If you thought the soap landscape was looking a bit 2001 lately, you're right. Toyah's strolling around the Coronation Street cobbles, Lisa and Phil are yelling at each other in 'Enders and who's that over there in Hollyoaks? Sure, that's just Luke Morgan and Mandy Richardson. Everyone might as well just wear their cargo pants, put The OC on and be done with it.
But let's backtrack. Gary Lucy left the soap 16 years ago after two years playing veritable soap hunk Luke Morgan. He'd had a wealth of explosive and huge storylines – more on that later – and he headed off to Canada to be a school football coach because when you leave in soap, you never just move up the road to Rochdale.
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And aside from one fleeting comeback in 2002, that was it. Until earlier this year when it was announced that the character of Luke was returning to Hollyoaks as part of 2017's 'Summer Of Secrets', alongside his ex Mandy Richardson, aka Sarah Jayne Dunn.
There were sexy trailers and moody promo shots and teasers of huge storylines ahead. But if you're reading this thinking 'Who the hell IS Luke though?' then we can help out. Here's everything you need to know...
1. He was at the centre of one of the most groundbreaking storylines in soap history
(Warning: The clip below aired in a late-night episode and includes scenes some readers may find upsetting.)
The issue of male rape had never been dealt with in Soapland before – quite a shock since Brookside was on back then and Brookside covered pretty much everything in the genre of 'controversy' – but Hollyoaks decided to take on the topic.
During a football match, Luke tackled and badly injured Mark Gibbs, ruining his chances of a professional football career. Mark then proceeded to bully Luke before raping him, an incident which Luke – and many '90s teens who secretly watched the late-night episode even though their parents had banned them – never fully recovered from.
Expect it to inform where his character has gone since in his comeback too...
2. He went out with Mandy – who's also just returned
Luke had a few girlfriends on the show – this is not a surprise, look at that face – but his relationship with Mandy was the most notable. On the surface, they were a paint-by-numbers 'hottest kids in sixth form' couple but beneath it lay a host of issues, including trying to deal with the aftermath of Luke's rape and Mandy going out with both Luke's brother and his mate Darren (yep, that Darren; so that should get interesting too... but we digress).
Sarah Jayne Dunn has reprised her role this summer as well, with the pair now a couple once again but living a far from perfect life. We have a strong suspicion this is going to be good.
3. He did have one other comeback in 2002
Hollyoaks viewers did check in briefly with the character of Luke a year after he left the show, when he came back from Canada for his parents' second wedding.
Despite the fact that Mandy was going out with his brother Adam by then – ah, soap – she and Luke had a fling, although she turned him down when he suggested she moved to Canada with him. Short-sighted, Mandy, imagine the ski trips.
4. He was like a younger Mick Carter with less rhyming slang
AKA the soap character that everyone fancied.
Actually, that's kind of all they had in common.
5. He was mates with Darren Osborne
When characters come back after such a long time away, the first question that goes through our minds is usually who they know in the current cast, and how they were connected, so that we can get a head start on what's coming up plot-wise and not be totally lost when they start having shifty conversations in the pub. This is especially tricky when the gaps between appearances are 15 years long.
But of the current cast, Luke is mates with Darren Osborne – although with that shared ex to complicate matters, issues could be simmering under the pally surface...
6. His alter ego Gary Lucy was also in Footballers' Wives, AKA the most iconic show of the noughties
Essentially, Gary Lucy owned the early noughties, and after he left Hollyoaks, he headed to the set of the most WAG-tastic, guilty-pleasure, glitzy, high-heeled show of the era as Kyle Pascoe in Footballers' Wives.
It is no exaggeration to say that Footballers' Wives was the greatest TV production of a generation, that no show of such a calibre has been broadcast since, and that Gary Lucy was an essential cog in that special, special wheel.
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