{"id":307489,"date":"2026-02-20T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307489\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:00:09","slug":"hollyoaks-star-opens-up-over-awful-time-amid-shows-drastic-cutbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307489\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks star opens up over “awful time” amid show’s drastic cutbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollyoaks<\/a> spoilers follow. <\/p>\n

Hollyoaks star James Sutton has spoken about the cutbacks at the Channel 4 soap<\/a>, with the actor calling it an “awful time”. In 2024, the series shifted to three episodes per week instead of five, with 130 jobs being cut as a result<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“So many of the crew had been there for years, so it really was an awful time,” Sutton, who portrays John Paul McQueen, told Daily Mail<\/a>. “And I do feel like a lot of the heart of the show had kind of been ripped out, to be honest.<\/p>\n

“It was more about the crew that left, who were all local. Actors come and go, it’s part of the job. But the crew, some of them had been there since the Brookside days, so it was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

“Scousers are hilarious, warm, generous and incredibly talented. To lose all those people, I do think the energy of the place has never recovered. It used to be something quite special going to work, but sadly that all changed.”<\/p>\n

\"john<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2025 \u2014 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a><\/p>\n

The actor, who debuted on the soap in 2006, will soon depart the series for the third time<\/a> as his seven-year stint comes to an end, with the character recently being involved in a special McQueen-centred episode<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Reflecting on his upcoming on-screen departure in relation to the cutbacks, Sutton said: “I accepted the situation for what it was, and thought I’m going to use it in the most positive way I can.<\/p>\n

“I started writing again, launched my own platform and realised just how much I missed being creative and of service to other people. I’m now genuinely in the best place I’ve ever been in my entire adult life.”<\/p>\n

\"individual<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Hollyoaks star Tisha Merry nearly played a McQueen \u2013 15 years ago<\/a><\/p>\n

The actor had previously discussed the wider reasons<\/a> for his exit, explaining: “I felt like I’ve kind of done everything that I could do with the character. I’ve had a lot of heavy lifting over the years. <\/p>\n

“They just really like making me cry, I think. My character’s been through a lot of really quite difficult things\u2026 And I thought, better to leave now than then, just to kind of fade into the background.”<\/p>\n

Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming<\/a> premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release.<\/p>\n

Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode<\/a> delves into next week\u2019s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale – featuring an unexpected pregnancy, dark new alliances, and secretive newcomers causing chaos on the cobbles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks spoilers follow. Hollyoaks star James Sutton has spoken about the cutbacks at the Channel 4 soap, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,1105,144612,1107,93,1110,61,60,1135,144611,132060,282],"class_list":["post-307489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-a773eadf-16ed-48b4-bdb4-38c7f9109145","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-hollyoaks-star-opens-up-over-shows-drastic-cutbacks","tag-subsection-hollyoaks","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}