Lucy Benson

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Lucy Benson is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kerrie Taylor. Taylor appeared from the first episode on 23 October 1995. Taylor later quit the role with the character leaving in January 2000^[1] when she went travelling. The character's storylines included a heroin addiction. The character has been described as a "good daughter" type who changed becoming a "hopeless addict".

Casting

Taylor quit the role saying "I was scared to leave. I thought I might never work again, but the time was right".^[2] Taylor described her time on the serial as "happy" which made her decision to leave "hard". Taylor added that the Hollyoaks cast felt "like family". Taylor filmed her final scenes around Christmas 1999.^[3]

Development

Characterisation

Merle Brown of the Daily Record labelled Lucy "troubled".^[2] Taylor felt the character had "gone through everything" saying she had taken the character from "a good daughter character on a journey to hopeless addict and then to strength again".^[2] The character was also labelled "hopeless" and a "junkie" by the Daily Record.^[4] The Daily Mirror labelled the character a "goody-two-shoes".^[5]

Development

Taylor commented on Lucy's heroin addiction saying "it wasn't pleasant. I had this foundation I had to wear called Death Grey. Most foundations have girlie names, like Autumn Dew or Sunrise, but not this".^[2] Taylor commented on the storyline saying "For 18 months, I'd go into work and play a heroin addict" which she found "challenging, but it did get to me after a while".^[5]

Storylines

Lucy was introduced as part of the Benson family. Lucy begins dating

Lucy's younger brother

For her portrayal of Lucy, Taylor was nominated for Best Actress at the Inside Soap Awards of 1998.^[6] Taylor was then nominated for Best Dramatic Performance at the 1999 British Soap Awards.^[7] While expressing her disinterest, Merle Brown from the Daily Record did not welcome Lucy's drug habit being a heavily focused upon storyline.^[8] Charlie Catchpole of the Daily Mirror commented on the performances of soap actors giving his opinion on what they should be paid. On Taylor, he said she would be in his bottom paid soap stars saying she deserved £15,000, which if given to Lucy, she would use for "a new silver spoon for her nose. She's tried every drug bar aspirin".^[9] In 2018, writing about addiction storylines across British soap operas, Laura Morgan of Digital Spy listed Lucy's drug addiction storyline as one of the eight "darkest" addiction plots to be featured in a soap.^[7]

References