Rounding up a week of Hollyoaks Favourites (Originally aired Christmas 1997)

Hollyoaks favourites this week had a real treat in store for us, as we flashed back to Christmas 1997. Prepare for dodgy fashion, dodgy hairstyles, and some seriously dodgy acting!

Wednesday (Originally aired 18th December 1997)

It was almost Christmas in the village, but things were far from merry. The Bensons were facing their first Christmas without Ollie, who was recently killed in a car crash, whilst Kurt and Ruth couldn’t stop arguing. Ruth was hurt by Kurt’s reaction to her Christmas present, a car (complete with cassette player!) and stormed off to her work’s Christmas party. When she returned home later that evening to find Kurt still in a mood, she demanded that he sleep on the sofa.

Meanwhile, 16 year old Cindy Cunningham was feeling unwell, and had taken to her bed. Mum, Angela, believed that she was suffering from the flu, and ordered her to quarantine in her room (sound familiar?) as Cindy’s older sister, Dawn, was going through chemotherapy. However, Dawn was perfectly safe, as you cannot catch what’s wrong with Cindy! Mandy called round to see Cindy, and tried to convince her to come out with her, but Cindy refused. After Mandy stormed out, Cindy doubled over in pain...

Finally, Jack was struggling with his new houseguests, the Patrick family, particularly Sol, who had not taken to the new set up and was determined to make everyone as miserable as he was.

Thursday (Originally aired 22nd December 1997)

It was Christmas Day, and over at the Cunningham’s, Cindy was still feeling unwell, and hiding the fact that she was pregnant. She sloped off after dinner, snuck into Tony’s video shop, gave birth alone and went on to abandon the baby.

Dawn and Jambo also made themselves scarce from the Cunningham’s celebrations and went for a romantic trip on a stolen rowing boat. Dawn was delighted when Jambo proposed to her, however, in emotional scenes, Dawn, who was suffering from leukaemia, later passed away in Jambo’s arms.

Elsewhere, it was a busy day for Tony as he faced the prospect of three Christmas dinners, thanks to his three girlfriends! Rob and Lucy spent some time alone together whilst Kurt and Sol’s behaviour spoiled the festivities over at The Dog.

Friday (Originally aired 29th December 1997)

It was Dawn’s funeral, and the family were struggling to come to terms with her death. Jambo in particular was finding things tough, and he broke down after the funeral.

Meanwhile, Cindy was struggling following her dramatic birth, and collapsed at the funeral. Emmerdale’s Ashley Thomas, posing as a Doctor, called round to see her, and horrified the Cunningham’s when he revealed that Cindy had recently given birth! 

Elsewhere, Kurt and Ruth patched things up, whilst Carol was keen to do likewise with best mate, Lucy. Finally, Sol continued to be a little shit. 

Cast:

Hollyoaks Favourites

The Hollyoaks geek in me was delighted yesterday to be sent a link to a proper old school episode from June 2000. Episodes from this era hardly ever surface, so this was a real treat! The episode features a few stories, none of which could be considered particularly exciting by todays standards, although there are a couple of mentions of Luke Morgan’s rape, details of which appear in the local paper in this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvIVFDf8H2U&t=192s

The first story features a group of characters, Max, Chloe, OB, Gina, Emily and Nikki, preparing to head to Glastonbury, with Max worrying if the camper van he’s acquired will be able to cope with the amount of luggage Chloe’s bringing with her!  Gina and Emily have recently got back together and are using the trip to celebrate and Emily soon invites Nikki along too. I’ve always loved the Chloe/Max/OB trio so it was great to see two of them again in this episode!

Meanwhile, over in halls, student Anna is worrying about her future after trashing a computer at HCC in anger after finding out that her boyfriend, Sam, has cheated on her with Nikki. She decides to write a letter of apology to the Principle but it only makes things worse and she ends up being kicked out of halls. 

Elsewhere, Ruth is in the doghouse with Lewis after he discovers that she’s had an abortion and confided in another man, Taylor. Despite Ruth’s reassurance that Taylor means nothing to her, Lewis is hurt that she felt she couldn’t talk to him.

Finally, Finn has business in mind as he decides to take over the arrangements for the recently cancelled college ball. Finn’s a character I’d love to see back, actually. It was great to see him pop up during Hollyoaks Later in 2013 and again in 2015 in the 20th anniversary episode. Hopefully that’s not the last we’ve seen of him.

A couple of musical differences from todays Hollyoaks:

Nowadays, each episode usually begins with a piece of music playing over the opening scenes. In 2000, this wasn’t the case and after the opening titles, we’re straight into the episode.

In 2000, several chart songs could be heard on the radio in various scenes. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but this doesn’t tend to happen today. Whilst chart music may occasionally be played over certain scenes, characters don’t tend to listen to it on the radio.

Nowadays, Hollyoaks throw so much into their episodes that there’s barely time to sit back and catch your breath, what with so many big stories competing for your attention. It was quite nice watching the 2000 episode to see a slightly slower pace. Things were happening, but it wasn’t all the ‘high drama’ we know today. 

One thing this episode did make me appreciate is the fact that Hollyoaks, on the whole, has a much stronger cast today than it did back then. Watching the 2000 episode, it’s easy to see where the stereotype that Hollyoaks actors can’t act comes from! Naming no names, but there were some truly awful performances in the the 2000 episode!