In the nineties we saw the birth of
many fantastic forms of entertainment. Take That sparked sexy male
pop, The Spice Girls introduced us to’girl power’ and hollyoaks
stormed on to our screens with its young and beautiful cast. Only one
of these has fully survived the last decade, growing from strength to
strength and eventually gaining the respect of the British public and
critics alike: Hollyoaks.
Over the years we’ve seen rape, murder,
drugs.to name but a few! Hollyoaks has repeatedly gained the
attention of young adults in Britain, but has in its beginnings
failed to gain the respect of critics and the wider population. That
was until the hard hitting story lines of 2007 were aired.
In recent months we have seen bulimia
ending in tragedy, teacher student relations resulting in a prison
stabbing and a murderous gold digging wife. These are a few story
lines amongst many that have made the wider public and critics really
sit up and take notice. As we have clung to the edge of our seats
awaiting numerous revelations, the standard of acting has rapidly
improved. This years soap awards have seen Chris Fountain secure best
actor for his role as Justin Burton, the vindictive school boy who
bedded his teacher only to have her incarcerated. Emma Rigby followed
his triumph by securing best actress for playing Hannah Ashworth the
pretty A Level student ravaged by bulimia. Roxanne Mckee maintained
Hollyoaks’ reputation as the soap that stuns, by once again being
named as sexiest actress. Overall Hollyoaks swiped 6 awards, putting
our usual favorites to shame!
Aside from its award victories
Hollyoaks has smashed the storylines that have broken others. In the
past month incest has been on the tips of everyones tongues, in
Brookside it was gut wrenching, but the cast and crew of Hollyoaks
made it heart wrenching. Elliot Bevan, the resident geek, brought
about the tricky subject of alien activity. This was far removed from
El Dorado’s ridiculously farsical attempt, instead it was a tear
jerking story of a confused young man searching for his father.
The story lines may be slightly
obscene, the characters may be overly gorgeous, but theres no denying
that in the past twelve months Hollyoaks has really come in to its
own.