Hope for Hollyoaks?

For as long as Hollyoaks has been running it has generally been considered to be the worst soap in England (with the exception of Family Affairs and Doctors), Hollyoaks is aimed at young people, its based in a town with a university so almost all the cast is young an extremely good looking. This was in essence what the show relied on, the acting was pretty average but they had pretty faces so it didn't really matter. The problem with that is a persons acting career was short lived, the general thinking that was once a person left Hollyoaks they were forgotten and never acted on TV again, though i'm sure you could see many an ex Hollyoaker appearing in a panto near you.

However I feel that things are on the up for Hollyoaks actors, in recent months there have been some noticable success stories for Hollyoaks, with actors going on and doing proper grown up stuff:

Warren Brown: he played horrible date rapist Andy Holt on Hollyoaks, and with him being a typical baddy you expected him to have a short lived time one the show and vanish from the public eye completely. Not Warren! After Hollyoaks he first starred in the awful BBC3 sitcom Grownups, and although it was terrible I was pleased to see he was still working. I genuinely considered this a success for him, and Grownups alone would have been enough, but then he only goes and gets himself a huge three part army drana called Occupation, that was really serious and critically acclaimed. Then he stars in Luther, which stars Idris Elba from The Wire in for crying out loud, and now he's in Inside men, alos super seious and edgy, not only is he working but he is clearly able to pick and choose what jobs he does! Success!

Nico Mirallegro: Newt from Hollyoaks, playing the loveable schizophrenic Nico enjoyed a successful run on Hollyoaks and was generally considered to be quite a heartthrob despite the fact that he had an incredibly specific look on the show. I didn't really rate him particularly as an actor and thought once he left Hollyoaks he would have no success whatsoever. What do i know? Nico is now starring in Upstairs Downstairs, which is the BBC's answer to Downton Abbey and as far as I am aware doing a very good job of it. He knows Keeley Hawes personally now so that alone I consider a win.

Emma Rigby: Emma's character Hannah in Hollyoaks was one of the best and most well rounded characters that the soap created. Emma won a British Soap Award for the role, which is a pretty big deal considering the only category that Hollyoaks normally does well in is Sexiest Male and Sexiest Female. Because of this I was expecting that she would be able to find work somewhere else, I was hoping she might be able to land a part in another soap, but she's done one better, she's in a ruddy film! A film that stars the most bizzare cast I have ever seen including, Robert Sheehan (from Misfits), Tulisa Contostavlos (from N Dubz and X Factor, she acts now I guess), Reggie Yates (What a man) and Hayley Williams (thats right from PARAMORE!! wtf!). Despite the strange cast its a film nonetheless and Emma is also staring in the BBC drama Prisoners Wives, which has also had lots of success and is very serious and important.

Roxanne Mckee: Roxanne played Louise Summers in Hollyoaks and was dramatically killed off on her wedding day. I thought Roxanne would be all right after leaving the show, she was popular and seemed to be taken seriously in the show and by general media people. But after leaving the show and making a brief cameo in Taio Cruz's music video Like A Star she vanished. I figured she just had no success and was working in panto or teaching drama to young people or something. She's not though, she's only gone to America! She is currenty starring in the HBO television show, Game of Thrones, that show is huge! Now i've only seen one episode so don't know how big her part was, but she was in the episode I saw and it was pretty raunchy so I bet she left an impression. When I think of success I think of your parents being able to talk of what you are doing with their friends and being proud, and Roxanne's parents can say she is in America filming for a show starring Sean Bean!

Whether Hollyoaks actors are getting better or the general standards of acting have lowered I don't know, but congratulations, there is hope after Hollyoaks!