Hollyoaks Marks 30 Years of Drama with Spectacular Celebration at St George’s Hall
Lime Pictures and Channel 4 celebrated a milestone moment as Hollyoaks marked its 30th anniversary in style. Cast members past and present joined around 200 fans at Liverpool’s iconic St George’s Hall for an exclusive screening of the anniversary week episodes — including a soap first with a cross-over with Brookside.
The one-off special saw Brookside favourites Sue Johnston and Ricky Tomlinson, Paul Usher, Philip Olivier, Suzanne Collins, Michael Starke and John McArdle reprise their much-loved roles, hitting audiences with a nostalgic return to British soap history.
Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer Ian Katz opened the evening with a tribute to Hollyoaks’ dramatic legacy, revealing that across three decades the show has seen “57 births, 88 marriages, 51 broken engagements, 294 deaths and 13 serial killers.” He quipped that the fictional Chester village is “about ten times more dangerous than Tijuana, Mexico, the murder capital of the world.”
Among those celebrating were Hollyoaks stars Gemma Bissix (Clare Devine-Banks), Tamara Wall (Grace Black), Kieron Richardson (Ste Hay) and Chelsee Healey (Goldie McQueen), joined by fan favourites Gemma Merna (Carmel McQueen) and Duncan James (Ryan Knight). As well as Jamie Lomas (Warren Fox), one of the soap’s longest-serving villains, was also in attendance.
The evening, hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner and Hollyoaks guest star Danny Beard, featured a lively panel discussion with cast members Jennifer Metcalfe, Kieron Richardson, Nick Pickard, and Louis Emerick, reflecting on the show’s incredible journey and impact.
Hollyoaks and Brookside creator Sir Phil Redmond, who makes a cameo in the special episodes, praised the show for staying true to its founding mission of bold, youth-driven storytelling.
“They kept saying, ‘teenagers don’t watch telly and they can’t concentrate,’ and we said, ‘well if you make it, they will’ — so we did,” he said.
The 30th anniversary episodes — including the Brookside crossover — are now available to stream on the Channel 4 website.
