Rainbow Network.com
Hooray For Hollyoaks
15th January 2007
Hollyoaks has long been the perfect hangover cure, but now it’s so much more than just a guilty pleasure, trailing only behind Corrie as the soap for the gays. Forget the Fowlers, it’s the McQueens we wanna watch.
Personally, my passion for Hollyoaks has only recently been reawakened. I was lost in the wilderness, dear brother, where I clung desperately to the duvet as successive fools tried to push the Archers as the Sunday communion worth tuning in for. Catchy theme-tune and gay couple aside, there’s far too much baby talk and old people a sexing. And I’m sorry, I’m a homosexual; I need moving pictures to help me to remember who’s who, and to ogle the latest soap stud. Hollyoaks has the latter in droves. What was I thinking? Then last year, with the latest Archers Addict a dim memory, I was able to reassert my authority, control that remote, and each Sunday wait for the gorgeous Steve Jones to introduce an old friend. But soon Hollyoaks became not just a hangover diversion, but an obsession…
Technology had leapt forward in my wilderness years, with the invention of Sky Plus, E4 and E4+1 meaning you need never miss a moment or wait for the next exciting instalment. But it wasn’t just the delights of Jake, Justin, Calvin, Foz or, at a push, Tony that kept me glued to the screen. Hollyoaks, in my absence, had gotten good. Storylines such as Jake’s hit and run, Becca and Justin’s teacher-pupil relationship going sour and the fire in the Dog (the pub, not an unfortunate mutt) came thick and fast. It also had a new super-bitch in the form of calculating, coke-head Clare, plus a student with a love of skirts – wearing them - and a bonkers indie kid who finds it perfectly acceptable to put a webcam in his girlfriend's bedroom. All these crazy characters have made Hollyoaks an appointment to view. If that wasn’t enough to grab the gays, there was the arrival of a new family, carefully drip-fed into the show until we came to love them (EastEnders take note) Man magnet Mercedes, Chantelle a-like Carmel, Motor-mouth Michaela, bookworm Tina and piles-suffering matriarch Myra - the mighty McQueens have crept into Chester and - like the women of Corrie - have quickly become the characters we care and cheer for.
Only John-Paul McQueen (played by James Sutton, pictured right) 
seemed surplus to requirements. (Looks aside) His only distinction so far seemed to be that he was the only male member of the McQueen clan. His only role to be a bit miffed when his sisters overtook his bedroom. But what’s this? He’s only now coming out as a Gaylord! Of course the clues where there - the sticking up for bezzy mate Craig, the chummy changing room scenes, the going out with Hannah ‘cos Craig began dating her best mate Sarah, the dumping of Hannah, claiming he was in love with Sarah – Miss Marple wouldn’t have been foxed. While the clues may have been there, it’s not been played out in an obvious fashion. Other soaps would have made the character of transvestite Kris the resident poof, but not the head honchos of Hollyoaks. They have – like the rest of his family – introduced John-Paul gradually, with his sexuality seemingly incidental to any of his storylines. The fact that he’s just your average teen with a love of football makes John-Paul all the more believable and sympathetic.
Hands up, I admit that I shouted at the screen when he stopped short of coming out to Craig in a recent episode. Oh, and it also helps that they're both cute… But will Craig follow him out of the Chester closet? Time will tell, but he does love a manly hug and he did try and get back with Sarah by writing her a poem and getting her a voucher for the top she liked – what a sensitive soul! Hollyoaks is on Channel 4 Monday-Fridays at 6.30pm with an omnibus on Sundays at 10.15am.
- Charles Pettitt 2007
