Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jayne Dunn has said that her and Gary Lucy’s characters will be in a relationship when they return to the soap after years away.
Dunn rose to fame playing Mandy Richardson on the Channel 4 soap from 1996 until 2011, along with Lucy (Luke Morgan), who appeared in the programme from 1999 until 2002.
After six years away, Dunn said she is “so excited” to be back in the role, also revealing a few details about Mandy’s absence and what viewers can expect to see.
Mandy and Luke had previously been romantically involved, but were not a couple when she left the soap.
Dunn told This Morning’s Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes: “They are back together, I can tell you that much. They’re a couple – that’s an exclusive, nobody knows that yet.
“Mandy and Luke return together and obviously six years is a long time, Gary has been away for even longer – about 15 years – so there’s a lot of storytelling involved.”
Speaking about some of Mandy’s backstory from the past six years, 35-year-old Dunn said: “What I can say without giving anything away is that she’s fallen on harder times, she’s going through a bit of a tough time and within the village, Mandy’s still got a lot of old connections.
Look who's ready to tell us all about her return to @Hollyoaks! But what inspired @sarahjaynedunn to go back to her roots? @ITV NOW! pic.twitter.com/k1rXocweJ5
— This Morning (@thismorning) July 20, 2017
“She needs those people right now more than she thinks.”
Dunn said that she was unaware that her former co-star was also making a comeback to the soap when she was first asked.
“I actually didn’t know that to begin with, so when I got my first script, one of the first episodes, I saw Luke and I was like, ‘no way!’.”
She said she sent a text message to Lucy to check, and shared her joy that the two are reuniting on-screen.
Dunn described her return to Hollyoaks – in which she first appeared at the age of 14 – as like “putting on a really comfy pair of shoes”.
Dunn and Lucy will be seen returning to Hollyoaks next week.
