Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks is a British soap opera set in and around the fictional Chester suburb of the same name and filmed mainly at the Mersey Television studios in nearby Liverpool. Hollyoaks was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who also devised shows such as Brookside and Grange Hill.

Hollyoaks began in 1995. The soap is centred around a former 1950s technical college which is now a college of higher education called Hollyoaks Community College (often mistaken for the real-life University of Chester) with the characters and main target audience generally being in their late teens or early twenties. Produced by Mersey Television, the show currently broadcasts at 6:30pm every weekday on Channel 4 with an omnibus edition on Sundays. The show also features occasional late-night spin-off editions, which feature more dramatic or controversial plotlines; these generally do fit into the Hollyoaks universe, and are considered canon. Channel 4's Welsh equivalent, S4C, broadcasts the Sunday omnibus only. Hollyoaks is also shown in countries such as Canada on the BBC Kids channel. The programme is known for launching the careers of Will Mellor, Jodi Albert, Gary Lucy, Elize Du Toit, Jeremy Edwards and James Redmond.

Hollyoaks has received numerous awards over the years and raised awareness of issues such as teen pregnancy, abortion and male rape. Also it has recently been focusing on major concerns such as date rape. However, some people do not consider the show to be a serious drama when compared with the bigger soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, partly due to its reputation for hiring numerous attractive, blonde, ratings-grabbing actresses.