Review: It's A Wonderful 'Hollyoaks' Life

This is a new feature of the blog that I’ve wanted to implement to go along the podcast and that’s an offering of a daily episode review, and what better time to start it than for one of the best episodes of Hollyoaks I’ve ever watched and Emma Smithwick’s first as the credited ‘Series Producer’.

As you can probably tell from my twitter feed since Friday I absolutely fell in love with the Boxing Day episode of Hollyoaks which, was an homage to one of the best Christmas films It’s A Wonderful Life’. It picked up where Friday’s episode left off with Doug on a bridge depressed from the loss of Becks at the hand of Silas and feelings lost. As Doug jumped from the bridge into the river below he then found himself back in his flat in the presence of the late Stephanie Del’A Dean (played by Carley Stenson). She then gave Doug the choice to ‘move on’ and be with Becks or to go back to village as if he had never been there before. Having chosen the latter Doug then goes into a parallel realm where he sees what life in the village would have been like had he never made an influence.

Through various mini-plots we were shown that had Doug never come back to the village Ruby would be pregnant, as he wouldn’t have been able to support her and tell her to go home after she’d gotten in a drunken state. Ricky would be a drugs runner for Brendan as Doug wouldn’t have been around to do so. And both Lynsey and Mercedes would be dead leaving Cheryl and Riley heartbroken, as Doug would never have been able to play his part in stopping Silas.

The episode was the perfect way for PJ Brennan to really shine and show how talented he is and for the character of Doug and his importance in the village to be highlighted. Since he first debuted back in the summer of 2010 and his return at the start of this year Doug, has been a character that has kind of floated around and only had several moments where he’s been able to shine. For example when Becks was murder, during Hollyoaks Later when he struggled over whether he should tell Riley the truth and more recently when he supported Lynsey through her ordeal. But the events of this episode brought all of these to the foreground and really showed how much of an impact a single character can have even if they haven’t been able to show it through a long storyline like other characters.

One of the highlights of the episode was of course having Carley Stenson back as Steph as she was a character that I’d grown up watching and had missed over the past year since she departed from the show. What was great was although Steph as an angelic version of herself she still had that attitude and personality we’d all fallen in love with over the years. It may have been a year but it was like both Carley/Steph had never left and fitted right back in.

Apart from the closing scenes which will have a long lasting impression on me the scenes which I really liked were where Doug was talking to Riley by the Dog, and leaned of Mercedes death. The scene where Doug saw Cheryl crying over Lynsey’s death, Bronagh was so great in that scene and I really want them to give Cheryl a real strong and emotional story to do. Doug and Becks’ goodbye but most of all the scene where Doug saw that Lynsey was alive and embraced her it was such a moving scene and I do love the friendship that these to have, I just hope we get to see more scene between PJ and Karen in the future.

It may have only been about 25 minutes long but in that time so much was accomplished as it enabled a lot of story to be given closure. As back when Becks was killed it felt like it just happened out of the blue after we’d just learned of her past connection to Doug but, this really was a great and imaginative way to give it the ending it deserved both for the fans and the actors. Not only did it help wrap up the Becks storyline, it also brought several plots from the year which had felt random like, his and Ruby’s close encounter back into perspective and gave them a purpose which, was not apparent or clear back when these episodes originally aired. Also the way in which it brought characters that wouldn’t usually be connected by story together was perfect, as integration of characters within the village is something I’ve wanted to see on the show for a while now.

Not only did it help to give just these stories closure but it also gave the character of Steph some real closure. As back when Steph died it happened in such a tragic way that weren’t able to really say goodbye. And the way that they brought in Steph’s goodbye messages and the way Frankie’s was missed was both heartbreaking and a perfect way to end the episode. Helen Pearson in my opinion is one of the most under used members of the cast it was such a treat to be able to see Frankie really be able to have some closure and peace over Steph’s death as she knows she wasn’t forgotten. The scene where Doug told her about Steph’s note which lead to them playing Carley’s version of ‘Girls Wanna Have Fun’ was one of the most subtle and moving scenes I’ve watched in a long time. It was so understated and had a real personal meaning both for the characters and for the fans especially in seeing Cheryl’s reaction and when Steph sat down next to Frankie, it really made me miss Carley and Helen’s scenes as I always loved them. Also by having Tom in the scenes to allow that final scene and acknowledgement between him and Steph was such a perfect way to end the episode as Carley and Ellis really had formed a great bond on screen.

Although she has been responsible for bringing us some a lot of great stuff over the past few months this as I stated before was Emma Smithwick’s first as the credited ‘Series Producer’ and she should be really proud of this episode. It was an episode that could have gone in so many different directions and gone too over the top but, it was executed perfectly both in the construction of the stories featured, the composition and aesthetic look of all the scenes and the way in which the music was used. But, most of all the amazing performances from all of the actors involved, and on the whole based on the amazing quality of this episode I look forward to what we have to come our way in 2012.


This is a review of the episode of Hollyoaks which aired on Friday 23rd December 2011 on E4 and Monday 26th December 2011 on C4.


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