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If you weren’t sobbing your heart out tonight then you clearly weren’t watching Hollyoaks, which bid farewell to the legendary Diane Hutchinson (Alex Fletcher), who died in emotional scenes following a battle with ovarian cancer.
As soap matriarchs go, Diane is among the finest to ever grace our screens, having been a staple of the Channel 4 serial drama – and its fictional eponymous village – for nearly two decades.
With hard-hitting stories galore, including issue-led narratives and love triangles – not to mention her highly-lauded partnership with original show character Tony (Nick Pickard) – the Dog In The Pond landlady is as much a part of the fabric of Hollyoaks as her on-screen husband.
And while strong writing has always benefited Diane, whose characterisation has never been better than it’s been as of late, much of the hard work in making her a titan of soap was down to star Alex, who never failed to deliver powerhouse performances, dripping with the gravitas required for such heavy storylines.
But after 16 years of dramatic showdowns, heartfelt heart-to-hearts and high-octane storylines, the end has arrived for Diane, who passed away on Wednesday (May 13), just weeks after a terminal cancer diagnosis.
‘It’s hit very different, I’m not going to lie,’ star Alex Fletcher told Metro on the day her final episode hit screens. ‘It’s a bit surreal. That’s the only word I can use to describe it. It’s like having an out of body of experience.
‘It is surreal and I am gutted. It’s sad watching myself go through that because I put my heart and soul into that storyline and I was sad to leave everyone.
‘And I’m gutted for Diane! Every time I did the scenes I kept thinking: ‘Oh my god!’ – I felt like I was her friend and when I thought of it like that, I’d get choked. But I’d be thinking: ‘I can’t do every scene sobbing’ because that’s not the reality of the situation. People are actually really brave when they’re going through cancer, it can sometimes be everybody else that crumbles.
‘At times I was trying to [stay strong] and that was really hard. Especially with crew members and Nick Pickard – and all Diane’s kids, who have recently been recast. All that closeness, you think ‘oh god, I’ll never get to do this again’.
‘There were scenes when I was filming I was thinking: ‘This will be my last scene in The Hutch,’ or ‘this will be my last scene in the flat’. And also ‘This will be my last scene with Jess Fox [who plays Nancy].’ I’d get lost a little bit in it.
‘I’ve not enjoyed watching Diane go through it but I am pleased with everybody’s performances around it all. Everyone has worked so hard.
‘It’s going to be strange [now it’s aired]. I left nearly seven weeks ago now, which is mad. I’ve been doing so many other nice things off the back of it so it’s not really felt like I’ve left yet. I think I’m in a bit of denial!’
Former Brookside star Alex, who has starred in key roles in two of the nation’s favourite soaps, made the decision to leave Hollyoaks of her own accord, citing a desire to have more time with her loved ones as one of the key reasons for her departure – in addition to wanting to take a leap of faith and try out for other roles.
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‘I think over the last 16 years, I’ve been so lucky,’ she said with a smile, reminiscing about her time in the village. ‘I’ve been at the forefront of so many stories. I genuinely just thought: “What else can I bring to it? I feel like I’ve done everything!” and I wanted to go when I was still enjoying it. I didn’t want to leave when I was feeling unhappy.
‘It took me about six months to make the decision. But you know don’t you when you’ve done your time? I just had that gut feeling. “I’ve got to do something else. If I don’t have a go and at least try, I’ll stay here forever. And they’ll never get rid of me! [laughs]”.
But it was a tough decision. It was really tough telling Nick and it was really tough telling Hannah [Cheers, Executive Producer] – I don’t know what she thought the meeting was about but I was trying to get it booked in to tell her first out of respect.
‘I just didn’t think I had anything left to bring to it because I do get a lot of the heavy hitting storylines and they take their toll. What I think was nice on my last day was that I did all my best bits and looked back – I was like: “Do you know what? Diane was happy. She did have a laugh!”.
‘But where have the 16 years gone? I’ve blinked and they’ve gone. It’s a bit of that too – my kids are growing up and my little boy is only nine. I want my diary back. With soap, I don’t think a lot of people realise that you live and breathe it – you spend more time being that character than you do yourself. I thought I need to be myself for a little bit. To be more Alex’.
It’s certainly not been plain sailing for Diane over the years, which meant that Alex had plenty of material to get her teeth into as an actor. The character has battled alcoholism, been diagnosed with OCD, witnessed her husband cheat on her with her daughter, been shot with a crossbow by her incel brother-in-law. And she famously had an affair with her sinister father-in-law!
And that’s just for starters.
In terms of what has stood out to Alex, she is very proud of the work the show did on Lily Drinkwell’s (Lauren McQueen) self-harm storyline. ‘It was powerful and raised a lot of conversations,’ she recalled. ‘I genuinely didn’t know much before that storyline, so it’s great when you get stories that are informative and you can learn from it yourself. And it feels like you can make a difference – I think that’s why I’ve been here so long.’
The actress praised former Hollyoaks star Lauren, branding her ‘super talented’. She was also full of praise for long-time co-star Nick. ‘I’ll tell you what I did love,’ she said with a grin. ‘The scene where Diane and Tony doing shots in the bar! Nick and I had a laugh doing that. That was the only time where we could just let loose. That’s a memorable moment for me, I’ll never forget that.’
Diane’s final storyline saw her diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The prognosis was just months left to live, which swiftly became weeks, and Diane made the most of every last second with soulmate Tony and her beloved children Ant (Brook Debio), Ro (Leo Cole), Dee Dee (Chloe Atkinson) and Eva.
Her final scenes saw her pass away peacefully, listening to Tone sing Eva to sleep with her favourite song, which would ultimately be the last thing Di herself heard as she died. Tony subsequently realised his wife had died when he came to give her the latest dose of her medicine and, with a ‘goodnight sweetheart’, he sobbed, holding her close one last time.
Discussing filming the scene in question, Alex branded the experience ‘devastating’. ‘I had to do the scene where I closed my eyes for the last time. She’s listening to Tony trying to get Eva to sleep, singing her favourite song.
‘I was crying and I was thinking: “I can’t be crying if I’m dead!”. But bless Nick when he did that scene at the end, I had to lie on the bed still – I couldn’t move or breathe, because I’m in the shot – and he was just breaking down.
‘I know what Nick is like, he’s one of my closest friends. He’s gutted I’ve left, he said that. So I think [that’s in] his performance – it is the end of an era. As soon as he’d finished filming, I gave him a big hug and said to him that he’ll never have to do that ever again.
‘And it affected a lot of the crew as well – I don’t even think it’s because I’m going, I think it’s because a lot of people have unfortunately been touched by whatever illness it may be. People were getting choked on the floor. It has been more than just a storyline. Even when I talk about it now I’m like… ‘Oh my god. it’s not real, I’m alive!’ But a massive part of me has died. I’ll never play her again.’
‘That was when I was like: ‘What am I doing? What am I actually doing?’. But I tried to use all those feelings in every scene so, whatever I was feeling in my tummy, I just went with it. I don’t know how it feels [in real life] so I just tried to use as much as emotion as I could.’
As for what’s next for Alex, she plans on taking some time out to just be Alex again. ‘I’m 50 in July. I’ve been spoiled rotten by my husband and my family, who are going: ‘We’ve got her diary back!’.
‘So I’ve got some really nice things booked. I’m going to Rome with my mum – I’ve never been, so that’s nice, I got surprised with that. I’m going to Cornwall, I’m going to Rick Stein’s cookery school! I’m going on a couple of girly holidays. I had to give my dates to my agent, who has been brilliant.’
And as for what’s next professionally? Alex is giving it some thought. ‘The next job I get, it’s going to mean a lot,’ she said. ‘It matters. But at the moment – and I don’t know if I’m doing this to protect myself – but I think since I’ve done 31 years collectively in two soaps and not really had a break, if I never worked another day on the telly, that’s fine too. I mean, having said that, I’d be gutted – I do want to work. But I have to sit back and, with the career I’ve already had, I’m like: “I don’t know how I’ve done that, really”.
‘But I would love to do a gritty drama! With David Morrisey or someone like that. But it’s got to be gritty!’
We’d love to see it.
The star also refused to rule out doing another soap, admitting that she is a fan of EastEnders.
And speaking of soaps, fans have long had this wild theory that Alex could reprise the role of her former Brookside character Jacqui Dixon, following the long-awaited crossover between Hollyoaks and Brookside last October, which officially merged the worlds of the two soaps.
I couldn’t let Alex, who is well aware of said theory, go without quizzing her about such a thing. ‘I’m not going to lie, that messed with my head, that Brookside crossover!,’ she laughed. ‘But in a positive way.
‘They were talking about me doing both parts [of Diane and Jacqui] and I was like: ‘I’d need a massive wig. I’d need a perm! I’d need the shellsuit.’
‘But since Jacqui is held in such high regard, there’s a part of me that’s like: ‘Just leave her where she is. Wherever she is!’
Hollyoaks streams Mondays to Wednesdays from 6am on Channel 4’s streaming platform, or catch episodes on TV at 7pm on E4.
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