Hollyoaks reveals shock plot twist as soap’s budget slashed

Producers had to find a way to cut down cast by one-third

In an unprecedented plot twist, the Hollyoaks storyline is about to jump forward by an entire year.

The decision is part of the producers’ solution to ongoing budget cuts, which has forced them to cull the cast by one-third and kill off 20 characters.

The show’s executive producer Hannah Cheers, who took over the role earlier this year, was tasked with reflecting the reduced cast within the show’s plot.

While the most obvious solution would be to write in a major destructive event that could easily explain the death of 20 characters, Cheers opted for a 12-month time jump to allow for more scope of unanswered questions. The first episode in the new timeline will air on Monday 16 September, which will allow viewers piece together the puzzle of the mysterious events that took place in the past year.

In a new interview, Cheers explained that the time jump solution would be more suited to the appetite of naturally curious soap viewers, as opposed to a dramatic plane crash or mass killing in the fictional Liverpool suburb.

Tony Hutchinson, played by Nick Pritchard, in the ‘Hollyoaks’ time-jump debut episode (Lime Pictures)

She told the BBC: “[The time jump] actually gave us so much more scope for the ‘what if’ questions, and a soap audience love the what, where, how the hell have you got there?”

“And actually, all of a sudden, this was way more valuable than a plane crashing on the village, because that only ends one way – death, in a coffin, sadness.

“Whereas we’ve got a mechanism that has led to new friendships, new romances, old relationships being rekindled, pregnancies, secrets, mysteries – all from moving a year in time.”

For the first time in the show’s 25-year history, the soap will run for only three episodes per week, down from the original schedule of five per week. More than 130 crew members have also been made redundant as a result of the cuts.

Last year, Hollyoaks was moved from Channel 4 to the sister channel E4, as well as YouTube and the broadcaster’s streaming platform, to meet a change of viewing habits.

Channel 4 has seen major cuts to its programming budget in the past few years due to a downturn in advertising revenue, which is part of broader funding challenges facing the TV industry.

Earlier this year, the BBC axed its popular show Doctors and, in 2022, another medical show Holby City aired its final episode. Meanwhile, Casualty has been reduced from five episodes a week to three.

Mercedes McQueen, played by Jennifer Metcalf, in ‘Hollyoaks’ (E4)

Actor Jennifer Metcalfe, who has played Hollyoaks character Mercedes McQueen for almost 20 years, said at a launch event that the cast has “lost a lot of good friends” due to the cuts.

Speaking at a screening hosted in Liverpool to mark the new direction for the show, Metcalfe said: “With there being massive changes and so many redundancies, it was a really sad place to work for a good few months.”

But she said that the new plot changes have ushered in a new era of optimism, since the cast and crew can put more detail into the three episodes per week, rather than five.

“It gives us more time to tell stories with more patience, and more time to prepare, more time to attack the storylines,” she said.

“When you’re churning out five episodes a week and you’re in for 10 or 11-hour days, it’s really difficult to keep up the energy always on a continuing drama.”

Hollyoaks airs on Mondays to Wednesdays at 7pm on E4.