Yahoo News Hollyoaks star shares first details of Freddie's dramatic return
Hollyoaks spoilers follow.
Hollyoaks welcomes back a familiar face this spring as Charlie Clapham returns to the soap as Freddie Roscoe.
Show bosses shocked fans this week with the big announcement that Freddie is heading back to the village as a regular character, as part of a huge 2024 for the long-running drama.
Digital Spy recently caught up with Charlie for some early gossip on what's in store.
How do you feel about being asked back?
"I feel very grateful and really excited. I loved working here before. It was a huge part of my life in my early 20s and I did a lot of growing up at the time. It's a genuinely great place to work."
How did your return come about?
"Hollyoaks slipped into my Instagram DMs! (Laughs.) I did think at the start: 'Is this a prank?' I was asked if I wanted to chat and we had a great open conversation about everything.
"It was so quick from there. We spoke on Zoom – there were certain things that they wanted and certain things that I wanted. We were able to sort it out really quickly. It's lovely and it feels like coming home."
What can you tell us about Freddie's return storyline?
"It's very explosive. I don't know how to say this without being too R-rated, but Freddie is always in a position where he's either about to run, fight someone or potentially have sex! There's those three in every single scene!
"From what I've read and heard, Freddie is as glorious and flawed as he was before. It's going to be great to play that out. It just makes any interaction that Freddie has with older characters great as there's a history there, and it's brilliant with the new characters too."
When are you back?
"I start filming next week. My return will air in the spring – March or April time."
How long are you back for?
"I'm going to be here for a while. It's not just a cameo of coming back for a stunt episode or someone's exit. It's a whole new chapter completely. It feels like a fresh job coming in and I'm eager to learn and start all over again."
Who will you be working with?
"I know that I'm working with the best people, like Ashley Taylor Dawson (Darren). I'll be working with people I've worked with on the show before.
"I know the people I'll be working with are great professionals – they turn up and they know exactly what they're doing. They have ideas, and everyone wants to have a laugh and do the best work that we can – and win that next Soap Award!"
Would you like to see Robbie and Jason Roscoe back?
"Stranger things have happened. Michelle Collins just came back from the dead in EastEnders. I'm sure they could engineer some things. Whoever they bring back, it's a great time for the show and really exciting.
"Put it this way, I think there's a lot more chance if someone gets a call from Hollyoaks right now. It's a lot more interesting because you know there are people in control of the show who not only know what they're doing, but they really care about it.
"I was here for five years before. I didn't want to come back if the character was going to change, or if the story didn't really have a through-line to it. But there's a momentum there and I'm really excited."
How do you feel about the current changes being made to the show?
"Hopefully this is a new dawn. It's been a struggle for a lot of shows who filmed through COVID, but especially Hollyoaks because it's shot on single camera. There's a lot of kissing, rowing and fighting in the show, which they couldn't do at the time. So to come out of that, it's a good time to be here and a great time to be watching the show."
Hannah Cheers, who's taken over as co-executive producer, is someone you've worked with before, isn't she?
"Yes, Hannah is a quality storyteller. She really homes in on the relationships between different characters and the histories. She really knows the characters well.
"Hannah was part of crafting some of the characters too. When the Roscoes first came in, there were all sorts of exercises that they wanted us to do in workshops. Those were all conversations that we had before even getting on the show.
"It was a similar period of time as they'd just changed bosses then too, so there were rewrites and tear-ups, recasting people, and then the Roscoes came in at the middle of that! So this time feels like a doddle to me, as it's just me who's coming in and I know what it's like.
"It definitely makes it exciting to come to work, because you know there are other people involved in the show who care as well. When the people above you aren't caring as much, it's hard to have the same enthusiasm day in and day out. So it's really exciting to be back and I'm feeling that enthusiasm every day."
You've spent a lot of time out in the US – how was that experience?
"I've been there for six and a half years, ever since I left the show. I moved out there and got my green card. I got over there and started taking classes, which was a great follow-on to my time on Hollyoaks. You're learning to act for a very specific formula at Hollyoaks and it's a relentless formula, where you don't really know your story arc so you're not able to plan ahead.
"I remember when Freddie was in the show last time and he had to react to things, my eyes were getting wider and wider all the time! People were saying: 'Why are his eyes so wide?' I was like: 'Because so much stuff has happened to him and I don't know what to do now!' (Laughs.)
"When I went out there to the US, I was studying at studios where people like Jim Carrey had gone to ground themselves – in their case from comedy backgrounds. I took a lot of classes.
"I wanted to study at those different studios because I didn't have a drama school background and I'd been learning on the job. It was funny because you could be working with people who were on The Walking Dead but they came in for a drop-in class. It was bizarre, it was like its own little TV show!
"I was living my life and enjoying myself. I was really lucky as I picked up some projects and also started writing and producing my own stuff. I had some relative success with them, but then COVID happened.
"I've been working on films and that was an experience – I did Rebel Moon 2 and came in towards the end of the shoot. Even the food truck was a huge warehouse! You'd be waiting around to start filming for a week and then you had half an hour to make your part of it work."
What else have you been up to?
"I also did a couple of movies back here last year with a lot of other actors who are also in soaps. They come out this year, so hopefully there'll be some fun crossovers for the fans to be like: 'Oh! What would happen if Cindy from EastEnders and Freddie from Hollyoaks were in the same gangster family?'
"Because I've been working in the UK over the past year, it wasn't a big move back now that I'm returning to Hollyoaks. It's really fun, because you know what it's going to be like. I know that I'm going to enjoy it and have the best time possible."
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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