Hollyoaks Behind the Scene; Hall of Fmae
Phil Redmond
The original founder and creator of the show, Phil Redmond was no stranger to British TV drama. Phil had already had created successful cult shows like Brookside and Grange Hill, but he had always been keen on a making a programme which aimed entirely at the teenage audiences. It was not until 1995, when Channel 4 appealed for independent companies to make a teenage drama. With the popularity of Australian teen shows like Neighbours and Home and away, Phil Redmond saw this as the perfect opportunity to create a British teen drama. On 23 October 1995, the very first episode of the show was televised which centred around seven teenage characters. From there on Hollyoaks grew from strength to strength as it began once weekly but soon it went twice weekly in July 1996 as the show proved to be a hit. Phil worked as the executive producer and often worked closely with Jo Hallows, who also produced and directed the show. Over the years, Phil Redmond has written some of Hollyoaks most memorable episodes, which include the first episode and the ‘off on one’ - one off special video release back 1998. Phil Redmond also created many Hollyoaks spin offs such as Indecent Behaviour, After Hours and No Going Back. Although now his involvement remains little with the Hollyoaks, he still managed tow rite the pilot episode of Hollyoaks spin off series Let Loose and will be never forgotten by many people who worked within the show. In 2004, Phil Redmond was given an CBE for his services to British TV and in 2001, he received the Lifetime achievement award at the British Soap Awards. It is true to say that without Phil Redmond’s brilliant idea, Hollyoaks would had never been created
Jo Hallows
One of the most successful women working behind the scenes of Hollyoaks and work will never been forgotten as she has played a key part in making Hollyoaks one of the popular TV shows today. Jo Hallows began working as a director and writer of the show in December 1995 as she directed some of the biggest episodes in show’s history. Episodes such as Natasha’s Death (1996), Dawn’s death (1997) and After Hours (2004) are just some of Jo Hallows’s excellent directing work, but the one that stood out was ‘Luke Rape’, which brought a whole new era in the show. ‘Luke’s rape’ was a huge ratings hit for Hollyoaks and brought a whole new admirers as Jo Hallows openly admitted; ‘ The coldest shoot and the longest hours, but undoubtedly the best results. We were outside on a Saturday night at 4am with snow and sleet., but that didn’t stop some truly fantastic performances. Thankfully these were duly recognized.’ This single episode roved Jo’s traditional as a top director for the show, but after Phil Redmond prompted Jo Hallows to become the Series Producer of the show, Jo again proved to be successful. For many years Jo delivered some great drama and comedy to the show, but after nearly nine years of success at Hollyoaks, Jo Hallows moved to become head of Mersey TV. She will be fondly remembered and thanked for all her hard work and effort towards the show as she guided Hollyoaks from a once weekly slot to its current five times a week status.
Claire Phillips
Not only one of Hollyoaks finest writers, but Claire Phillips proved that after working as writer on the show, he experience would help her to become on of British TV’s best producers. During her brief spell as Hollyoaks writer, Claire wrote some of the earlier episodes of he show back in 1996. However, perhaps Claire would be best remembered for the spectacular episode of Rob and Dermot’s car crash , which Claire had written. After her spell in Hollyoaks, Claire moved on and began to work for Shed Productions and became series producers to two of TV popular dramas. First off she was the producer of the award winning ‘Bad Girls’ and than produced ‘Footballers Wives’. Her career didn’t just stop there as she now producers ‘The Bill’ and is currently producing a new drama series spin ff from ‘Holby City’. With all her success, Claire’s career first began right back in Hollyoaks as a writer for the show.
Lucy Gough
Along with Neil Jones, Lucy Gough remains one of Hollyoaks best writers over the years and Lucy has given great service to the show. Lucy Gough has been in the show since it’s early days and she wrote her first episode back in May 1996, which was based on Hollyoaks popular duo Ollie and Stan. From there on, Lucy Gough wrote for many of the central characters in the show including Lewis, Tony, Finn, Jambo and Zara. However, the one character that stood out for Lucy was Cindy Cunningham as she retold her own life experience through the life of Cindy. She wrote some great episodes for the show, including Cindy’s 16th birthday (where she slept with Stan) and also Kurt and Ruth’s Wedding. The episode of Dawn’s death (1997) was also co written by Lucy- an episode which touched the viewers hearts. Through all these years, Lucy Gough still remains an important part of the show as over the ears she has combined quirkiness and drama together successfully. Lucy continues to write also award winning plays on Radio 4 and theatre and she was short listed for the BBC Wales Writer of the Year in 1994, for her play Crossing the Bar.
Neil Jones
There have rarely been better writers on the show than Neil Jones. Undoubtedly, Jones has been part of some of the finest and greatest moments in the show’s history. Over the years he has been responsible writing successful episodes like ‘Lewis Suicide’, ‘Rob kidnapping Lucy’, ‘Dawn’s Death’ and the unforgettable ’Luke’s rape’. The episode of ‘Luke’s rape’ was a significant benchmark for the show and was never an attempt to grab the headlines. ‘’We never actually sat down at a meeting and decided to do a storyline about male rape. The story we wanted to tell was about a young man who seemed to have it all being driven to the brink of suicide bullying. The rape element only appeared when we were trying to hit on something Luke would feel that he could never recover from. But once we decided to take on this issue, we knew that the episode would attract a lot of attention and reach viewers who had maybe never seen the show before, so I was really conscious of wanting to make this the best Hollyoaks script I have written.” explains Neil Jones. Successful and the best script it certainly was as the episode received much praise from critics and the Storyline itself received many nominations through several award ceremonies. Neil Jones delivered the perfect script for the character of Luke, which left millions of viewers taking the character of Luke into their hearts. From here on Neil Jones writing became crucial to the show as h also went on to write ‘Lewis Suicide’. With all success with the show, Neil Jones moved to other Mersey TV shows like Grange Hill, Brookside and The Courtroom. In 2005, Neil Jones joined the writing team of ITV drama The Bill. Neil remains one of the highest regarded writers in h show’s history, whose approach in making viewers warm to the characters of the show will never be forgotten.
Kaddy Benyon
Became one of the youngest writers for Hollyoaks at the age of just twenty eight. She began as a script assistant on the show back in 1995and after several years in the script department, she went on to become story liner for Channel 5’s Family Affairs. Kaddy returned to Hollyoaks though as a writer in May 1999 as she became an instant hit with her freshness approach. Kaddy created some of the show’s popular characters like Becca Hayton and also wrote a lot the much loved character of Carol Groves. With the show having such a huge influence on it’s younger audiences, Kaddy often had the responsibility of writing school age type stories and wrote for the younger characters like Lee, Zara, Lisa, Bomhaed and Abby. She also wrote Hollyoaks most popular novels, ‘Luke’s secret Diary’ which sold nearly 50,000 copies. Lucy will be best remembered for bringing something different to the writing team of Hollyoaks.
David Richardson
Possibly the best and successful director the show has ever had. After beginning his career at Brookside, David moved to Hollyoaks and directed some of the show’s biggest and popular episodes. Most of David’s direction involved spectacular stunts which included ‘The Siege’ episode and ‘Rob kidnapping Lucy’. However, none of his stunts were better or spectacular than Adam and Mandy’s car crash- which saw one of the finest stunts ever seen on British drama. That single stunt, showed great excellence in bringing a great crash into reality as it paid off as it scooped ’Best Spectacular scene Of The Year’ at the British Soap Awards in 2002. Other great episodes he directed was ‘After hours’ where again another stunt involving a bus crash was a stunning stunt which earned another ‘Best Spectacular Scene’ nomination at the Soap awards in 2004. David Richardson will always be held in the highest regards with people who worked with him on the show. His great stunts would leave viewers amazed and has helped Hollyoaks earn a record 8 nominations for ‘Best Spectacular Scene’ over the last six years at the British Soap Awards. The quality of scene always shown when David Richardson was directing and his work is always appreciated and recognized by viewers.
Bryan Kirkwood
Possibly one of the show’s most influential behind the scenes man, Bryan Kirkwood played a huge part in turning Hollyoaks from a downhill sliding soap to a recognised drama reflecting on the youth of Britain. Having had previous success at Coronation Street, Bryan Kirkwood became the new Series Producer of Hollyoaks, taking over from David Hansen back in early 2006. Bryan was set to make huge changes to the struggling soap and one of his first was to replace Sam Rowley with Gemma Bissix in the character of Claire Devine- and his decision proved exceptionally first-class. Other characters acquired in the show by Bryan Kirkwood, such as Warren Fox, Kris Fisher and the McQueen family- all proved to be excellent new editions to the show and they became hugely popular among the viewers of the show. The direction of the show had changed, better storylines and script writing had also vastly improved. Several high profile storylines, such as ‘Who pushed Claire’, ‘Hannah’s Easting disorder’ and the ‘McDean affair’ were huge hits with the audiences of the show. Suddenly under Bryan Kirkwood, the show began to take off and praise was also given by several TV producers and critics for the transformation of the show which had became no longer known as a joke. "It's transformed itself, after years of being rubbish, into something lovely and delicate and clever and fun," says Russell T Davies, executive producer of Doctor Who. "They've got better storylines and a broader range of characters," adds Gareth McLean, Guardian writer and Radio Times soap columnist. Awards were also given out to the show as Hollyoaks collected a record three gongs at the British Soap awards (2007) and was the only soap to be nominated in every single category too. Hollyoaks also bagged three nomination for the very first time in show’s history at the National TV awards in 2006. With Hollyoaks also seeing their viewing figures being one of the best performers for Channel 4, Bryan Kirkwood should be held in the higest regard by viewers for accomplishing and establishing Hollyoaks a recognisable TV show once again.
