Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks, a young adults popular soap opera in the UK, for the last few months has had a serial killer on the loose killing blonde young women; recently we learnt that one of the main characters is the killer. In Friday's episode he made another attack, believing he'd killed. In today's episode he was looking into the mirror saying 'nothing happened', 'that wasn't me'.

Well next we see him, standing next to himself saying, 'yes you did, you killed her', arguing with himself. Then telling him to look down to the sink (which contained blood and the murder weapon) to which he said 'no, that was someone else'. I'm paraphrasing but it was pretty clear that the writers were trying to show that the reason the character seems so likable and normal without feeling guilt or remorse is because he's 'dissociating' the murders and the psychotic thoughts from himself. Next thing you know they'll wheel in a criminal psychologist to teach the kids all about what "dissociative identity disorder" is.

UPDATE Friday, September 5, 2003: For the first time in weeks, if not months, Toby has talked about the killings (he's been either obsessed about his mother's death or not there at all) and it looks like all the two Tobys editing was what it looked like after all. In today's episode he almost came out to his wife about what's going on. They were interrupted but not before this dialogue:

"There's the me you know and there's another me that... neither of us know."

"We all have a dark side."

"Not like this, it's uncontrollable."

So they really are going to go with the 'it's the other psycho me who takes over and I can't stop him' angle. Toby stays on the cast until December, looks like the plotline we were worried about when this first started is going to happen now...

Hollyoaks watch resumed.

Official Hollyoaks website

Hollyoaks writers as listed by the Internet Movie Database

Hollyoaks listing on England's Channel 4

The character is Toby, played by Henry Luxemburg.

Looks like the producer we can blame is Jo Hallows, the production company is MERS-E-TV (their website at http://www.merseytv.com/default.asp?loc =introduction MERS-E-TV Limited,
Campus Manor,
Childwall Abbey Road,
Childwall, L16 OJP

To send postal mail to England: it's 80c for the first ounce.

At the end of a subsequent episode he pushes his mother down the stairs. As of June 9, 2003, they haven't shown him being indecisive and being told by the other him to kill someone while they can't hear. If that happens it'll clinch it as a bad multiplicity stereotype.

Here's an interview with him about playing a serial killer, it's 'members only' material on Hollyoaks.com:

Q: So, how would you describe Toby's initial role in HOLLYOAKS?

He came in as Dan's mate. The function of his character was to bring Ellie back into the show, but then there were some changes and Gary came into the programme. Eventually Toby ended up with Ellie, which was always the intention.

He came in a lot harder than he is now, however, and he's mellowed out a lot.

Q: When were you first told that you would be playing a murderer?

Last September. I was in the canteen and Jo Hallows (HOLLYOAKS' series producer) came up to me and said, "I want a word with you at the end of the week about a big storyline, probably the biggest we've ever done." I went away and spoke to my parents and said, "Er, so there's this big storyline coming up, I wonder what it could be."

Then I went through all these possibilities. By this point there'd already been one death on screen, but you hadn't seen it happen. So when Jo eventually told me, the idea of it being to do with murder had crossed my mind. For a few days I was a bit panicky. I knew it was a good storyline, but I wondered if it meant I was going to murder a couple of girls and be out of the show within the month. Then it transcended that the storyline was going to continue a while.

Q: Was it difficult to keep that information from affecting your performance on-screen?

Yeah. I had to remember that, at the end of the day, unless we were filming the serial killer killing, we were filming a normal person. The only reason a serial killer gets away with it is because they appear to be normal people, or so we think.

So for a long time it was about playing Toby against the idea of a serial killer. I wasn't playing a serial killer, I was playing a normal person. The only time I needed to play serial killing was when I was killing, because the rest of the time I'm covering up, and being normal, and making out that my life's normal. So I've tried to fight against all the cliches of stares to the left, or stares to the right, or caressing a knife while cutting lemons in The Dog!

Q: How did the rest of the cast react when they learned you were the serial killer?

Well, the acting world is a fickle world, so their first reactions were: are you going to kill me?! Certainly the blonde girls worried about that. I think they were very intrigued to find out who it was going to be. And when word started getting out that it was me, but they didn't know that I knew, they were quite concerned as they thought it might mean I was leaving straightaway. Some of them were a bit worried that they knew and I didn't.

Q: Do you think there are certain kinds of moral responsibilities involved in playing a "bad" character?

Yeah. You never ever want to mislead an audience. Doing a show like this is a big privilege because you're communicating to people. And they listen. So anyone who works on a show like this, whatever their job, you have to remember you're communicating to the masses. So we've got a responsibility to be as truthful and correct as we can be.

The problem with serial killing, of course, is that there's very little known about it. We don't know why serial killers do what they do. If we did we could stop them before they did it. On the other hand you've got to drive HOLLYOAKS along dramatically. So you've got to weigh up all these things, and you have a moral obligation to your audience. I hope it is a true illustration of a serial killer. We try and be as truthful as we can.

Q: How has your own relationship with your character changed as a result of this storyline?

Obviously I don't know what it's like to kill. All I can try and do is sympathise, and that doesn't mean forgive the character, it means trying to understand what it is he does and to emphatise with him. I don't know why Toby kills, but I know he finds it a release. That's not how I release, but I know how I release, and I know what I do to get that release - whether it's going for a jog, or kicking a chair, ot whatever. I know it's something I need to do and I know when I need to do it. And when I've done it I feel better.

On the other hand I'm an actor, I have to act the role, that's my job. Even when you're in the moment you're still acting, and you've got to remember that. At the end of the day you try and sympathise with the storyline, and draw upon what you know in your own life that will help communicate that.