Hollyoaks spoilers follow.
Hollyoaks' co-executive producer Hannah Cheers has discussed future plans for the soap ahead of next week's deadly stunt episode.
The Channel 4 show is heading into a fresh era, as the upcoming hour-long special kicks off some exciting new long-running stories.
Hannah and Angelo Abelo took over as joint executive producers on an acting basis last summer following Lucy Allan's departure from the show.
Their plans for 2024 kick off with a bang next week as Hollyoaks airs a major road disaster involving four different vehicles.
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Speaking to Digital Spy and other press this week, Hannah commented: "We really decided to invest in our hour-long special, which kick-starts the year ahead.
"The fallout from the episode will see secrets in abundance. Those stories will throw us forward and produce ripple effects in the village for a long time to come. Tragedy strikes and the fallout will shape the future for our biggest characters over the next year.
"Soap is about everyday lives being intersected by events, circumstance, luck and tragedy. Staging a multi-vehicle collision allowed us the opportunity to explore a number of people's lives derailed in a specific, singular moment. We explore what they were doing in the moments before and how it affects their lives afterwards.
"The Mercedes/Felix/Warren story was primed and ready to go 'bang', so it became our natural starting point and the motor of the story. The crash that follows is quite a spectacle and the Hollyoaks team have pulled out all the stops with the production values."
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Mercedes McQueen, Felix Westwood, Warren Fox, Ste Hay, Leah Barnes, Leela Lomax and Joel Dexter are just some of the established characters who are involved in the scenes.
Theresa McQueen is also thrown straight back into the action, as Jorgie Porter reprises the role following her maternity leave.
Speaking more generally about the future of Hollyoaks, Hannah continued: "Working on this show is a privilege for all of us. I personally was brought up on soaps. My mum passed her love of soaps onto me. My childhood was shaped by being a complete soap nerd!
"The year ahead will see more firsts as we continue to tell agenda-setting, issue-based storylines, which we're really looking forward to sharing later this year. We know that Hollyoaks still helps conversations between generations and we place huge importance on this.
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"We also know that soap is at its best when it makes you feel something. Hollyoaks has a unique ability to make you feel a huge range of emotions – the intrigue, suspense and often heightened element that Hollyoaks can deliver is something special. That's offset and complemented by the joy, humour, empathy and sadness that soaps are so expert in eliciting.
"I often describe Hollyoaks as an eco-system where you have to balance all of the different elements. When it's right, it's really right and it's quite a rare type of show all of its own.
"With the hour-long special, the opportunity presented itself to showcase all of these uniquely Hollyoaks elements. We want the audience to feel something and that was the starting point. Whilst we knew there had to be a spectacle, we also wanted there to be an emotional truth and a focus on reality.
"Moving forward, we'll also see welcome familiarity with the return of some much-loved characters."
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
