Hollyoaks Nick Pickard reveals he didn’t tell ANYONE Tony survived Breda’s stabbing as he calls on Will Mellor to return
HOLLYOAKS Tony has had a terrible six months after being almost stabbed to death by serial killer Breda and held captive in a pig pen.
And last night, the soap legend escaped the murderer – but ended up lying vulnerable on the operating table with his VERY dodgy surgeon dad Edward looking after him.
Tony’s dad was far from pleased to have him back from the dead – especially as he’s taken up with Tony’s wife, Diane - and it looked like he was going to leave him to suffocate to death on the operating table.
But yet again, Tony cheated death in tonight’s episode as his dad had a crisis of conscience and revived him. But actor Nick Pickard says that he’s had to be so secretive about Tony’s brushes with death, even his family and friends have been desperate to know what’s been happening.
“I mean, I do have to admit nearly everyone in my phone book phoned me to see if I was going, because I think people genuinely did think that I was going,” he tells The Sun Online. “I had so many people in my family ask me and obviously friends were asking, which they’ve never done before. Even my daughter was asking, and she never asks me!”
Nick says he was “overwhelmed” by the UK’s reaction to Tony’s stabbing – with some viewers being left in tears.
“I was really surprised and it was lovely that people came out and said something,” he says. “There were loads of hits on twitter and Instagram. It was really nice… they keep faking Tony’s death so maybe if they do eventually get rid of me it might be the boy who cried Tony!
“I was overwhelmed and really happy and that’s really why I’m so happy here, because you forget how many people you are making happy. We are on our third generation of viewers now so it gives you a little warm feeling inside.”
Nick’s been on the soap since it’s very first episode on 23 October 1995, and says he doesn’t want to leave just yet.
“I’ve always been happy here, I came up to Liverpool when I was nineteen, and the show aired when I was twenty. Obviously I’m nearly 45 now and I still walk in and have a laugh every day,” he says.
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“I know it’s a cliché and I’ve said it before but I do genuinely have a laugh at my job. Obviously there’s days when, like anyone, you have a little bit of a rough day, but 99 per cent of the time I’m here and I’m happy with my work. If they got rid of me, I’d have lots of things I’d try and do, but I’d be more than happy to stay so it’s a win/win for me.”
And, amazingly, spending every day for months on the set at the pig farm hasn’t put him off the job – because he has no sense of smell.
“I don’t really have any sense of smell but apparently it smelt really bad,” he laughs.
“It was a bit grim when it got cold because it was freezing in there but I think it was more the fact that I didn’t get to work with all of the cast. As much as Moya [Brady, who played Breda] was lovely, you miss hanging out with the cast. I’d do 5 to 6 scenes everyday with about 7 or 8 different characters and you intermingle with people. Don’t get me wrong I had all of the crew in the Pig Pen but not with the cast, and that’s really where you have your fun.”
Show boss Bryan Kirkwood has bought back various classic Hollyoaks characters over the years, including Sarah Jayne Dunn as Mandy and Gary Lucy as Luke, but Nick has some old pals in mind to bring back, including Tony’s mate Jambo.
“Will Mellor, absolutely! I’d love them all to come back, but the sad thing is that most of my closest friends in the show, they’re characters are dead,” says Nick, referring to Tony’s best mate Kurt, played Jeremy Edwards.
“James Redmond is always a good one, he’s been back a couple of times here and there, Davinia [Taylor]’s been back. I think they will probably do something along those lines but I don’t really want to speculate as to what.
“I’m 44 now and a lot of the cast, they’re all lovely but I’m a bit older than a lot of them, so they are all doing things I was doing twenty years ago! So those older characters, they’re my group of people I was doing it with[at the start], so whenever they come back it’s always fun for me.
“We always get together and have a drink, but I can’t keep up with these young ones now!”
Hollyoaks is on E4, 7pm, weekdays
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