:

This week Mercedes declared that having an affair with Carl Costello and then pretending she was pregnant was her "biggest mistake ever". Now, this got us thinking, Mercedes tends to make a LOT of mistakes, so is a fake pregnancy truly the biggest mistake of her life?

Mercy's Big Mistakes: Volume One

* Pretending she had HIV so Malachy took her back.
* Getting off with the local footballer (Riley) while her fella (Malachy) was still warm in his grave.
* Having a long-term affair with her sister (Carmel)'s on/off husband (Calvin). It wasn't lnog until Calvin got his comeuppance...
* Keeping schtum about her cousin Theresa killing Calvin.
* Sleeping with Jamil to get her own back on Malachy.
* Sleeping with Russ the very moment that Russ' girlfriend Sophie was being burnt to a crisp in The Dog in the Pond fire.
* Sleeping with Warren to get her own back on Russ.
* Withholding evidence that resulted in an innocent Warren going to prison... "Innocent Warren," we don't write that very often...

So there you go! Mercedes makes loads of BIG mistakes! Sleeping with her future husband's dad and then pretending she's pregnant is up there with the best of them though! And on the plus side, no-one's died because of this mistake... well, not yet!

Hollyoaks has been nominated in a stomping four categories at the TV Choice Awards! What’s even better, it’s all down to you lovely lot - the shortlist has been drawn up from votes by fans. Give yourselves a well-deserved pat on the back or get someone else to do it if you feel inclined.

The hard work’s not done yet though. We still need your votes. The link to vote is: http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/awards/2011

After his success at the British Soap Awards, where he picked up the spoils for Best Soap Newcomer and Best Soap Villain, Emmett J Scanlan is once again up for two categories: Best Soap Actor and Best Soap Newcomer.

'Stendan' fans will also be delighted to know that the Brendan/Ste affair/gay domestic abuse story has been nominated for Best Soap Storyline. Finally, Hollyoaks is, of course, up for Best Soap, sponsored by Daz.

After plundering gold at the British Soap Awards, we’ve had a taste for glory. Let’s make it happen again. Hollyoaks FTW!!! http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/awards/2011

Loads of great tracks featured on the show last week, not least 'Out of My Head' and 'Summer Sunshine' by none other than Abi Phillips aka Liberty Savage! She's pictured above singing one of Abi's track...as Liberty...is your mind melting too?!

Monday 20 June

Thing called Love - Above and Beyond

Bounce - Calvin Harris

Give Me Everything - Pitbull

Tuesday 21 June

Ready To Go - Panic! At The Disco

I Missed You - Joshua Radin

Blissful - Tobias Froberg

Beautiful People - Chris Brown

Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People

Everybody Loves Me - One Republic

Punching In A Dream - The Naked and Famous

Wednesday 22 June

Taken For a Fool - The Strokes

Sun is Up - Inna

Abi Phillips - Out of My Head

On the Floor (feat. Pitbull) - Jennifer Lopez

Thursday 23 June

Into The Heart - Mirrors

Turn Out the Lights - The Pigeon Detectives

Fractal Pants - Bitbasic

You Were so Far Away - Kate Nash

Friday 24 June

Just Don't Open Your Eyes Yet - Polarsets

Willow Tree - Thomas J Speight

Summer Sunshine - Abi Phillips

Girls Fast Cars - The Wombats

Sun, sea, sand, seagulls...as if there wasn’t enough Abersoch delights to keep Bart and co. entertained, they also encountered three tasty newcomers with a penchant for impromptu food fights and the phonetic pronunciation of Twitter conventions. Here’s our guide to the newbies:

Maddie

Likes:
* Itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis.
* Undermining feminism and degrading herself in a sick yet brilliant way.
* Inexplicably saving love rivals from a watery death.

Dislikes:
* Early morning small talk with strangers when she’s hungover and pasty.

Our fave Maddie moment:
* Forced to take a vomming Ruby home, Sinead has little choice to but leave Bart in Maddie’s clutches. “Cheerio,” Maddie smirks with a "mwah ha ha!" laugh to herself that's worthy of any Bond villain. All she needs is a white cat to stroke.

Tilly

Likes:
* Skittles.
* The word “rad”.
* Giving gift shop tat to girls she’s just met.

Dislikes:
* Wasting ice cream. Even if it’s attached to someone’s face.

Our fave Tilly moment:
* “This is how I feel when I’m with you,” Tilly romances Esther with a body painted belly. Aww.

Jono
 
Likes:
* Having unrealistic expectations of his romantic success with girls.
* Chicks flashing their naughty parts while they check their tans.
* Burying annoying schoolgirls under sand.

Dislikes:
* Using sunscreen

Our fave Jono moment:
* Maddie has unsubtly alluded to having her eye on someone. “Hashtag Bart!” Jono beams, leading to awkward turtleness all round “...too soon to joke?” It’s never too soon to joke, Jono, never.

Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow and as our gang waved goodbye to Abersoch and returned to Chester, this glamorous trio were left to their partying ways. The fun might not be over yet though, as plans for Maddie and Jono to come to Hollyoaks Sixth Form are afoot. Hashtag yay!

When lucky old Bart, Sinead and co. got to go off on their summer holiday to Abersoch many of us were left feeling a) jealous and b) confused because, well, we had no idea where or what Abersoch actually is! So we thought we’d find out a bit more about the holiday destination of summer ’11:

Abersoch is on the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales – the bit that looks like an arm pointing at something (or maybe that’s just us). The peninsula is also known as ‘The Dragon’s Tail’.

It’s got more beaches than you could shake a stick at – including the exciting sounding Porth Neigwl, or Hell's Mouth, and Warren Beach. We’re assuming the latter has nothing to do with our Mr Fox, but you never know with Foxy!

The weather forecast for this week is Cloudy Start Then Brighter, But Windy. *packs away sombrero*

Local wildlife includes bottle-nosed dolphins, badgers, guillemots (not the band) and glow-worms. It is also home to the chough, one of Britain’s rarest birds. They’re a member of the crow family and have a distinctive loud “cheeow” call. Try it yourself. Go on, call out “cheeow”. We just did it as we write this. It’s fun. 

Wakestock, Europe’s largest wakeboarding festival, is happening just down the road between 8-10th July. Headliners are Ellie Goulding, Chase & Status, The Wombats and Biffy Clyro. Yes please.

Basically – we want to go to. NOW!

You can witness the awesomeness of Abersoch all this week, 6.30pm Channel 4.

Big thanks to the Abersoch Virtual Guide for being a fountain of Abersoch knowledge: http://www.abersoch.co.uk/

Only one Hollyoaks hunk would get us cracking open a bottle of Bonnie Tyler-related puns and that hunk is our swoonsome badboy Bart McQueen! This week’s Abersoch adventures see Bart’s love life go a bit triangular, as girlfriends past and present come face to face. Let’s have a look at his options...
 
The girlfriend

Bart and Sinead are our very own Romeo and Juliet, with so many obstacles threatening their love – from being constantly grounded to their internet access privileges being revoked (curse you, Diane!). Sinead is one foxy lady and they have a good time together, but does Bart’s heart lie elsewhere?
 
The ex

Glamorous Maddie was Bart’s first love and so Sinead naturally feels a wee bit threatened – especially after she finds them together in a post-party slumber! They say they’re just good friends, but what’s that we spot between them? A bit of a sparkle?
 
Meanwhile, back in Chester there’s the one that got away...
 
So Bart fancied Jasmine. And Jasmine fancied Bart. Then Jasmine became Jason. And Jason fancies Bart. But Bart doesn’t fancy Jason. Or does he? Rest assured, this is one emotional rollercoaster that has many a loop left yet.
 
Who will our handsome Romeo choose? Only time will tell!
 
Hollyoaks is living it up in Abersoch all this week so make sure you tune in to Channel 4 at 6.30 to see how the Bart-Sinead-Maddie love conundrum develops...it’s a cracker! 

Welcome to this week’s blog from the Hollyoaks music department.

This week’s musical highlights on Hollyoaks include:

‘Right Before My Eyes’ by Cage The Elephant – Brendan has found himself a cook book with a difference. His has moving pictures and the recipes are metaphors for the relationships of the people around him. How clever is that!? And where can I get one!?

‘Battlefields’ by Fenech Soler – this really is one of those instances where the title says it all. Cindy and Cheryl’s ongoing feud continues in the form of an arm wrestle, Brendan and Noah are engaged in a real life tug of war for Ste’s affections, meanwhile Jacqui’s determination to get Mercedes to confess to Riley all about the affair takes the form of a staring competition. Just your average day in the Hollyoaks village really....  

On Our Stereo:

‘Calgary’ by Bon Iver

Justin Vernon (the man behind Bon Iver) has been receiving a lot of attention ahead of the release of the project's self-titled second album next week. A cover of his track 'Skinny Love' has hit the Radio 1 Playlist and the UK top ten thanks to young chanteuse Birdy. Justin also makes an appearance as a collaborator on Kanye West's most recent album. 'Calgary' sees him moving subtly away from the stripped-back acoustics of 'For Emma, Forever Ago' by introducing some warm synths and wider instrumentation whilst retaining his trademark layered and harmonic vocal style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrmxavLIRM

More musical goodies await on next week’s episodes of Hollyoaks so until then…

James & Kate

P.S. Check out the tunes from this week’s Hollyoaks in our Spotify playlist!

On July 10th 2011, two worlds will collide when the stars of Hollyoaks film special scenes at T4 On The Beach!

The story starts when Liberty (Abi Phillips) lands the opportunity of a lifetime to perform on stage at T4 on the beach, or ‘T4otb’ – as the kids in cyber space are calling it. She immediately invites best friend Theresa along for the ride.

Maverick cop DC Ethan Scott – who just so happens to be dating both girls at the time - decides to tag along too, just to make sure the proverbial cat stays tucked up in its proverbial bag…

Plus, through the magic of TV, Abi Phillips will also become the first person in T4 On the Beach History to perform as two different people! While Liberty gets her big break, Abi Phillips will also perform her own solo material to the T4 crowd. Have two birds ever been felled so successfully by one stone?

Abi was thrilled with the opportunity: "I'm so excited to perform at T4 On The Beach. It will be my biggest audience to date so it's a little scary but I just can't wait to get out there and perform. I hope the fans like the episode of Hollyoaks too. I love the idea of dropping in my scenes from T4OTB in episodes just two days later. It's going to be tight but it's all very exciting!"

The special T4 On The Beach scenes will broadcast during Hollyoaks on Channel 4 and E4 from Wednesday 13th July through to Friday 15th July. It’s gonna be big! Make sure you don’t miss it!

Hot off the press! We've just got news of a special summer trip for some of the faces from Hollyoaks and it sounds ace! It's full of sun, half-nakedness, new characters and plenty of drama! We could attempt to re-word the info our press department sent us, or, you know, we could just copy word for word exactly what they wrote. We'll take up the latter option (we're good like that)...

"Fun seeking friends Sinead (Stephanie Davis), Ruby (Anna Shaffer) and Esther (Jazmine Franks) trick their parents and guardians into letting them leave Hollyoaks village for a few days, but instead of heading to their said locations, they make the trip to Abersoch to party with Sinead’s boyfriend Bart (Jonny Clarke) and his old school friends, including cool newcomers Maddie (Scarlett Bowman), Tilly (Lucy Dixon) and Jono (Dylan Llewellyn).

Sinead arrives at the party house with Ruby and Esther in tow and they’re ready for some summer action. But Sinead is left unimpressed when she finds the party has already started without them and her boyfriend is curled up on the sofa with a beautiful blonde in a post crazy house party slumber!  As Tilly surfaces from behind the sofa, it’s clear that the events of the night before were wild and fun, but what lies ahead for the new found friends?

The gang head to the beach where they meet Bart’s best friend Jono and it’s not long before the gang make the most of their independence and the summer sunshine.  Esther finds herself enthralled in a passionate holiday romance while Sinead learns that confident beauty Maddie is actually Bart’s ex. It’s clear from the offset that Sinead has a battle on her hands keeping Bart from Maddie’s clutches and when Maddie announces she will be joining their sixth form college in September, Sinead determines to keep her man. But it’s not long before Sinead’s jealousy lands her in deep water and with the alcohol flowing and their senses blurred, the youngsters are set to get themselves in big trouble...

With Maddie and Jono determined to join Hollyoaks’ new sixth form college in September, but Tilly heading to London, will we meet the cool youngsters in Chester later this year?"

We'll be honest, this sounds all kinds of awesome! And get this, it's all happening from next Monday (20th June)! Tune in, you Hollyoaks lovin' lovelies!

Welcome to this week’s blog from the Hollyoaks music department.

For all the music from this week's show, as well as archived tracks from previous weeks, check out our spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/hollyoaksfacebook

This week’s musical highlights on Hollyoaks include:

‘No Way’ by The Naked and Famous – This track displays a softer side to the New Zealand synth-popsters, the lyrics “No, we’re never gonna talk about it, no, we’re never gonna speak again” were particularly pertinent as we saw Jacqui struggling to deal with her alleged rape by Gilly and the support that she was now receiving from Rhys. The track comes from their excellent recent album “Passive Me, Agressive You” and shows there is more to them than catchy 3-minute pop tunes.

‘Stubborn’ by Two Door Cinema Club – Talking of catchy 3-minute pop tunes, Two Door Cinema Club have them in abundance. Those skills have lead to lots of uses on the ‘Oaks so far, and this week saw another one. As we heard “I was wrong, I take it back, now can we get along, I’ll take the slack” we saw Jason and Bart try and sort out their friendship/relationship and Duncan’s stubbornness over the return of his childhood cuddle blanket.

On Our Stereo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1aC4yQvCR0

‘A Chore ’by Tom Vek –  Tom Vek last released an album in 2006. The 5-year break has clearly done nothing to hamper his production skills. This song is just as detailed, weird, original and unique as his previous work and bodes well for his upcoming album ‘Leisure Seizure’. If you like your indie with a touch of oddness and unpredictability, check this out.

More musical goodies await on next week’s episodes of Hollyoaks, so until then…

James & Kate

Gentle readers, exciting news afoot! Following this morning's pictures we can confirm that Hollie Jay Bowes will be returning to the screen as Michaela McQueen for the fourth series of Hollyoaks Later! Michaela left the hallowed turf of Hollyoaks village last year to be with her man, Zak Ramsey. We don’t know exactly what she’s been up to in the interim, but clearly the champagne and caviar of the capital city weren’t enough to keep our Michaela away for long.

As announced earlier this year, Hollyoaks Later will be produced by Claire Fryer and is due to air in Autumn 2011.  In addition to Michaela's return, there will be a new McQueen added to the mix in the form of Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh's sister Amy Walsh.  The girls will also be joined by a mystery hunk being played by ex-Eastenders actor Chris Coghill!

More info to follow! 

So, last week we got a call from the Hollyoaks producer Gareth Philips saying, "Hey Official Hollyoaks online people, Hollyoaks is set to have a new coffee shop based in the Hollyoaks Community College campus, but we need a name for it. Any chance you can ask our loyal fans to come up with suggestions?" "Certainly," we said.

A few thousand coffee shop names later and we've got one of our Hollyfaves Jorgie Porter (Theresa McQueen) to help us spread the word (as you can see in the video above).

So, if you come up with a name we like then the coffee shop will forever go by that very name! So leave your ideas below, please! Cheers... and, er, make mine a caramel macchiato!

Last week we “spilled the beans” (read on and you’ll understand why that works as a pun) on an exciting new development in the show. There’s a new student haunt coming to Hollyoaks, with plans for a coffee-shop to be built on the HCC Campus. What’s more, we want you to help us come up with a name for the new set, not just because we can’t be bothered to do our own jobs, but because we like to include you lot.

Already, we’ve had literally thousands (well, a thousand and a bit) responses so far through Facebook, Twitter and on here from fans with cracking ideas and name suggestions. Here are some of our favourites so far:

Al 'Walshy' Walsh: “The daily grind” – very clever Al, although life in Hollyoaks is never a ‘grind’.

Adam Weazel Fuller:“The coffee union” – does the job Adam, although we’re sure this must already be copyrighted.

Sophie Bourne: “Brewed Awakening” – perhaps a bit too clever Sophie (if that’s possible), but we applaud you nonetheless.

‘Coffeeoaks’ and ‘Campus Coffee’ have both been popular choices too. In fact, we’ve had plenty of great suggestions; more than we care to list here, and certainly more than we believe you would wish to trawl through.

There’s still time to have your say though! Post your suggestions either below or on our Facebook wall and if successful, you will forever hold the esteem of your peers!

Welcome to this week’s blog from the Hollyoaks music department.

This week’s musical highlights on Hollyoaks include:

‘Bows & Arrows’ by The Rash – it’s school work avoidance all round in the Dean household, but at least it’s peaceful when everyone is in their room pretending to study because get them together & chaos reigns. The wonderfully harmonious sound of the track, brought to us by 4 young lads from Ashbourne, plays in stark contrast to tension on screen in a very pleasing manner.  

‘Hide & Seek’ by Mirrors – not happy with having been outfoxed by Nancy, Ruby has stormed out the house with nothing but the party clothes she was wearing to her name. The lyrics of the song may say ‘I’m not worried’ but, with the night closing in around her, perhaps Ruby is beginning to realise what a vulnerable position she has put herself if.  

‘Trouble of the Way’ by Mona – an aptly titled song, the spiky guitar & grinding rhythms from this band who look like they’ve just stepped out of a James Dean film catch the mood nicely as we see Doug’s got himself into some hot water & it’s trouble in paradise for Lee & Amy.

On Our Stereo:

‘Time is of the Essence’ by Cold Mailman – well the sun is shining and it’s hard not to daydream about a hazy lazy afternoon, lying on the grass & gazing up at the blue sky with some quality tunage in our ears. If the sun is still shining tomorrow & the chance arrives to turn the daydream into reality, then this lovely little ditty from the Oslo based Cold Mailman could well be the tune of choice:

http://www.coldmailman.com/

More musical goodies await on next week’s episodes of Hollyoaks, so until then…

James & Kate

PS. For more tracks from this week's show and from previous shows, check out our spotify playlist:

http://open.spotify.com/user/hollyoaksfacebook

 

Here's a little exclusive for you, Hollyoaks is set to move into the 21st century and get its own coffee shop!

Previously, village residents would have gone to Il Gnosh for a li'l caffeine pick-me-up. However since the traumatic fire which not only burnt down the bistro, but also killed Steph and Malachy (god bless their souls), Hollyfolks have presumably resorted to nursing pints at the Dog in the Pond or sipping cocktails in Chez Chez instead.

However, there's now set to be a new coffee shop set in the campus of the Hollyoaks Community College! It'll be a place where our new students will hang out (and doubtlessly discuss last night's "conquests" and how best to steal a traffic cone).

But there's more... We want YOU to help come up with a name for our new coffee shop! Yeah, that's right, if we deem your suggestion the bestest of the best then the name could forever feature in Hollyoaks (unless the coffee shop burns down in a tragic fire). How cool is that? Very, dear readers, very!

Please leave your coffee shop name suggestions below. Thanks!