Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks is a British soap opera set in and around the fictional Chester suburb of the same name and filmed mainly in nearby Liverpool. The soap is centred around a college of higher education called Hollyoaks Community College. The characters and main target audience are generally in their late teens or early twenties. The show currently broadcasts at 6:30pm every weekday with an omnibus edition on Sundays on Channel 4. Hollyoaks is known for launching the careers of Will Mellor, Gary Lucy, Jeremy Edwards and James Redmond.

Current characters

Burton Family:

• Liz Burton (married to Richard Taylor) - Andree Bernard

Liz is the archetypal overwrought mother of teenagers and spends her life trying to maintain the peace between her and richard's children. She often plays the role of mediator in the almost constant disputes and attempts to discipline the children which originally proved ineffective but recently began to work.

• Justin Burton - Chris Fountain

A troubled teen, Justin began misbehaving and smoking cannabis after his father's death, constantly hurting his family and hiding behind Liz who felt obliged to support him; howver, after pushing step-sister Darlene through a plate glass window, Liz sent Justin off to boot camp since when he has calmed considerably and recently reconiled with Darlene and Ali, becoming fast freinds with his step-siblings.

• Melanie Burton - Cassie Powney

Mel is quiet and introverted and often gets annoyed by her siblings' behaviour and lack of consideration for her needs.

• Sophie Burton - Connie Powney

Mel's opposite, Sophie is outgoing and speaks her mind, she and Mel manage to get along despite irritating each other a lot of the time and she shares her twin's ire at the lack of respect they get from the rest of the family, Liz often tries to make up with grand gestures for not paying enough attention to her daughters due to managing the rest of the family.

Dean Family:

• Frankie Dean - Helen Pearson

Impulsive and slightly flaky, Frankie was hit hard by the departure of her husband Johnno who left her to marry his pregnant 19 year old girlfreind. Frankie is immensley proud of her children and goes out of her way to protect them, often by taking all of the problems she encounters upon herself.

• Craig Dean - Guy Burnet

Fierecely protective of his family and freinds since he was left devastated by the knowledge that his father was having an affair, Craig is intelligent and crafty and often willing to turn his hand to scams and manipulation to get his way.

• Jake Dean - Kevin Sacre

Usually hard working, caring and honest, Jake has a habit of acting without thinking, notably in having an affair with Lisa whilst he was going out with Becca and jeopardising their relationship.

• Steph Dean - Carly Stenson

Flighty and extremely extrovert, Steph thinks very highly of herself and her own abilities. She tends to consider herself better than her peers and sometimes comes across as selfish though she does try to help with other people's problems this usually leads to her simply annoying those who she talks to as she will typically lecture them in a superior manner or bully them into doing something that she wants to do.

Hunter Family:

• Les Hunter - John Graham Davies

Reformed alcoholic, Les is strong willed and old fashioned and he still maintains strong ideas of family unity and is willing to fight in order to defend the honour of his daughters, recently coming to blows with Jake over his affair with, and dumping of, Lisa. After family strife, alcoholism and separation from his wife, Les now wishes to keep what is left of his family together do his best to be a postive part of their lives.

• Sally Hunter - Katherine Dow-Blyton

Caring and willfull, Sally is convinced that everything can be sorted out by negotiation and is usually reserved and considers actions carefully before going through with them, though she allows her children to sway her into impulsiveness on occasions such as her persuit of Les in order to save their marriage.

• Ellie Mills - Sarah Baxendale

Recently departed due to the ill treatment she recieved at the hands of Lee and Lisa becasue of the lies she told to protect her husband.

• Lee Hunter - Alex Carter

Mischevious and enthusiastic about the student lifestyle, Lee is often self-centred but caring when he needs to be and he shares Les' united family unit ideal. Lee longs to be loved and hatches a range of schemes to win the adoration of his fellow students including paying Zara to impersonate Kylie Minogue

• Lisa Hunter - Gemma Atkinson

Like her parents Lisa is strong willed and knows her own mind, she is aloof towrds her family most of the time but deep down she cares for them. Her independent nature has led to conflict with Les and Sally in the past and resulted in her moving between her home and the halls of residence on repeated occasions.

• Bombhead - Lee Otway

Though not actually a part of the Hunter family, David "Bombhead" Burke, Lee's best freind currently lives with them after he recated badly to the death of his mother. When she died, Bombhead reacted with denial and left her body in the house for months, offering her food and drink adn refusing to acknowledge that she was gone. Despite having some psychological problems, Bombhead functions well with the help of his freinds and displays an extremely caring and empathetic nature which has helped the Hunters deal with the loss of Dan as they helped him come to terms with losing his mother.

Osborne Family:

• Jack Osborne - Jimmy McKenna
• Darren Osborne - Ashley Taylor Dawson

Owen Family:

• Carrie Owen - Jac Croft
• Sam Owen - Louis Tamone
• Nicole Owen - Ciara Janson
• Russell Owen - Stuart Manning

Taylor Family:

• Richard Taylor (married to Liz Burton) - Richard Calkin
• Ali Taylor - Luti Fagbenle
• Darlene Taylor - Sarah Lawrence

Others:

• Becca Hayton - Ali Bastian
• Ben Davies - Marcus Patric
• Cameron Clark - Ben Gerrard
• Dannii Carbone - Christina Baily
• Joe Spencer - Matt Milburn
• Mandy Hutchinson (married to Tony Hutchinson and step-sister of Max Cunningham) - Sarah Dunn
• Tony Hutchinson (married to Mandy Hutchinson) - Nick Pickard
• Max Cunningham (step-brother of Mandy Richardson) - Matt Littler
• Sam O'Brien (OB) - Darren Jeffries
• Zara Morgan - Kelly Greenwood

Recently deceased

• Dan Hunter - Andy McNair (December 2004)

External links

• Official website