‘Hollyoaks’ will end its far-right extremism storyline with an hour-long episode.
The Channel 4 soap will air a special episode on November 15 as Ste Hay’s plan to escape the criminal group is discovered.
Ste – played by Kieron Richardson – has been desperate to escape Jonny Baxter (Ray Quinn) and Stuart’s (Chris Simmons) clutches after they set off a device in September, but they have threatened him with prison and violence.
Next week, he’ll start his bid for freedom with the help of his family, friends and government counter-terrorism organisation, Prevent.
The upcoming scenes were filmed on location in September, and a tense showdown will see numerous exits from the soap, including Ste himself having a temporary departure.
Reflecting on the filming, Ray said: "It felt like the pinnacle of the storyline and the journey as an actor – it felt like the end.
"We were at the edge of a cliff and emotions were running quite high on the day, so there are a lot of natural tears during the scenes that we were filming."
Meanwhile, Kieron previously admitted he told bosses he was "too scared" to take on Ste’s radicalisation storyline.
The 33-year-old star wasn’t even sure what radicalisation was when he was initially told of plans for his character to be groomed by a far-right group, but upon finding out more about the storyline he expressed his reservations to ‘Hollyoaks’ executive producer Bryan Kirkwood.
He said: "When the guys sat me down originally, I hadn’t heard of radicalisation before and I didn’t know what it was.
"Then we had a meeting with the guys from Exit UK. Basically, most of our story has been based on their work.
"I came out of that meeting and said to Bryan Kirkwood, ‘I don’t want to do it. I’m too scared, I can’t do it.’ "
Hollyoaks ending far-right radicalisation storyline with one-hour episode
