Gemma Merna last appeared on Hollyoaks in 2013, when her fan-favorite character Carmel Valentine was killed off during the show’s dramatic train crash storyline. Now, more than a decade later, Merna is returning to the Channel 4 soap as Carmel’s on-screen brother John Paul McQueen (James Sutton) prepares to exit the series. The actress recently opened up about what it meant to step back into the world of Hollyoaks and reunite with the McQueen family, one of the show’s most beloved families.
Speaking about her return, Merna shared how natural it felt to be back on set. “It was lovely filming with familiar faces,” she shared. “It was like we’ve been transported back to over 11 years ago. It’s weird, it’s like nothing has changed, but obviously we’re so much older and wiser now. It was lovely to have the original family back together.”
Teasing what viewers can expect from her return, Merna revealed that Carmel appears in more than one emotional context. “We see two different versions of Carmel,” she explained. “Both scenes were written amazingly by Alanna Hallum. She has written so many amazing scripts for Carmel, so I was very excited as soon as I saw her name on the script. I knew it was going to be good.”
Merna also reflected on the lasting impact Carmel had on viewers. “People say to me ‘I used to run home from school to watch her, she used to really cheer me up,’” she shared. “That’s the thing with Carmel, she cheered everyone up.”
Looking back on Carmel’s role within the family, Merna said she always saw the character as a caretaker. “Carmel’s role before her exit was trying to look after Theresa and Kathleen-Angel,” she explained. “She was the one who always had a good job and a lot of structure. She looked after everyone. If anyone felt down Carmel was there to give them a big hug and tell them that everything was going to be ok.”
When asked which storylines stood out most from her time on the show, Merna didn’t hesitate. “The train explosion storyline was epic and Who Shot Calvin,” she said. “Another was when she got married to Calvin, because it was a flash forward which was just genius.”
Merna believes that the McQueen family’s relatability is the key to their lasting popularity. “People say to me there’s someone in my family that’s like Mercedes, or Tina, or John Paul, or Carmel, or Myra,” she said. “Everyone relates to them because they’re normal.”
Sharing one of her favorite memories from the show, Merna recalled her very first episode, “When we first joined, it was me, Jen, Hollie-Jay and Leah. It was my first ever scene and we are all in the SU bar singing. Darren Osborne comes in and is like ‘we could make a girl band out of these’. I think that is one of my favourite memories, our first episode of coming into the village. I loved that.”
Reflecting on what the McQueen name still means to her, Merna added, “Being a McQueen means everything to me. It’s like being a McQueen is part of my heart. As Carmel said just before she passed away ‘you get one McQueen, you get all of us’, that’s what it is, once you’re a McQueen you’re always a McQueen.”
Hollyoaks airs Monday through Wednesday in the U.K. on E4, with episodes being available on YouTube for global
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