HO: Characters you would axe
SoapFan789
Posts: 2,189 Forum Member
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Hollyoaks needs to axe some characters now as the cast is getting way too big! For me the list of characters that should be axed are:
1. Goldie
2. Olivia - Send all 3 to New Zealand
3. Prince
4. Demarcus - Don’t see the point in the character, probably introduced so when Toby goes Demarcus can replace him
5. Toby - Hope he gets his comeuppance soon
6. Brooke - Send Brooke off to Manchester or London with Ripley
7. Ripley - Send Ripley off to Manchester or London with Brooke
8. Fergus - Have him arrested
9. Trish - Give her a proper storyline, if not then she should 100% be axed
10. Olly - Boring character, boring actor, should’ve just had the character stay away from the village rather then recasting him
1. Goldie
2. Olivia - Send all 3 to New Zealand
3. Prince
4. Demarcus - Don’t see the point in the character, probably introduced so when Toby goes Demarcus can replace him
5. Toby - Hope he gets his comeuppance soon
6. Brooke - Send Brooke off to Manchester or London with Ripley
7. Ripley - Send Ripley off to Manchester or London with Brooke
8. Fergus - Have him arrested
9. Trish - Give her a proper storyline, if not then she should 100% be axed
10. Olly - Boring character, boring actor, should’ve just had the character stay away from the village rather then recasting him
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Comments
Brook
Prince and his new fiancé
Goldie
Summer
Ste
Brooke
Nate
Sid
Trish
Fergus
Prince
Would have added Toby and Celeste to the list but they have been totally reinvented and I now rather like them, especially Celeste.
There are a few that need story lines but for now I will save Goldie, Maxine, Damon and Scott from the list.
So there are 60+ regular characters on wikipedia, of which I would quite easily axe 23 and in total up to 34, with a further six who are so new it's unfair to pass judgement. All the decisions are actually down to the characters - either they've not been used for years, their storylines have really made retaining them difficult and it's better to tie things up and move on or the character is just going round in circles or needs removing to enable more potential storylines for those left behind. It's actually nice that for once nobody is on such a list due to them being a poor actor. I don't think any of the current regulars fit into that category.
Had to use a spreadsheet to sort:
Top of the axe list:
Warren Fox
Nana McQueen
Theresa McQueen
Trish Minniver
Diane O'Connor
Maxine Minniver
Peri Lomax
Leela Lomax
Grace Black
Cleo McQueen
Scott Drinkwell
Sally St. Claire
Brody Hudson
Donna-Marie Quinn
Martine Deveraux
Walter Deveraux
Toby Faroe
Celeste Faroe
Felix Westwood
Cher Winters
Summer Ranger
Fergus Collins
Timmy Simons
Potential further additions, but probably not in the short term
Zara Morgan
Mercedes McQueen
John Paul McQueen
Joel Dexter
Sienna Blake
Yasmine Maalik
Damon Kinsella
Sylver McQueen
Brooke Hathaway
Luke Morgan
Jack Osborne
Some people get saved by recent additions. For example Prince returning saves Goldie. If the rest of the McQueens did go that smaller unit of Goldie, Prince and potentially a returning Hunter could take the character in a different direction than her current job share with Theresa.
The likes of the Deverauxs, Summer and Cher just get a time limit stuck on them by their storylines. The likes of the Lomaxes and Grace are characters I really like but I just don't think seem to have a point anymore.
Those in the second list for me fall in the use them or lose them category, and in the case of JP and Mercedes that means actually develop them rather than keeping them trapped in a repetitive loop of misery. Personally I'd get rid but I also think when making such calls you need to exercise a bit of caution too.
Jack Osborne is a legend but his legendary status diminishes with every passing year, especially now Frankie has gone. The way he was written over the Mandy/Darren/Nancy triangle and at times in relation to the county lines story just didn't seem in character, and though I think it is important to keep Darren's dad around I think if they do they need to do so in a way that doesn't compromise the character.
I agree with all of these, apart from Ollie while Luke is still in the show. I am hoping Prince has only come back to create an exit storyline for Goldie.
Damon
John Paul
Toby
Timmy
Romeo
Sylver
Fergus
Goldie
Grace
Leela
Maxine
Mercedes
Nana McQueen
Theresa
Trish
That's who I'd get rid of
Brody
Fergus
Warren
Romeo
Juliet
Mandy
Trish
Ollie
Brooke
Summer
Trish
Maxine
Summer
Yasmin (She’s way too OTT for my liking and extremely annoying)
Brooke
Ripley
Mandy
Can't act, disastrous character and those nostrils do irritate me. I wish they would kill her off.
Joel Dexter
He is boring and is only relevant when it comes to Cleo McQueen which is just awful as she is a soul sucking wreck. The son of Warren Fox has always been a disappointment!
Peri Lomax
Awful actress and I just cringe. She really think she is wise and intelligent but she is thick as two planks. How is she still working in that hospital LOL!
Leela Lomax
With Nancy Osborne and Diane Hutchinson around I really don't think we even need her. She is so aimless and her being off screen has not helped at all. I never did rate the character at all.
Goldie McQueen
Can't act, has no place there now Theresa McQueen is back and just appears to be there to look different in different weaves. She has competition with Martine Deverauxs weave that miraculously stayed afloat her head as she dived into the river! LOL!
Damon Kinsella
Who is he? Why is he there? Why is he paired with Liberty which just makes him even more irrelevant.
Sami Maalik
Stuck up and badly acted. That bottom lip of his is annoying too. I wish they would kill him off and let the Maaliks be a family without him. Hopefully Verity Hutchinson will thrive as a character as she has been seriously lacking since her debut.
Brooke Hathaway
Selfish and the person that plays her seems so tuck up too. I would like to know of the rumours are true that she claimed Aeden Duckworth was racist towards her.
Overall they jut make me feel uncomfortable and suck the life out of any happy dynamics. I am annoyed she was part of destroying a strong friendship between Ollie Morgan and Imran Maalik.
Walter Deveraux
The actor is shockingly bad and the character is just flat and is another weak link in the Deverauxs.
Toby Faroe
Glad to see Celeste Faroe moving away from him as she is a strong character and he is a badly acted one. I can't be bothered seeing him jealous over Joel and Demarcus Westwood whilst being lumbered with awful dementor Cleo McQueen.
Ripley Lennox
I think she has had chance to settle in and nothing is happening with her at all. Sticking her with loathsome Brooke is NOT doing her characters any favours. Not sure when Brooke even started liking "girls" which technically is incorrect due to non-binary. I think Hollyoaks should have addressed this.
Summer
Leela
Trish
Maxine
Scott
Ripley
Mercedes
Timmy
Luke
Cher
& Sienna whiny voice can all go.
All are DREADFUL.
Prince
Summer
John Paul
Brooke
Ripley
Trish
Maxine
Trish
Peri and leela
Goldie
Prince
Sylver
Donna Marie
Romeo
Juliet
Felix
Ripley
Broke
Summer
Mercedes McQueen
John Paul McQueen
Trish Minniver
Maxine Minniver
Brody Hudson
Sylver McQueen
Brooke Hathaway
Fergus Collins
Timmy Simons
Damon
Brody
Scott
Trish
Fergus
Sienna
Grace
Maxine
Damon
Brody
Warren
Leela
Sylver
Of the newer arrivals I would say the following should go
Summer (hopefully she will return to be killed off this week)
Fergus (I'm quite sure we will have a "who killed Fergus?" storyline sooner rather than later)
Trish (Denise Welch could have been great and an asset to the show if she had played a normal person paired with Jack for example but the character is just horrible)
I'd also axe Brooke and Ripley who both bore me to tears. I'm not a big fan of the Devereauxs but with Celeste's recent personality transplant she is finally likeable. I can't see Richard Blackwood sticking around long term anyway and surely Toby's character has an expiration date.
The Maaliks are the best family in the show at the moment with Shaq being a great addition so they can stay. The Nightingales too as James and Marnie are great characters and I like Romeo and Juliet plus Donna Marie too. Obviously you have your untouchables like Tony/Darren/Nancy/Mandy/Cindy/Jack/Tom and I like that they have links right back to the 90s.
They also need to develop and integrate Sid and Ollie into the show better. I get the feeling that Sid was only ever intended to be kept on for the county lines storyline and since that finished the character has been floundering without much to do. I hope they know what a great actor they have in Billy Price and make him central to the show again like he was last year. Their treatment of Ollie this year has been very strange - he's barely featured and even though he's been back a while now we never see him with his friendship group. He and Imran has such a great relationship so they need to stop making him so isolated and reintegrate him back in with the teens again. Gabriel Clark is another talented likeable actor and I'd like to see him get a lot more to do.
I've been watching since the beginning and Hollyoaks used to refresh it's cast every 3 years or so which kept it feeling fresh and vibrant, over the last 10 years it has become so stagnant. I agree that I'd like to see two new big families (with no existing ties to current characters) and the return of the students to get the show back to its roots. It used to be a young people's soap exploring their lives and now it's more about middle aged gangsters. I have seen an improvement over the last few weeks after a very lacklustre year but I really do believe an injection of new characters could work wonders like when Brendan, Cheryl, Mitzeee and the Costellos came in.
Where did you read this because it hasn’t been axed.
1. Goldie
2. Olivia - Send all 3 to New Zealand
3. Prince
4. Demarcus - Don’t see the point in the character, probably introduced so when Toby goes Demarcus can replace him
5. Toby - Hope he gets his comeuppance soon
6. Brooke - Send Brooke off to Manchester or London with Ripley
7. Ripley - Send Ripley off to Manchester or London with Brooke
8. Fergus - Have him arrested
9. Trish - Give her a proper storyline, if not then she should 100% be axed
10. Olly - Boring character, boring actor, should’ve just had the character stay away from the village rather then recasting him
(Newly added)11. Ste - The far right storyline was amazing but he should’ve stayed away from the show when he left
(Newly added)12. Romeo - Boring character, all his main storylines have been affairs
(Newly added)13. Sylver - Good character but I don’t think he should stay if they pair him with Mercedes again, should move away with Cher
(Newly added)14. Cher - Her and Sylver should leave and move away
(Newly added)15. Mercedes - Either keep her as a single mother as she works well when just with Bobby, if not, send her off
(Newly added)16. Nate - Don’t see the point in the character, probably another psycho storyline
(Newly added)17. Timmy - He’s a good character but I don’t see how they could revive his character after what he’s helping Fergus do
That 17 characters who could easily be axed (some could be given good storylines to sort them out).
Axing characters doesn't fix problems - if anything, it creates more - because new characters will be introduced, but they'll have the same issues. Bring in new storyliners and writers to give existing characters a new direction: pretty much any character can be improved with enough imagination. But it's unfair to put a load of actors out of work because the people behind the scenes aren't creative enough to do their own jobs of giving them something to act... unless they're particularly bad actors, or are unprofessional to work with; but that's a whole other issue!
Each character consists of storyliners, writers, directors, wardrobe, hair/makeup (and probably others) as well as the actor, all contributing to what the viewers see. So, why is it the actor who gets punished (by being axed) when thing go wrong, when there are other people involved in the character's arc?