More on 'Oaks 'flashforward' from Lucy Allan!

By now, you've probably been reading and talking lots about Hollyoaks' 'flashforward' episode which airs on Monday. I caught up with series producer Lucy Allan for an in-depth chat about the concept and the shock twist that Calvin dies at the end of it.

To read the first half of the interview, click here. Read on, though, for second helpings.

Would you ever consider totally 'jumping the shark' a la Desperate Housewives and start afresh?
"We actually toyed with the idea for Zoe's trial. It wouldn't have been five years, but four months and coming straight out of Later into day one of her court case. The problem you have, though, is you have to do it by a year, otherwise you'd have Christmas in the middle of the summer and the whole thing becomes a mess. On a show like Hollyoaks, though, never say never. It's a jump too far for now, but who knows?"

It's quite surprising that there are no new characters in the episode - did you toy with that idea?
"We did, but we felt that it wasn't needed. It's a big story and I wanted the audience to be concentrating on the reveals and questioning every moment with the characters they know and love. A new face in the mix would have been divisive rather than constructive. Viewers would probably have spent too much time thinking, 'Who? What? Where? When?'"

While you were planning the ep, what was the most exciting reveal that you planted?
"So many! The first is the gun in someone's handbag in the church - who has it? That tied in with the line at the end of part one, ''til death do us part…' Chris Gill and I were particularly happy with that one!"

How did you cope with the super-quick turnaround?
"(Laughs) When you're in the middle of double banking for Christmas, it seemed like a really good idea to do an extra episode! Chris Gill, who wrote the episode, has done a sterling job. It was a ludicrous turnaround, but sometimes that creates the best material. Under pressure, I think we all deliver great work. There's been such a buzz around the studio."

Were you on set during filming to make sure it all played out as you wanted it to?
"I was actually in story conference while they were filming the episode, so I spent half of my time running from the conference room to this massive marquee in the car park, because of the things we were talking about in the conference would affect how they played it! We were also storylining the fallout that they all needed to know, too! It was chaos - in a good way!"

How did the cast cope with the six-month jump in filming for episodes?
"That was hilarious! Trying to sit down with the 23 cast and explain to them that they're all in this episode and they don't know what they're doing in six months' time was tricky! When they read the script, it will have made no sense to them, so I had to explain to each of them what they were doing for the next six months so that they played it correctly in the 'flashforward'! Tracey Rooney did a fantastic job of directing it."

Will you be capitalising on the fact that the audience knows what's going to happen?
"Absolutely. Stories will peak and trough over the next six months. That's one of the reasons why we had the 23 cast in the episode, so we had a range of stories to play with either side of the 'flashfoward'. Virtually every week you should learn something that drives you to Calvin's shooting."

Hollyoaks' 'flashforward' episode airs on Monday, December 21 at 6.30pm on Channel 4.

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