them to London, when Steph and Jake manage to find them.

[...] So far, the only point of Jake’s return has seemed to be to show us that being in a psychiatric ward isn’t the permanent sentence Hollyoaks would have previously had us believe.