Tony Hutchinson This was the first time an actor/actress from Hollyoaks had received the award. Tony Hutchinson Tony Hutchinson is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera "Hollyoaks;" he is played by Nick Pickard. Tony first appeared on-screen on 23 October 1995 and is currently the longest serving character in the soap. The character was created by Phil Redmond as one of several main characters for the soap opera. Tony has since been part of various storylines including marriages to Mandy Richardson (Sarah Jayne Dunn), her stepsister Cindy Cunningham (Stephanie Waring) and Diane O'Connor (Alex Fletcher), an affair with
Soap opera opera parody programs "Echo Beach" premiered alongside its sister show, the comedy "Moving Wallpaper". Both "Echo Beach" and "The Royal Today" ended after just one series due to low ratings. Radio soap opera "Silver Street" debuted on the BBC Asian Network in 2004. Poor ratings and criticism of the program led to its cancellation in 2010. UK soap operas for many years usually only aired two nights a week. The exception was the original "Crossroads", which began as a weekdaily soap opera in the 1960s, but later had its number of weekly broadcasts reduced. Things started to change in 1989