  I've been saying it for a while, and finally it looks like there is agreement - there are a lot of deadwood characters in Hollyoaks who deserve to be cleared out. The producers have decided to get rid of 14 people this summer in a major incident (from the writers of Brookside, remember), after already removing long-standing characters, Mr and Mrs Cunningham. However, they seem to have gone a different way to what I would have done. The past year has seen the yearly intake of students, which this year produced some of the worst actors ever seen on the show. One of the students, a slightly mongloid looking girl, brought along her twin and mixed-race family, which was also populated with piss-poor actors. My method - cut your losses on these, concentrate on the established actors.
Here's a list of those for the chop. Izzy Davies I wasn't going to put any pictures up, but... well, y'know... This is a major cut. Elize Du Toit probably feels she can go off an do other stuff now, so they will not have had much of an option. Scott Anderson Fair enough, since he hasn't been given a decent storyline for donkeys' years. He'd be a decent guy to keep as he adds a bit of slime and menace.
Nick O'Connor Kristian Hargreaves Chloe Bruce Fair enough - this could easily be done by having them graduate. It does kill off the Only Gay In The Village, mind, which I thought they wouldn't do, since homosexuals are soap vogue this year. Robbie Flynn Hurrah! Bye-bye to one of the deadweight students. Lisa Hunter Lee Hunter Sally Hunter Les Hunter Now this is odd. The Hunter family have been built up for a few years, with drama after drama.
It seems odd to do all this and then get rid, especially keeping Dan and Ellie Hunter, Ellie's character being dead in the water now after her serial-killer husband storyline has finished, and not the other Hunter siblings (i'll go into this further later on) Norman Sankofa Quite frankly, in television terms, he was on borrowed time the minute the mixed race family came in with three (count 'em, THREE! ) black people. A pity, because he's a decent character. Zara Morgan Cameron Clark Abby Davies Norman, Lee and Lisa overlap into this group and the one I don't understand. They are all taking there A-Levels this summer, so surely it would be easy to have them be the students for the college this year. Considering they all have relationships defined that can be played with, instead of what we get with students coming in usually (stilted dialogue and inexplicable character changes for the first 3 months).
Everyone of them is good in their roles and have grown into them. And notice - Bombhead gets to fucking live! Why? So, it looks like we are keeping the mixed-raced Mongloid family, the crappy students, the Dean family (entire chracter - "They're broke but want to spend money. Erm... that's it! ") and my bete noire, Mandy Rchardson, the only character who could be abused, dumped and orphaned and still make you think she's a whiny bitch.
Me thinks I might be sleeping in in future on Sunday mornings. 
