All good things must come to an end, and on our favourite soaps, some exits are more permanent than others.
Soaps like EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks have had their fair share of dramatic deaths over the years – and they certainly know how to make them memorable.
This Halloween, we are taking a look at some of the most gruesome dispatches across supposedly family friendly shows.
Wooden knitting needles, car crushes, lorries, photo frames, hammers, chair legs and a wobbly piece of glass copping off a head are just some scenes that actors can have on a grim Spotlight CV.
Re-live some of the scariest and most shocking ones here…
Kush Kazemi – a sub(way) par death
We open with something that we still haven’t forgiven – and never will. Your everyday kind soul Kush didn’t deserve this.
In one of the most painfully conceived serial killer storylines of soap history, Gray Atkins’ saga went from a powerful and harrowing story of domestic abuse to a kill-by-numbers panto-fest.
As a result, we had to lose two great characters in Kush Kazemi and Tina Carter. And Kush’s exit was particularly hard to stomach.
After an altercation with Gray, whose life he saved, Kush was thrown under the tracks of a speeding train.
Jez Blake – propelled into the afterlife
More than half of the murders committed by Jez Blake (Jeremy Sheffield) in Hollyoaks could have earned a spot on this list, but it’s the killer’s own demise that really took the biscuit when he was pushed into the moving propellers of a light aircraft.
It was just plane gruesome.
Reiss Colwell – a truly soapy exit
Bumbling killer Reiss Colwell could only really go out in a camp way, and the scene that saw him crushed by a bathtub certainly fit the bill.
Reiss was killed off in EastEnders’ 40th anniversary celebrations during the collapse of the Queen Vic.
And of course, his final words, moments before the tub came crashing down on his head, were: ‘That was close!’
Poor Martin Fowler also fell victim to a gruesome crushing, after a beam fell on his legs. A rough day.
Maxine Peacock – a Corrie crowbar clobbering
Corrie got seriously grim when soap’s most infamous killer set out to bash poor, old Emily Bishop’s skull in with a crowbar – which he actually did. Stomach churning enough, right?
Maxine then came home and was rightly told that she should have stayed at the party as Richard went on to bludgeon her too.
Maxine was killed while Emily ‘skull of steel’ Bishop lived on.
The most violent moment was when Emily’s bashing was spliced with a cleaver going through meat in another scene. Macabre, Corrie.
Sarah Barnes – a Hollyoaks flight of doom
We will never even consider a skydive after this horrifying Hollyoaks scene which saw Sarah’s chute sabotaged.
As she leapt for the jump of her life, it turned out to be the jump of her death and Hollyoaks fans to this day still consider it one of soap’s most shocking death scenes ever.
Trina Johnson – an EastEnders rotten rake ravage
A rake in the neck? Oh, EastEnders, you do spoil us.
Dog drowning and prostitute strangling Lucas was chilling enough but when he silenced his demanding ex Trina by shoving her against the sharp end of a gardening tool, the gargling sound which followed was enough to make us shove our dinners aside.
Andrea Tate – a-maze-ingly cruel
You could – and should – argue that all of crazed Meena Jutla’s killings were gruesome. She pushed teenager Leanna to her death from a bridge and clobbered Ben Tucker with an oar that must have been sore.
But she went all out when it came to Andrea Tate. Not content with swinging a metal signpost at her, she chased her through a hedge-maze, manically singing and enjoying herself.
Closing in on her, she went on the attack which led to a flare gun going off into the foliage.
With a horrible thud, Meena threw Andrea’s head against a wooden step and then left her to die in a raging fire.
Sue and Danny Sullivan – a Brookside double fall catastrophe
Brookside was never afraid to go that step further in shocking its fans and perhaps the most horrifying deaths of all where the demises of Sue and her baby Danny.
Barry Grant cornered them on some scaffolding and pushed them to their deaths and the camera panning over the lifeless baby and his dead mum remains seriously haunting.
Fatboy Chubb – an EastEnders car crushing
One of modern day soap’s cruellest endings, poor Fats ended up trapped in the boot of a car which was then sent to be crushed. Vincent’s face said it all when he opened the boot and saw what was left – er, happy Christmas everyone!
Still, we didn’t see it ourselves (we wanted to keep our turkey sarnies down) so hope remains that Fatboy miraculously got out and Vincent was just dumbstruck by the state of the car.
Gerry Roberts – an Emmerdale bed, breakfast and bludgeoning
In a similar sense of horrifying injustice, the sheer level of horror and violence in the death of Gerry, especially considering that he was a loveable comedy character who would do no-one any harm, was second level.
It wasn’t enough that Lachlan engineered the floor of the B&B to collapse beneath Gerry – the sick lad then went on to finish off his begging and suffering ‘best mate’ with a heavy block of stone to the face. Grimness personified – and fans have still not forgiven Emmerdale for this one!
Andy Carver – a Corrie shot in the dark
This particularly grim episode of Coronation Street was subject to a huge level of complaints from fans – and even celebrities – who thought the soap was becoming a little bit too grizzly. While we disagreed overall, it’s not hard to see why the deaths of Andy and Vinny might have been pushing it for many.
We had thought Andy had been killed by Phelan with a laptop but the guy was then held in the cellar for the best part of a year. He almost escaped twice and then when he was almost liberated, Phelan cruelly ended his life by shooting him point black in a darkened warehouse – after forcing him to shoot Vinny first. He then shoved both bodies into the nearby lake before shifting them to the foundations of a house he was building.
Proper Goodfellas sh*t this.
Mel Owen – not a lorry laughs
Roads are never safe in soap, so Mel being involved in a car crash is surprisingly common fodder in the genre.
But she miraculously survived a massive smash and an explosion which followed – hurrah!
EastEnders wasn’t done, though. As Mel was haunted by the voice of her dead son Hunter – who, by the way, didn’t exactly have a peaceful demise himself – she was drawn onto the road amid Sharon’s screams.
One CGI lorry later and Mel was gone.
Brutal, Mel may have not had a lot of luck, but she certainly got a lot of truck.
Heather Trott – an EastEnders photo frame finish
The most horrifying aspect of this killing was the senseless nature of it all. Like Fatboy, it always hits harder when a nice, innocent character is killed in vicious circumstances.
The scene which saw Ben hit Heather over the head with a photo frame and kill her during a row was memorable for being so dark and stopping us all from sleeping. A particularly brutal ending for someone who had been a jovial comedy character until that point.
Charlotte Hoyle – a Corrie hammer horror
Coronation Street’s tram crash was pretty violent but it took second place to the death which preceded it in terms of how blood curdling it was.
Charlotte wasn’t exactly a sympathetic character as she stalked hapless John Stape but when he silenced her with a hammer to the head with such force that it knocked the wreath from the other side of the front door, a nation winced in horror.
Harry Thompson – screwed over in Hollyoaks
First of all, the sheer thought and imagery of being stabbed with the blunt implenent that is a screwdriver makes us all wince a bit – but the real torment of this violent end for one of Hollyoaks’ biggest characters was the sudden, shock nature of it.
Not only that, but he was pretty unfairly framed and labelled a bad dad by serial killer Breda – and if everything had been out in the open, it might not have happened.
Robbing Jarry fans of their chance of seeing James and Harry continue their relationship didn’t go down all that well with fans who felt they’d been hit in the gut harder than poor Harry.
Breda McQueen – there was no need-le for this
But Harry’s violent end paled into nothingness compared to the comeuppance of Breda herself.
We were all hoping for justice to be done, but nobody quite expected the horrifying manner of passing.
We all associate knitting with sweet old ladies, but we can’t ever look at a wooden knitting needle without breaking into a sweat nowadays.
In the midst of a raging inferno, Sylver decided that the only way to dispatch his mum was butchering her through the eye with her famed jumper making equipment.
Den Watts – an EastEnders doggie stop dispatch
Den went on to die twice in Walford and his second dispatch was certainly more brutal than his first.
As he went on the attack against three of many women he had wronged in his time, he was thumped with a dog-shaped doorstop by Zoe. Standard soap fodder for now – until Chrissie finished the job by mashing his head in further. Ouch!
Shane Doyle – an Emmerdale table leg terror
Back when Debbie was in love with a Doctor Who companion to be and the future incarnation of Queen Victoria, the pair ended up facing the wrath of corrupt cop Shane Doyle.
As he made an attempt to attack Jasmine, Debbie hit out in self-defence.
He then had a second go and Jasmine lost it, repeatedly clobbering him with a table leg in a shocking and violent scene which left them with one heck of a cover-up on their hands.
Charlie Stubbs – a Corrie strip tease trauma
Bill Ward may have also been killed off in Emmerdale as James Barton in a strong enough contender for a violent soap death but an equally brutal fate met his Corrie character Charlie Stubbs.
After crossing Tracy Barlow, he fell victim to a wallop on the skull with an ornament that was brought about by a lap dance.
We’re not sure which made our stomachs churn more – the lap dance or the seriously hard thump to the head.
Val Pollard – an Emmerdale hall of mirrors beheading
Val’s head was pretty much decapitated by a shard of glass in a mirror maze. An OTT death for an OTT character.
Silas Blissett – an electrifying Hollyoaks end
Silas got a taste of his own medicine when Bobby Costello pushed him onto an electrified chess board and ended his reign of terror in Hollyoaks.
Some might say it was a checkmate…
Robbie Lawson – an Emmerdale exit with flare
Robbie Lawson fell victim to Declan Macey during the iconic Macey Madness storyline in 2014.
Stranded on a boat in the middle of a lake, Declan planned to shoot Charity Dingle with a flare gun.
However, Robbie took the force of the shot and ended up being blasted back into the water, where he drowned.
Declan later escaped the water unharmed, despite Charity driving the boat’s anchor into his skull.
Keanu Taylor – meat-ing his maker in EastEnders
Keanu Taylor was stabbed in the back with a meat thermometer on Christmas Day in 2023. Very festive.
The sight of his blood dripping from his mouth was certainly enough to put us off our cheeseboards.
Our souls – How’s Trish?
We should probably stop whinging but the above 23 were nothing compared to what Hollyoaks had in store for us.
A little bit of us died inside and we may never regain this.
Truly the most traumatising thing you will watch this Halloween.
This article was first published on October 31, 2022.
