The Hollyoaks time jump and the future of British soaps

Loss of nearly a third of cast and crew on Channel 4 show shows how beleaguered TV industry needs to 'reinvent' itself

John Paul, a character from soap opera "Hollyoaks"
John Paul McQueen, a character on the long-running soap, may not be long for the "Hollyoaks" world
(Image credit: Channel 4)

"How do you get rid of 20 people in the same small, tight-knit, already troubled village?" 

That was the conundrum for the writers on long-running soap "Hollyoaks", said the BBC. So on Monday, in one of British television's "more unusual soap plot twists", the storyline will jump forward by a year, to reduce the number of episodes and remove 20 characters – about a third of the cast.

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Harriet Marsden is a writer for The Week, mostly covering UK and global news and politics. Before joining the site, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, specialising in social affairs, gender equality and culture. She worked for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, and regularly contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Tortoise Media and Metro, as well as appearing on BBC Radio London, Times Radio and “Woman’s Hour”. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, London, and was awarded the "journalist-at-large" fellowship by the Local Trust charity in 2021.