City being used less for soap filming

Jun 20 2008 Chester Chronicle

POPULAR Channel 4 teen soap Hollyoaks has admitted it is using Chester less and less as a location because of daily filming pressures.

Chester continues to be the setting for the fictional suburb of Hollyoaks but a busy schedule means the cast is no longer able to venture out from the studio in Childwall, Liverpool.

Hollyoaks was devised by Phil Redmond, also the creator of popular soap operas Brookside and Grange Hill.

When it was first broadcast in October 1995, only one episode was shown a week. Over the years this has gradually increased to five, attracting an average of three million viewers per week.

A spokesman for production company Lime Pictures said: “Filming five episodes of a popular soap opera every week is incredibly fast-moving and unfortunately time pressure means we are unable to film on location as often as we have in the past.”