Holly Cunningham

Holly Cunningham
Amanda Clapham as Holly (2015)
Hollyoaks character
Portrayed by	Karis Sharkey (1997–2002) Katie Hynes (2004) Lydia Waters (2008–10) Wallis Day (2012–13) Amanda Clapham (2013–)
Duration	1997–2001, 2002, 2004, 2008–10, 2012–
First appearance	25 December 1997
Created by	Phil Redmond
Introduced by	Phil Redmond (1997) Jo Hallows (2002–04) Bryan Kirkwood (2008) Emma Smithwick (2012)
Spin-off appearances	Hollyoaks Later (2009, 2013)
Classification	Present; regular
Profile
Other names	Holly Hutchinson
Occupation	Student at Hollyoaks High School (2008–10, 2014–) Shop Assistant (2013–15)
Home	5 Oakdale Drive, Flat 2
Wallis Day as Holly (2013)
Family Family Cunningham Father Lee Stanley Mother Cindy Nightingale Stepfather Tony Hutchinson (2009–10, 2012–13) Alistair Longford (2010–11) Mac Nightingale (2014-) Dirk Savage (2015–) Half brothers Hilton Cunningham Alfie Nightingale Grandfathers Gordon Cunningham Grandmothers Angela Cunningham Sheila Stanley Uncles Max Cunningham Tom Cunningham Aunts Dawn Cunningham Jude Cunningham First cousins Bethany Cunningham Steph Cunningham

Holly Geri Victoria Madonna Cunningham (previously Hutchinson) is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks portrayed by Amanda Clapham. Holly's first on-screen appearance was her birth on 25 December 1997, before departing in 2001. Holly made further appearances in 2002 and later in 2004, played by Karis Sharkey and Katie Hynes respectively. In 2008, Holly returned to the serial played by Lydia Waters. In 2009, Holly paid a minor role in the second series of Hollyoaks Later, and featured in the storyline of her mother Cindy (Stephanie Waring) and Tony Hutchinson's (Nick Pickard) wedding, despite Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor-Dawson) and Jacqui McQueen (Claire Cooper) teaming up to split the engaged couple up before the wedding. Waters then departed in 2010. In November 2012, the character was reintroduced, now played by Wallis Day. Day as fifteen-year-old Holly appeared in the sixth series of Hollyoaks Later, in a dark storyline that featured Holly go on a trip to an isolated country mansion with Esther Bloom (Jazmine Franks) to celebrate Esther's eighteenth birthday, along with Holly's boyfriend Callum Kane (Laurie Duncan), Esther's girlfriend Tilly Evans (Lucy Dixon) and Tilly's strange and mysterious new housemate Jade Hedy (Lucy Gape). Shortly after, Day made her final appearance on 22 October 2013. The character was immediately recast, with actress Amanda Clapham taking over the role; she made her first appearance as Holly on 19 November 2013.

Storylines

1997–2010

Holly is conceived during her mother Cindy Cunningham (Stephanie Waring)'s sixteenth birthday. Cindy keeps her pregnancy a secret from her parents. Holly's father Lee Stanley (Nathan Valente) is killed in a road accident shortly before her birth. After Holly is born, a terrified Cindy abandons her outside the hospital and desperately tries to carry on as normal. She returns home a few hours later and is told that her sister Dawn Cunningham (Lisa Williamson) has died of leukaemia. Cindy's parents, Gordon Cunningham (Bernard Latham) and Angela Cunningham (Liz Stooke), find out about her secret pregnancy and force her into motherhood. Cindy then begins to truly love Holly.

When Cindy is forced to take Holly to work at The Loft with her, Holly falls safely asleep in the cloakroom, but later awakens and finds an ecstasy tablet, which she swallows. Holly is rushed to hospital and Cindy knows social services will take Holly out of her care, and so she concludes that she has no choice but to flee the country with her daughter. She takes Holly from hospital and they leave for the airport. Cindy and a four-year-old Holly return in May 2002. Cindy scams her brother Max Cunningham (Matt Littler) and Max's friend Sam "O.B." O'Brien (Darren Jeffries) out of their money. She and Holly then leave again. In 2004, Cindy and a six-year-old Holly return for Cindy's father Gordon and step-mother Helen Cunningham's (Kathryn George) funerals.

In June 2008, Cindy and a ten-year-old Holly return from Spain for Max's wedding to Steph Dean (Carly Stenson). After the death of Max on his wedding day, Cindy and Holly decide to stay permanently in Hollyoaks. It is then revealed that prior to his death, Max left Holly £3,000 in his will, which can only be accessed after her eighteenth birthday, but left Cindy his treasured DVD collection, much to Cindy's annoyance. Cindy sends Holly to spy on Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas) after Louise Summers (Roxanne McKee) accuses her of having an affair with him.

On Holly's first day of school, Cindy forgets to pick her up, so Holly is taken in by a concerned Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard), but this angers Cindy as she assumes he is a paedophile after it becomes public knowledge that he slept with fifteen-year-old Theresa McQueen (Jorgie Porter), though Tony thought she was of age at the time. Cindy begins a relationship with Rhys Ashworth (Andrew Moss), but Rhys and Holly of ten argue. However, one day Holly apparently goes missing, although she is actually hiding from Rhys, who lures her out of hiding with an episode of University Challenge. Holly and Rhys end up striking a friendship, however, Cindy ends her relationship with him. Cindy's little half-brother and Holly's friend Tom Cunningham (Ellis Hollins) and Holly find out Mercedes Fisher (Jennifer Metcalfe) had been stealing food from Il Gnosh, which she begins selling for profit. The pair then expose her. Cindy begins to get close to Tony, who impresses both Cindy and Holly. Tony proposes to Cindy and the pair get married, after which, Holly, as well as Cindy, changes her surname to Hutchinson.

Holly is accidentally electrocuted at The Dog in the Pond by Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson)'s Christmas lights. Holly is not breathing, but Darren resuscitates her; he tells Cindy that she was resuscitated by Jake Dean (Kevin Sacre).

In February 2010, Cindy sees an advert for an under-twelves talent show and announces that Holly will be entering. Holly isn't all that keen but agrees to do it, thinking that it will get her more attention from her mum. Holly then realises that Cindy has her own selfish motives for wanting her to win and overhears Cindy tell Tony that the talent show isn't important. Holly tries to talk to Tony's brother Dom Reilly (John Pickard), who is preparing a meal in the kitchen, about how Cindy is treating her, but this distracts Dom from his cooking - he drops his pan of food on the floor and shouts at Holly, causing her to run off, feeling even more isolated and alone.

When Holly hears Cindy wants her to start at boarding school, she blames Tony for trying to get rid of her and is so upset and she runs away. After looking for her themselves Tony and Cindy have no choice but to phone the police. Holly watches the drama unfold from Darren Osborne's flat where it transpires she is hiding without his knowledge. Darren finds Holly in his flat and asked her to stay there while he gets a DVD, but he instead goes to get Cindy and Tony. However, when they get to Darren's flat she is gone. It later transpires she has moved to hide at Spencer (Darren John Langford)'s flat. Holly tells Spencer that she wants a new coat so they go out to buy her one. Holly waits in a disguise outside for Spencer but is recognised by Jake, who chases after her. During the chase she falls over and hits her head on the pavement, knocking herself unconscious. Jake takes Holly back to Cindy and is accused of kidnapping her; she is rushed to hospital where she falls into a coma. Holly eventually wakes up, but refuses to tell Cindy and Tony what had happened to her. Eventually, Holly comes to forgive Tony and Cindy and after talking to Tony at the hospital, Holly overhears Cindy and Tony talking about giving their marriage another chance. Holly admits that she loves them both and wants them in her life. A fully recovered Holly goes home a few days later with Tony and Cindy.

After Cindy splits from Tony, she quickly becomes engaged to rich but elderly pensioner Alistair Longford (Terence Harvey). On the wedding day, Cindy reassures Holly that she is only marrying him so Holly can have a better life. After the wedding the three of them all leave Hollyoaks together. When Cindy returns in 2011 as a widowed millionaire she tells Darren that Alistair is dead and that she left Holly in a boarding finishing school in Switzerland.

2012–

In November 2012, a fourteen-year-old Holly returns during Cindy and Tony's, Doug Carter (PJ Brennan) and Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson)'s double wedding. During the reception a mini bus carrying Ruby Button (Anna Shaffer), Jono Johnson (Dylan Llewellyn), George Smith (Steven Roberts), Sinead O'Connor (Stephanie Davis) and Neil Cooper (Tosin Cole) and driven by Maddie Morrison (Scarlett Bowman) crashes through the wedding venue, after swerving to avoid hitting Ste's daughter Leah Barnes (Ela-May Demircan) on the way to Jono and Ruby's own wedding. Though the accident kills Neil, Maddie, Rhys and Jono, Holly Cindy and Tony are all left uninjured and Holly returns to Switzerland.

A fifteen-year-old Holly returns to the village after learning about Cindy's attack which took place on Christmas Day and visits her in hospital. It is clear that she is far from interested about her mother's recovery and is asked by Tony and Myra to stay at the McQueens, much to her disapproval. When Cindy's condition improves, she and Tony split up as a result to him discovering her past affair with the now-deceased Rhys, and Tony refuses to carry on paying Holly's finishing school fees - much to Holly's fury and frustration, she is forced to attend the local Hollyoaks High School and live in Tony's flat with Cindy and Tony, in the midst of their fractured marriage.

During the ongoing domestic turmoil between Cindy and Tony, Holly feels neglected and isolated and goes clubbing at Chez Chez with Theresa McQueen and Sinead O'Connor. After consuming a lot of alcohol, she is rejected by Chez Chez barman Kevin Foster (Elliot Balchin), and Sinead takes her back home to the O'Connors' flat. Although Holly is vomiting excessively, her and Sinead convince Sinead's step-mother Diane O'Connor (Alexandra Fletcher) not to bring her back to Cindy, else she might be punished, so she stays the night there. The next morning Diane takes a hungover Holly back home. After Cindy has a heated encounter with Diane, Holly later has a bad argument with her mother, and accuses her of being a bad parent. Cindy and Holly later make up and agree to move out of Tony's.

Cindy and Holly move into the flat above the Price Slice convenience store. Cindy is also offered a job at Price Slice, resulting in Frankie Osborne (Helen Pearson) getting sacked. This utterly displeases Frankie since the Osbornes are in a state of economic unrest. Furthermore, when Nancy Osborne (Jessica Fox) discovers two and a half thousand pounds cash in an envelope, she becomes suspicious that her husband Darren is gambling. As she is confronting him at the Dog, Holly intervenes and tells Nancy the cash belongs to Cindy and her, so she gives it to Holly. Darren initially believes that Holly was merely helping him hide that he was gambling, which Holly was aware of. However, when he later asks Holly to return his money, she refuses, threatening to inform Nancy of his gambling if he tries to get it back.

After arguing with Sinead, Holly reports her to social services for drug-dealing, as Sinead has a baby daughter. This causes serious problems for Sinead. Holly later begins a relationship with Callum Kane (Laurie Duncan). Callum and Holly go on a trip to country mansion with Esther Bloom (Jazmine Franks), Esther's girlfriend Tilly Evans (Lucy Dixon) and Tilly's new housemate Jade Hedy (Lucy Gape), to celebrate Esther's eighteenth birthday. While Callum and Holly are messing around with a shotgun outside, Holly nearly shoots a man. Callum and Holly take the man in and apologize, finding out his name is Wes and that he coincidentally already knows Jade. Wes forgives them, but when Wes and Holly are alone, Wes acts violent towards her. Holly tells Callum about this although Callum refuses to believe it, causing them to argue. During a house party on the trip, Wes joins Holly alone in the bedroom and forces her to let him take topless pictures of her or he will report her to the police for nearly shooting him. He is then interrupted by Theresa, who is also at the party, and Wes then leaves. The next day, Wes threatens to shoot Holly with the shotgun. Callum walks in on Wes doing this, and they fight after Wes reveals the topless pictures he has of Holly. The fight causes a head injury for Wes, but Callum and Holly think that he is dead and leave the room. Wes is actually alive however, although Jade then stabs him dead. A crazed and halloucegenic Jade then ties Esther up and reveals that Esther's liver transplant came from her dead boyfriend. Jade, who feels as though Esther is abusing her gift of a new liver by drinking alcohol at the party, and feels that Esther doesn't deserve it, plans to kill her. Callum tries to save Esther, but Jade stabs and kills Callum with a samurai sword before he can, in order to stop him. Jade then ties Holly up, although Tilly eventually kills Jade during a fight and releases both Holly and Ester.

Holly, still trying to cope with Callum's death, gets drunk with Robbie Roscoe (Charlie Wernham), then later kisses his brother Jason Roscoe (Alfie Brown-Sykes) and they start dating. After a rocky start they decide to have sex, but it doesn't turn out well and they try again.

Headteacher Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield) confiscates Holly's phone that Jason's holding when Jason makes a comment about his family. To impress Holly, Jason breaks into Patrick's home and steals Holly's phone back. He messes up Patrick's flat further to make it look like a general robbery. Patrick's fiancé Maxine suddenly enters the flat and Jason, panicked, runs straight past her out the open door. Jason returns the phone to Holly thinking she'll be impressed but she is annoyed at how he did it. When Patrick sees Holly holding her distinctive pink-cased mobile, he assumes that she was the one who broke into his flat and calls both her and Jason into his office, where Jason admits it was him. Patrick gets the police involved and Jason thinks that he won't be in too much trouble as he only took Holly's phone. However, unbeknownst to him, Maxine falsely claimed to hospital staff that the person who broke in to her flat assaulted her as he ran past her out the door and caused her bruises, to cover up the fact that it was really her abusive fiancé Patrick who assaulted her and caused them. Jason is charged with assault.

A released Jason then surprises Holly with a romantic picnic in the empty Deli, but halfway through they smell smoke and are alarmed to see that the Deli is on fire; they are trapped in as the fire is blocking their only exit. Tony and Ste hear their screams and call the fire brigade. Firefighter Leela Lomax (Kirsty-Leigh Porter) rescues them from the fire unharmed.

Holly is blamed by Cindy for leaving the Price Slice freezer door open and letting the stock defrost. Cindy shouts at Holly, but Holly claims that it wasn't her. It is later revealed that unkbeknownst to anyone, Cindy has started sleepwalking and opening the freezer as she does, as she is having trouble coping since she and her friends Mercedes Browning and Lindsey Butterfield (Sophie Austin) murdered Mercedes husband, Lindsey's colleague and the father of Cindy's unborn child, Paul Browning (Joseph Thompson) - the freezer was where the trio originally stored his body before they disposed of it.

Cindy gives birth three months early to Holly's half-brother Hilton Max Cunningham. He is born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency which means he needs a Bone Marrow Transplant. Holly, along with Cindy, immediately offer to be donors but neither of them are matches.

Holly and Jason experience problems in their relationship which is made worse by Holly sleeping with Dodger. Holly lies about the incident when Cindy questions her saying Dodger raped her but she later comes clean causing Jason to break up with her. Holly also struggles to deal with Cindy's bipolar as she starts to think that dead boyfriend Rhys is still alive and wants them to run away together. Cindy eventually disappears causing Holly to panic over what to do but Cindy's boyfriend Dirk Savage promises to support her and Hilton. Cindy is later found and sectioned but she tells Jason that she believes that Holly and Dirk are trying to poison her which he then tells Holly, upsetting her. When Cindy comes for a visit she tries to run away eventually falling into a lake. When Holly tries to get her out Cindy pushes her under. She survives but Cindy is once again sectioned.

In November she discovers that Jason has an eating disorder and is shocked he never told her he was struggling. At Christmas Cindy is released and starts to mend her relationship with Holly, buying her a car for Christmas/ her birthday. She is delighted when Dirk proposes to her mum. In 2015 Holly is delighted to find that her former step-brother Harry Thompson is in Hollyoaks High and befriends him and new-comers Cleo McQueen and Zack Loveday. Holly supports Jason when he is admitted to an eating disorder facility and when he got out went to a music festival with Harry, Zack and Cleo but Zack ended up running over Dylan Jenkins.

In June 2015 she is stunned when Jason proposes to her and initially rejects him. She later changes her mind but they agree to wait a while before getting married. Holly is horried when Cindy's bipolar returned causing her to kiss Jason and he did nothing about it. She later sleeps with Robbie after he pushed Jason off a ravine and left him for dead. She later visits Jason in hospital but refuses to forgive him. Robbie later gets her a job babysitting Curtis but she is kidnapped by Trevor and Ashley after their plan to kidnap Patrick was rumbled and they thought she was the snitch, Jason however comes to her rescue and they get back together after Jason tells her how he feels about her, just as Robbie was going to tell her he's in love with her. Holly and Robbie continue their affair and although Holly feels regret for betraying Jason, she doesn't end it. Holly is devastated when Cindy has to go back to a secure unit, nobody aware that Cindy's friend Lindsey Butterfield (the Gloved Hand Killer) drugged her and faked the results so nobody would believe her claims of a serial killer. Holly then talks to newcomer Alfie Nightingale about it, neither aware that their half-siblings. Jason then proposes to Holly at a Christmas party, but Nico who has a crush on Jason, believes it's for her and accepts. Humiliated Nico starts a revenge campaign against Holly and overhears her talking to Robbie about their affair.

Holly later discover that Mac and Cindy were married when she was young, and had a child named Alfie.

Casting and development

In 2008, Lydia Waters auditioned for the role of Holly. She was one of 54 candidates up for the role of Holly, the character of which who had previously appeared in Hollyoaks between 1997 and 2001, with returns in 2002 and 2004, played by Karis Sharkey. After several audition stages at the shows studios in Liverpool, Waters was given the role of Holly and began filming in April 2008. She made her first appearance in June 2008. Speaking of Water's portrayal of Holly's character, a Channel 4 spokesperson stated: "She will be quite a stroppy eleven-year-old who knows her own mind — like her mum's character. There's a big storyline involving Max [Cunningham] at the end of June, and they will be involved in that".

2012 return

In December 2011, Hollyoaks producer Emma Smithwick told Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy in an interview, "We've talked about Holly, but again, there have been a lot of new characters coming in and we'd quite like to keep the cast a bit more stable... Once we deliver a fuller character for Cindy, then the question of Holly would come into play". This indicated that there were no current plans to re-introduce Holly into the series.

In October 2012 it was announced that Holly would return on 14 November now played by Wallis Day. Kilkelly announced that the character would cause "mischief" upon her return, stating that she initially "seems to be a well-mannered and sophisticated 14-year-old at first glance. However, her true bratty nature is soon revealed and it seems that she could be a mini-Cindy". Cindy is unaware of Holly's resentment of her due to her unstable upbringing. Speaking of her casting, Day said: "I am thrilled to have been cast as Holly Cunningham, as I've been a fan of Hollyoaks for many years [...] Holly is a really exciting character with plenty of surprises up her sleeve, so you'd better watch to see what happens".

Stephanie Waring who plays Holly's mother Cindy praised Day saying she is "excited to work with her" and thinks she is going to "be a little bit of a mini-Cindy, but maybe even worse!" Waring expressed shock at some of the lines the character says and added that she would find it "interesting to see how the audience reacts to that, but I certainly like her". Waring also noted that "Wallis is actually older than Holly, so I'm not happy about having an 18-year-old daughter, because I don't look old enough! But obviously Holly is 14, so she's a lot younger than Wallis. I was 18 when I was playing Cindy as 15, so it's the same sort of scenario. Wallis reminds me of me, but she's a lot more beautiful than I was!"

When Day's portrayal of Holly first began appearing on screen, she was at first generally quite unpopular, and many viewers complained about the realism of an adult-looking 18-year-old playing a 14-year-old. Waring defended the recasting through social networking site Twitter, saying that it does not matter that she looks older than 15 as a lot of 15-year-olds look like adults. Waring added that if Hollyoaks wanted somebody who looked like Waters they would not have recast the character.

In October 2013, shortly after the sixth series of Hollyoaks Later that Holly was a main character in, it was announced that Wallis Day would be re-cast after less than a year of being on-screen as Holly. It was announced that the character would be replaced with Amanda Clapham taking over the role. Executive producer Bryan Kirkwood said: "We're very sad to see Wallis go but respect her decision. I felt Holly is too good a character to lose, so we have recast the role and fans will see her later this autumn." A show spokesperson added: "A decision was made to recast the role ahead of some major storylines for the character which will take Holly in a different direction. Wallis Day has been a popular cast member and we wish her every success in her future." Clapham made her first onscreen appearance on 19 November 2013.

See also

• List of soap opera recasts

External links

• Character profile on the E4 website