Zoë Lister on Sarah, her 'Oaks exit and icicles

Zoe Carpenter fans will have been somewhat pleased by the outcome of Thursday night's episode of Hollyoaks Later. Not because Sarah (Loui Batley) met her maker, but because Zoe didn't!

However, there's a tough time ahead for the Hollyoaks student over the coming weeks as she's forced to deal with the fallout of Lydia (Lydia Kelly) planting the knife she cut the parachute cords with in Zoe's belongings. Having been arrested at the end of the last episode of this year's Later, Zoe now has a fight on her hands to prove her innocence.

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but my guess is that it all goes to trial. We know that Zoë's leaving, so with that in mind, here are a few bonus morsels from my time with her.

Do you think a relationship between Zoe and Sarah would have worked?
"Who knows! I think Sarah would really like it but Zoe would always be like, 'No, no', but Zoe's still young. Who knows what she might decide? I think, inherently that Zoe's not a lesbian. She's just experimental and a free spirit."

Where does Zoe go from here?
"She's in a very difficult place. She's lost her best friend and there's so much history there and she's finished her degree - well she didn't even finish her degree, she failed that - so she's in a limbo land anyway. She's working silly jobs and she's not in a very good place at all in any aspect of her life. Oh, and she's in prison on suspicion of murder..."

How do you leave the series?
"I have an idea but nothing's been actually written yet. I like the sound of it, though. I guess there's only so many ways you can leave a soap. You either die - and there's been quite enough deaths recently - or you get carted off to prison or leave in a taxi to go somewhere else..."

If you could invent a death for Zoe...
"I think it would be death by falling icicle in the head - I read that in a book and thought it was really cool!"

When are you due to finish filming?
"I haven't finished filming the main show yet as I don't leave on screen before the year's out."

Was it a difficult decision to decide to leave?
"It wasn't difficult in a lot of ways because if you've done a good three years in a soap it's just your time. It wasn't something I really struggled with. I knew a year ago that this was probably going to be my last year. I wasn't desperate to leave because it's awful or anything, because I've had such an amazing time and met amazing people and got an amazing start to my career. I was keen to see what else can be done. I'd really like to do some theatre next but you really can't plan it. It's such a weird career to have. I'll probably be working in an actual call centre before I know it!"

Additional reporting by Philippa Warr