3 weeks ago
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Emotional scenes are a certainty in Hollyoaks next week as the eponymous village unite in grief following the devastating death of Diane Hutchinson (Alex Fletcher).
The beloved matriarch, who ran The Dog in The Pond with legendary show stalwart Tony (Nick Pickard), passed away last week after a battle with ovarian cancer.
The pub landlady’s diagnosis was just months ago, with Diane believing she’d have more time to make memories but she subsequently learned that she had just weeks left and thus resolved to make the most of it, spending every minute with her cherished husband and kids.
In emotional scenes, she enjoyed a dance with soulmate Tony at Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) and Rex Gallagher’s (Jonny Labey) wedding and afterwards she she headed upstairs to the flat she called home for years, where she peacefully passed listening to Tone sing their little girl Eva to sleep.
Tony subsequently found Diane and, breaking down, said his goodbyes, holding on tight to her for one last time.
A new clip from Monday’s (May 18) edition of the Channel 4 soap, which you can watch above, sees a devastated Tony attempt to process the loss of his on true love.
After taking a stroll through the village, he is summoned to the Hutch by an unsuspecting Ste, who asks for a hand in fixing the oven, which has packed in unexpectedly.
As Tony takes a closer look, Ste receives a text from Leela Dexter (Kirsty-Leigh Porter), who informs him that Diane has died.
Leela proves a pillar of support for the Hutchinson clan during the episode in question, particularly for Ant (Brook Debio), Dee Dee (Chloe Atkinson) and Ro (Leo Cole) as Tony struggles with the reality of a world without his beloved Di.
Ste and Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson), meanwhile, are on hand to offer words of encouragement to Tony, which ultimately leads him back to his children.
There’s also a touching moment on the cards for Darren and estranged sister Beth Keane (Rebecca Ryan), who offers support and advice on how to be there for Tony, given that she herself recently dealt with grief.
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In the weeks ahead, Tony will find himself supported by his nearest and dearest, who rally around him following his devastating loss.
Ant, Ro and Dee Dee, meanwhile, will deal with their grief in different ways.
Discussing her reasons for leaving Hollyoaks, Diane star Alex Fletcher told Metro: ‘I think over the last 16 years, I’ve been so lucky.
‘I’ve been at the forefront of so many stories. I genuinely just thought: “What else can I bring to it? I feel like I’ve done everything!” and I wanted to go when I was still enjoying it. I didn’t want to leave when I was feeling unhappy.
‘It took me about six months to make the decision. But you know don’t you when you’ve done your time? I just had that gut feeling. “I’ve got to do something else. If I don’t have a go and at least try, I’ll stay here forever. And they’ll never get rid of me! [laughs]”.
But it was a tough decision. It was really tough telling Nick and it was really tough telling Hannah [Cheers, Executive Producer] – I don’t know what she thought the meeting was about but I was trying to get it booked in to tell her first out of respect.
‘I just didn’t think I had anything left to bring to it because I do get a lot of the heavy hitting storylines and they take their toll. What I think was nice on my last day was that I did all my best bits and looked back – I was like: “Do you know what? Diane was happy. She did have a laugh!”.
Hollyoaks streams Mondays to Wednesdays from 6am on Channel 4’s streaming platform, or catch episodes on TV at 7pm on E4.
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