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Exclusive: Hollyoaks' Gregory Finnegan confirms James's future after shocking return from the dead

"The chance to resurrect James was one I couldn't miss."

By Daniel KilkellyPublished: 21 October 2025

Hollyoaks star Gregory Finnegan has spoken about his dramatic return to the show for the first time – sharing new hints on what the future could hold for his popular character James Nightingale. Fans of the Channel 4 soap are still in shock after James made a reappearance on our screens last week, one year on from his presumed death.

Since then, James has popped up again for a tense conversation with Peri Lomax, who urged him to see how much his husband Ste Hay still needed him.

Gregory walked the red carpet at Hollyoaks' 30^th birthday party at St George's Hall in Liverpool on Monday evening (20 October) – and caught up with Digital Spy about the unexpected storyline twist.

"I'm as shocked as everybody else was!" Gregory admitted in our chat. "I got a call in the very recent past and it was exciting. I wanted to come back. The chance to resurrect James was one I couldn't miss.

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"I think it might have been planned from their perspective. As I understand it, trying to keep it from the press and from fans, I think is really important. So I can understand why they tried to keep it close to their chests until telling me about it.

"It was just a bit lucky, actually, that we were able to fit it in and it's worked out well."

Asked whether he's back for good, Gregory teased: "To be confirmed! We'll see. I have some commitments. I would love to come back and do some more stuff.

"I'm on screen this week in the 30^th, so I've filmed some stuff for that. Beyond that, I can't confirm anything else but fingers crossed I'll be in there this week and we'll see.

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"To be honest with you, I think there was an idea of getting a bit of a reaction and a read on whether it went down well. I think it has, I don't know! It seemed to on Wednesday last week, when I woke up to more notifications than I expected at six in the morning! So far, so good."

Gregory went on to discuss whether James still has feelings for Ste, who's faced plenty of tough times without him around.

"Certainly from what I understand, there are obviously feelings there," he confirmed. "I think whatever took him away, why ever he did the things that he did, there were reasons.

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"So I don't think he left voluntarily. I'm excited to find out what those reasons were, because I think they've been fleshed out a little bit. I think I have an understanding and the fans will see soon."

Meanwhile, when we jokingly asked whether death still has any meaning in Hollyoaks, Gregory laughed: "As I said very categorically at the time, there was never any body. It was a big explosion – anything could have happened!

"We've seen characters die on screen, these characters died in front of your eyes. James didn't. So I was always confident that he'd make a return."