Hollyoaks spoilers follow.
Following the shock shooting of Hollyoaks stalwart Tony Hutchinson in the soap's 30th anniversary episode, there has been much speculation amongst fans on who the culprit could be.
Next week, Tony's best friend Darren Osborne finds himself in the frame as the prime suspect, after he dramatically ordered Warren Fox to put out a hit on Tony.
When Warren failed to execute the hit at Tony's wedding, any further attempt was thwarted by the village plane crash – however, Tony was later shot by a mystery gunman.
A police investigation into the shooting originally pegged Clare Devine as the main suspect, as it was discovered that the bullet was from the same gun that she used against her sister Grace Black.
Ashley Taylor Dawson, who plays Darren, chatted to us to shed some light on how Darren is feeling about the shooting's aftermath.
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"There’s a lot of guilt obviously, because it's where his head was. I don't think he really believes that he’ll be sent down for it, but all the things he's done and said, he is prime suspect and all the fingers are pointing at him," Ashley shares.
"Then, it's the reality that he could be sent to prison, and it doesn't matter whose Morgan is then. It's massive for Darren."
The hit was the catastrophic climax of a dramatic bid for revenge, after Darren discovered that his daughter Morgan Osborne is biologically Tony's due to a one-night stand between Tony and Darren's wife Nancy Osborne five years ago.
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"His idea was no one ever finds out about this secret. That's the only way he can mentally deal with it – Morgan is his, Tony never finds out and then, as a father and a man, he hasn't lost anything," explains Ashley.
"That was the deal in Darren's head but obviously it just started spiralling out of control. It all got too much, and he just wanted Tony dead!"
Despite this, Ashley insists that there's still hope for the future of Tony and Darren's friendship.
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"There’s a reason they’re best mates – you’ve just got to find that truth again and make it happen," Ashley insists.
"With Tony and Darren, they've been there through thick and thin – they’ve made massive mistakes, and hopefully they can get through it and see the funny side. If there’s a funny side to, 'Remember that time you were sleeping with my wife!'"
Read the full chat with Ashley in the current issue of Inside Soap, out now.
Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
