Hollyoaks Village is definitely Crime Capital of the UK, there can be no doubt.  Every year in Inside Soap, they add up all the murders and the Chester based soap always tots up the most kills, even if, currently, Meena in Emmerdale is working pretty hard to challenge that, as is Gray down in Albert Square.

However, in recent years, Hollyoaks appears to be tackling these ‘big’ stories that span almost an entire year.  And the first time they did it, with Ste being indoctrinated into the white supremacist hate group and all the discussions of racism and all those powerful scenes entailed… well, it was amazing.  They took a most beloved character and turned them against everything in our moral fibre.  They did something that no soap has ever attempted before (although Eastenders are clearly touching on something similar with this new boy, Aaron) and it challenged people’s ways of thinking.  I cried my way through that entire story.  Every time Ste and his gang abused the Maalik family, it broke my heart.  I was shouting at the television, wondering how people could let this happen.  But of course, that was the whole point.

The following year, they got bigger.  They took on this whole ‘flashforward’ story (which was rudely interrupted by the pandemic and then thrown somewhat by actor, Aedan Duckworth (Ollie Morgan) exiting his role with no warning.  Can you even imagine the panic of reshooting and reimaging the story when they had not only filmed the end of the story but also aired it a year before?!  The county lines drugs story spanned the entire year and although I know it’s a massive issue, for me, it was just too long.  The young actors involved were wonderful and it was a great way of showcasing their talent.  But by the end of it, I’d pretty much stopped caring what happened – not to mention lost track of it all.  It just got too dark and too complicated (not to mention too unlikely that anything like this would happen in a tiny, little village!)

So, imagine how thrilled I have been by the latest, massive project surrounding Fergus and his exploitation of every woman in Chester.  Again, it’s a hugely important issue.  And it is something that’s important to me.  But there has to be some level of realism, surely?  Would this bloke really come to a small village and set up a series of pay per view spy cams in women’s homes?  Locally?  Where he lives?  And nobody even noticed?  Then would he shoot his tech guy for spilling the beans, having become obsessed with one of the girls?  Oh and then sell his daughter in law to the highest bidder?  It doesn’t make logistical sense.  And once again, for me, it just got too dark and too complicated.  It’s Hollyoaks, not Line of Duty.

In conclusion, sometimes, a less complex story can actually go a lot further.