Hollyoaks star confirms ‘intense and scary’ outcome in Abigail and Dee-Dee grooming story

‘She’s really scary!’ (Picture: Lime Pictures/Metro)

Dee Dee Hutchinson is caught in the web of a dangerous predator in Hollyoaks, and according to actor Chloe Atkinson, it’s only going to get worse.

Poor Dee Dee’s had a terrible time of it in Dee Valley of late.

The troubled teen is still reeling from the heart-rending death of her mother Diane Hutchinson (Alex Fletcher), who passed away in May from terminal stage four ovarian cancer.

Unfortunately, being in such a vulnerable state has made her easy prey for manipulative newcomer Abigail Matthews.

Played by Brooke Vincent who fans may recognise as Coronation Street’s Sophie Webster, Abigail is an English teacher, Drama teacher at Hollyoaks High School, as well as school counsellor – a position once held by Diane.

The character was introduced as part of a culturally relevant long term storyline to explore the grooming of a child from a place of institutional authority.

Dee Dee first crossed paths with Abigail. when her dad Tony (Nick Pickard) sent her to a rehab facility to recover from her drug addiction. As her counsellor. Abigail slowly but surely built trust and established an emotional bond with the grief-stricken teenager.

This bond was only cemented when Abigail moved to the village and became counsellor at Hollyoaks High, where she could continue to tighten her grip on Dee Dee.

Abigail is preying on Dee Dee in plain sight (Picture: Lime Pictures)

Viewers saw this first hand when Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) ended her fling with Abigail, prompting the predator to have a violent meltdown in her car. When Dee Dee discovered her crying, Abigail seized this as the perfect opportunity to muddy the boundaries between authority figure and ‘friend’.

Accoring to actor Chloe Atkinson, who portrays Dee Dee, this is only the start.

‘With Dee-Dee and Abigail, it’s only going to get more intense. It’s going to get very dramatic.’

‘When you’re filming the scenes with Brooke, she is so lovely. When I’m filming it, I don’t see that side of her. Then when I’m watching it back, I think oh she’s really scary!’

Indeed she is.

This is not the first time Hollyoaks has portrayed a same-sex grooming story centring around abuse of authority. Fans will remember the controversial and groundbreaking football abuse story in 2019 where Brody Hudson (Adam Woodward) and Ollie Morgan (Aedan Duckworth) were sexually assaulted by paedophile coach Buster Smith (Nathan Sussex).

Hollyoaks previously tackled institution abuse with Ollie, Buster and Brody. (Picture: Lime Pictures)

So what’s different this time? Chloe highlighted the importance of this story.

‘It’s important we tell a storyline like that, especially two women. We’ve looked at the statistics and it is the one thing that goes very undetected. A lot of people don’t know that grooming can happen between a female and a younger female.’

‘When I was approached with the storyline, I just assumed it would be an older man and a young girl. When you think about it, you don’t think about this storyline as grooming because it’s two women.’

‘We’re telling a really important storyline, these boys are going to be more involved. We just filmed some really intense scenes on location as well, which are airing soon.’

‘It’s exciting. It’s dramatic. It’s Hollyoaks!’

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