Hollyoaks viewers are convinced they have worked out the identity of J on the Channel 4 soap after they spotted a huge clue with the handwriting on the mysterious note

Hollyoaks fans reckon they’ve cracked the identity of ‘J’ following a fresh mystery surrounding Rex Gallagher (Jonny Labey) on the Channel 4 soap.

Earlier this week, Freddie Roscoe (Charlie Clapham) discovered Grace Black’s (Tamara Wall) deception about his daughter Lexi Roscoe’s (Marnie Fletcher) accident, realising that she was aware her son Curtis Royle (Reuben Shepherd) was responsible for the head injury.

Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) confronted Rex for giving him the cold shoulder after providing an alibi to the police, with Rex admitting he’d been impacted by Freddie and Grace’s drama.

Ste then noticed Rex in conversation with Misbah Maalik (Harvey Virdi), where she stated she would “make sure there is no trace of him at the house”, leading Ste to believe they were discussing her late husband James Nightingale (Gregory Finnegan).

When Ste questioned Misbah, she seemed evasive. Alarmed, he decided to take action, breaking into Misbah’s home to snoop around.As he searched for evidence, Misbah returned. Ste demanded to know James’ whereabouts, and in the ensuing struggle, he accidentally knocked her to the ground.

Ste was horrified when he realised he had killed Misbah and as he attempted to conceal her body in a rug, Donny Clark (Louis Emerick) showed up. He tried to explain the situation, but Donny was baffled Misbah had never been there, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Donny grassed up Ste for a break-in, and Misbah rocked up safe as houses. With Ste’s noggin on the fritz, the coppers nicked him. On the flip side, Rex slipped his nephew Curtis a cheeky £100 to keep schtum about Lexi, but the cat was out of the bag it was Rex who did her dirty, causing her fits. Little did he know, Freddie had his ear to the ground and heard the whole confession.

Freddie lost his rag and decked Rex, and then Grace got wind of the dodgy dealings. Rex spun a yarn about Curtis and Lexi making up a make-believe mate named ‘J’, posting letters in his bag to chinwag with him. Rex spilled the beans that Lexi nabbed something iffy from his bag, so he grabbed it back, and she took a tumble, ending up with a nasty knock on the noggin and having a fit when Freddie walked in.

Later on, Curtis was on about his pal ‘J’, but Grace put her foot down, insisting the lad was a figment. But the plot thickened as the episode wrapped with some mystery person penning a note from J: “I am still trapped in the house please come soon.”

The audience is buzzing, reckoning James might have dodged the grim reaper after supposedly copping it in a motor blow-up before the show did a time warp last September. Hitting up the socials, one viewer scribbled: “James I say still alive.”

Another chimed in: “Maybe Curtis and Lexi are writing notes to ‘J’ and it’s Rex keeping James stashed away hence why they kept giving him letters to give to him? “. And another punter reckons: “I think it’s James.”

The handwriting was identical to the notes that Ste previously discovered on Rex’s desk. Are Ste’s suspicions about James merely figments of his imagination, or is there a more ominous plot at play?

Hollyoaks airs Monday to Wednesday on E4 at 7pm and first look episodes can be streamed Channel 4 from 7am