The Hollyoaks cast, past and present, got together for a massive party amid cast exodus.
It was reported earlier in the year that the Channel 4 soap will reduce the number of episodes it airs a week from five to three this September, a number of cast and crew have left the show.
Former Hollyoaks star Gemma Atkinson who played Lisa Hunter from 2001 to 2022, shared a string of photos from the party with some of the old cast members.
‘Those mates you can you go months, even years without seeing but when you’re all back together it’s like nothings changed,’ she penned.
‘The best crew and cast I’ve worked with. My very first job. I couldn’t have asked for a better start and better people around me whilst stepping into this crazy industry at just 15 yrs old. Hollyoaks reunion 2024.’
Terri Dwyer, who played Ruth Osbourne, from 1996 to 2008 also attended the bash and pics of the cast on Twitter/X.
She wrote: ‘Ashley Taylor Dawson, incredibly proud of you, you came to @Hollyoaks as a boy and you’ve matured in to a beautiful soul.
Ashley Taylor Dawson, incredibly proud of you, you came to @Hollyoaks as a boy and you’ve matured in to a beautiful soul. Getting everyone together to support those going through a difficult time @limepicturestv was humbling to say the least. And it was AMAZING to see everyone pic.twitter.com/uQVGEKnngP
— terri dwyer (@terri_dwyer) August 17, 2024
‘Getting everyone together to support those going through a difficult time @limepicturestv was humbling to say the least. And it was AMAZING to see everyone.’
In the coming months, iconic characters Cindy Cunningham (Stephanie Waring), Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas) and Scott Drinkwell (Ross Adams) will all depart, with up to 20 further characters going ahead of a huge UK soap first time-jump.
The event will take place in September, and comes as a result of broadcaster Channel 4 deciding to cut 130 jobs at the show’s production site in Childwall, Liverpool. The weekly amount of episodes will be cut from five to three as a result.
‘When we started talking about the move to three episodes a week, we realised we needed a mechanism through which to transition our stories and characters and we kept coming back to this one,’ said Executive Producer Hannah Cheers.
‘It’s bold, daring and is a first for a UK soap; it sums Hollyoaks up perfectly.
‘The new three episode pattern offers us a different model of storytelling, which means we’ll see characters on screen for much longer. Our viewers are really smart; in order to serve them well we need to kick off this new structure in a meaningful way.
‘Fast-forwarding the show permanently by a year presents us with unlimited story possibilities. We are now a streaming-first soap and can lean into less-restricting and conventional structures.’
