From serial gran killed by own knitting needles to lad who kept rotting corpse at home… Hollyoaks’ sickest storylines
FROM drug addiction to shocking deaths, British soaps have always pushed the envelope when it comes to storylines.
But, despite being the youngest of the big four, no other soap has shocked fans with outrageous plots more than Hollyoaks.
Currently, the show is airing a controversial storyline that tackles the issue of sibling sexual abuse.
Frankie Osborne (Isabelle Smith) has been suffering abuse at the hands of her twin brother JJ (Ryan Mulvey) since they were younger.
Horrified fans have complained to Ofcom due to the shocking nature of the story.
But Hollyoaks has worked with charities that have advised them on the storyline so that they can treat it as sensitively as possible.
Speaking about the story, Hollyoaks Executive Producer Hannah Cheers said: “Sibling sexual abuse is a subject matter that desperately merits attention and recognition.”
Known for leaving viewers at the edge of their seats with gripping storylines, we revisit some of the more controversial…
Parachute death gone wrong
Sarah Barnes’ tragic death came as a shock to viewers in 2009.
It all started when Lydia, her girlfriend, got jealous of her relationship with her friend Zoe.
When the trio went skydiving, Lydia decided to kill Zoe by cutting her parachute.
But unfortunately for her, Sarah, played by Loui Batley, took Zoe’s parachute at the last minute.
As they made their way down after diving, Sarah’s parachute refused to open, leaving her to fall to her death.
Serial killer who murdered 100 – including daughter
Soaps have introduced serial killers in the past, but very few can match the body count of Silas, who murdered 17 people on-screen in cold blood.
Played by Jeff Rawle, Silas’ sinister past was explored – it turns out that he had murdered 100 women in total.
From luring women on dating sites to framing others for his murders, Silas was truly one of the soap’s most evil characters.
He even murdered his own daughter when he mistook her for somebody else.
She was wearing the same Halloween costume as his intended target.
Gran’s killing spree
Perhaps in a bid to upstage Silas’ tally, Breda McQueen (Moya Brady) embarked on her own killing spree.
Before her introduction in 2018, she had killed many, including her father.
To take all suspicion off her, she framed Mercedes McQueen for the crimes committed in the village.
Her time came to an end when she tried to kill her own son.
He, in turn, stabbed her in the head with her own knitting needles.
Skin bleaching
In 2009, Anita Roy (Saira Choudhry) was seen bleaching her skin to appear whiter in heartbreaking scenes.
It came after she’d been racially abused by Gaz Bennett (Joel Goonan).
This was the first time any British soap had touched on the issue of skin bleaching.
Speaking to Newsbeat at the time, Saira said: “This is really challenging and the deepest thing I’ve ever read.”
Schizophrenia and suicide pact
Introduced as Hollyoaks’ first emo character, Jack and Frankie’s foster child, Newt, had some of the soap’s most memorable storylines.
While most of the troubled teen’s storylines revolved around living in foster care, it was his schizophrenia and ultimate suicide pact plot that really caused a stir.
The story saw Newt, played by Nico Mirallegro, have full-on conversations with an imaginary friend called Eli.
It came to a head when Eli managed to convince Newt and his friend Rae to form a suicide pact and kill themselves.
Days before the scenes were set to air, two girls in Scotland died after a suicide pact and in a similar fashion.
Hollyoaks went on to air the scenes and insisted that any similarities were purely coincidental.
Group self-harm
In 2017, the soap shocked fans when it showed scenes of group self-harm.
In unsettling scenes, Peri Lomax (Ruby O’Donnell) convinced her pals Yasmine Maalik and Lily Drinkwell to harm themselves together.
While it raised awareness for the issue, not everyone was pleased with the outcome, and some critics felt it may encourage young people to convince their friends to do the same.
Speaking to The Sun, Tor Stimpson, who had self-harmed since she was 15, said: “Making it into a group thing made me a bit worried that other people might be encouraged to do it like that.”
While Peri and Yasmine both stopped self-harming quite quickly, Lily continued in secret, eventually dying of sepsis.
Conversion therapy
Headteacher Carter Shepherd was brought in recently, and tried to perform conversion therapy on John-Paul McQueen – despite also sleeping with him on numerous occasions.
When it didn’t work, he set his sights on young Lucas Hay, who he discovered was starting to develop feelings for his friend Dillon Ray.
Earlier this year, vile Carter slowly convinced his pupil that homosexuality is a sin and his feelings for Dillon were immoral.
He even told Lucas his mother Amy would still be alive if his father Ste was not gay – due to her having been killed by her secretly gay husband Ryan Knight (Duncan James).
Lucas was made to hate himself so much that he eventually attacked Dillon and self-harmed too, almost killing both of them.
Carter then kidnapped John-Paul in order to “cleanse” him in the river, however the police were called in time to stop him from drowning and Carter was arrested.
Far-right extremism
In 2019, Hollyoaks aired storylines that brought more awareness to far-right extremism.
The plot centred around Ste as he was manipulated and groomed by a group of racist thugs – but viewers weren’t entirely convinced a much-loved character like Ste would ever have actually joined a far-right group.
Ste was eventually convinced to take part in the bombing of his Muslim neighbour’s home, prompting him to attempt to leave.
But they blackmailed him into staying, and he was warned he would be framed for the bombing if he tried to get out.
When the leader of the group died, Ste was eventually free – but it took a while for his character to be redeemed with viewers.
Hollyoaks' recent struggles
The Channel 4 show has had to deal with several issues including stars quitting and low viewership figures.
- Earlier this year, it was announced that Hollyoaks would be cut from five episodes a week to three.
- There has been a culling of stars, including Steph Waring – who has played Cindy Cunningham since the show began in 1995.
- Fans have raised concerns as up to 20 characters are reportedly being killed off.
- Just months into her big comeback, show legend Emma Rigby, who plays Hannah, has sensationally quit the soap again.
- Show bosses were slammed for yanking the soap from its 6.30pm schedule on Channel 4.
Never say goodbye
When Bombhead’s mother died, he found it difficult to cope and suffered a mental breakdown.
It got so bad that he kept his mother’s decomposing body at home and took care of it.
Bombhead, played by Lee Otway, would make her tea, cook her dinner, and even do her dry cleaning as if she were still living.
To make matters worse, his best friend was the ghost of a man who had been a father figure to him.
The body was only discovered when Bomhead’s friend Lee took his girlfriend to the house to have sex, believing it was empty. She ended up sitting on Bombhead’s mother.
Shocking discovery
Frankie and JJ’s storyline is not the only time Hollyoaks has dealt with incest – it’s been explored twice before.
The first time was when Rhys Ashworth (Andrew Moss) fell in love with Beth Clement (Sinéad Moynihan) when she took a tumble in front of his car.
They started dating and having sex immediately. However, their relationship began to unravel when Rhy’s father, Noel, died of cancer.
At his funeral, Rhys was shocked when the half-sister he was introduced to turned out to be Beth. She later died after Rhys crashed their car into a lorry.
Mother’s betrayal
As one of the show’s sleaziest characters, it is unsurprising that Rhys has been involved in some of its sickest storylines.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, he started dating Sarah, who did not tell him she was a student. After discovering her age, he dumped her, only to reunite shortly afterwards.
Displeased with her daughter’s Romance with Rhys, Sarah’s mother, Kathy (Sarah Jane Buckley), hatched a cunning plan to keep them apart.
She ended up bedding Rhys and breaking Sarah’s heart in the process. It was just a long list of ways Kathy demonstrated her bad parenting skills, which included abandoning her kids and stealing her daughter’s babies.