Hollyoaks spoilers follow.

Hollyoaks star Gary Lucy has explained why he pitched his character Luke Morgan's tragic exit story.

Luke was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in December 2019, and his condition has started to deteriorate in recent months.

Gary has already filmed his final scenes in the role, with an on-screen flashforward scene confirming that Luke's funeral will take place in July.

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Lime Pictures

Speaking about how the story first came about, Gary – who plays Luke – said exclusively to Digital Spy: "Lovely Bryan Kirkwood [former producer] wanted me to come back after my fourth stint. My first stint was 1998 to 2000, and then for the next one, I came back in while I was doing Footballers Wives and they made the schedule work for me.

"And then all those years later, I came back in under Bryan Kirkwood, when he wanted to revive Luke and bring him back in to explore the effects of not having dealt with such a traumatic event with the male rape. So I came back in for a short period in between doing the Full Monty tour, and then afterwards he said, 'I'd love to have you back again, would you consider it?'.

"I said I'd absolutely love to and so we talked about it, and basically I suggested a young dementia story – frontotemporal dementia is the medical term for it. "

"It had never been done before and that is what Hollyoaks is all about. It is leading the pack in regards to groundbreaking and heavy stories. Luke's male rape being another one obviously back in the day, which was huge and so important. This was a great opportunity to come back and to ultimately finish with another story that is a first basically – young dementia, especially."

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Lime Pictures

He added: "I know other shows have done dementia stories and I know Emmerdale had a story with Ashley's character, which was amazing. But it happens to young people as well. For instance, one of the guys I went to school had it and no-one really understood what was going on. It's just heartbreaking."

Discussing some of the challenges Luke's story has inevitably brought him, Gary added: "It has been difficult, more difficult than I anticipated to be honest.

"Without wanting to bore you, we were always taught that acting is reacting, and with this particular condition, especially when he's anxious, stressed, or confused, Luke has these moments where he's not really there.

"By doing that, it means I'm not really listening as Luke is kind of in his own world. I've been been through something similar myself as my nan is in a home now with it and it's that vacant, staring off into into the distance thing which is really difficult.

"It was difficult to do and pitch in and hope that you what you were doing is right."

lisa hunter, zara morgan and luke morgan in hollyoaks
Lime Pictures

Hollyoaks is airing an hour-long special focused on Luke on Monday, June 6 at 7pm on E4 and Wednesday, June 8 at 6pm on Channel 4.

The episode will centre around Luke and Cindy Cunningham's stag and hen celebrations in Mallorca.

Hollyoaks now streams first on All 4, with new episodes dropping each weekday morning. The show airs Mondays to Fridays at 6.30pm on Channel 4, and at 7pm on E4.

Selected omnibus episodes are available via Amazon Prime Video.

Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage

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Sophie Dainty

Deputy Soaps Editor 

Sophie is an award-winning journalist with over a decade of experience as a writer.  Previously at BT.com, where she had her own Reality TV column, Sophie joined the Digital Spy soaps team in 2013 and won the Unsung Hero of the Year award at the PPA Awards in 2022. 

Over the years, she has written hundreds of articles about the Carters, the Dingles and even Wellard the dog, and has created a number of the site's video franchises.  Sophie hosted Digital Spy's first ever podcast 'Soap Scoop' back in 2020, where she spoke to the likes of Alan Fletcher (aka Doctor Karl) and Lisa Riley, has been interviewed on on podcasts and live radio and has represented the company on the panel of the British Soap Awards.

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