Burn, Hollyoaks, Burn

Hollyoaks, as with its deceased big bro Brookside, has always displayed an incredible talent when it comes to killing off the wrong characters. And as the Dog went up last night, it was inevitable that it would be the likable locals that bought the farm.

For starters, what message is being sent out by killing the twins? Former nice guy's same transformation into would-be rapist was a rubbish storyline, and now him breaking out of prison to get revenge on Mel for getting him banged-up is just plain stupid. It's Mel who should be taking revenge on Sam and the Owens, not vice versa.

Killing off Matt and and the twins - the few recognisable faces in a cast that has rececntly been swamped by a flock of new families - shows rather too much faith in the new characters that have so far failed to spark any interest. It's not unlike when Brookie killed off half the popular Shadwicks in favour of the awful Musgroves - who makes these decisions? Now Redmond's off Hollyoaks, we can no longer blame him. Perhaps the new, improved Hollyoaks will take us all by surprise and become unmissable TV, but if - like EastEnders - they are pinning their hopes on a bunch of unrecognisable faces taking part in recycled plots, it seems pretty unlikely. It could well be time for the producers to look to former characters to bring new life to the soap.