Benjamin O’Mahony has joined ‘Hollyoaks’.
The ‘Ripper Street’ star will play county lines drug boss Victor – who Jordan Price (Connor Calland) reports to – in the Channel 4 soap this spring.
He said: "Getting cast as Victor was brilliant.
"My agent called one afternoon and said that ‘Hollyoaks’ were interested in seeing me about a county lines storyline.
"If I’m honest I didn’t really know what county lines were, but the part sounded too juicy to pass up. I got the call that I’d got the job a few days after auditioning and I was over the moon!"
Connor added: "It’s going to be seen on screen how the hierarchy works.
"The audience will get to understand why Jordan is the way he is.
"You’ll see that he’s not the nastiest person in the village anymore."
Benjamin says his no-nonsense character is "addicted to power" and enjoys seeing "fear in people’s eyes".
He added: "Victor is a complex character with a dark past and those are the parts that are always the most satisfying to play.
"In my day-to-day life I’m not (luckily) like Victor so it’s about finding ways to empathise with a man who does some rather awful things to some very vulnerable people.
"Victor is (arguably) a sociopath, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants – comfortable with manipulating and exploiting vulnerable children to build himself the empire he thinks he deserves.
"I would argue that Victor sees himself as an efficient businessman working within a violent industry, but there is also another side to him that is addicted to the power and loves to see the fear in people’s eyes."
Benjamin O’Mahony joins Hollyoaks
