Hollyoaks boss speaks out on shock Eric siege in hour-long special

 Who is shot?

Hollyoaks boss Lucy Allan has revealed new details about this week's hour-long episode, which will see Eric Foster hold a siege at The Dog.

The Channel 4 show's big issue-based story exploring misogyny reaches a culminating point in Tuesday's episode (January 10), with devastating consequences.

As Eric's grief for his sister turn into hate, he grows increasingly unstable – leading to a terrifying series of events which will change the village forever.

At least one person will be shot in the high-stakes scenes, but Hollyoaks are keeping tight-lipped about whether there will be any fatalities.

Speaking about the episode in an exclusive chat with , Lucy said: "Jane Wainwright, who is the writer of that hour-long episode, has been pitching the incel story for a number of years.

"It was finding the right engine for the story and the right time for the story. We always knew it had to get to a highly dramatic end point and what we wanted to do was articulate the level of danger that exists out there in this world. "

"We always knew we wanted to build to that climax because we always wanted to articulate the level of danger there is and the echochamber that Eric finds himself utterly absorbed within," she continued.

"It's something that we're really grateful to the channel for the level of support they've given us in telling this story and telling this story in an authentic way. I think the channel has been really brave in their support of it.

"We've made every endeavor to ensure that it's not gratuitous or indulgent, but that at the same point in time it feels visceral and frightening."

Lucy added: "We also push really hard in that episode to ensure Tony, for example, is a real hero, because this is not about us saying, 'This is our viewpoint on all men or all young men'. We've got Beau and Tony in there behaving in truly brave, heroic ways and that was also massively important to us as a show, because this is about balance.

"But Eric obviously is extreme. He is radicalised, he is in that space and what he does in that hour-long [episode], sadly, is what happens and what can happen."

Explaining some of the challenges of the story, Allan commented: "One of the real challenges with it, because Angus is such a great performer and has done extraordinary work on the show, is that we've had to keep an eye on is that your levels of sympathy aren't too high for Eric and that was one of the things we were very mindful of in that hour-long as well.

"For example, the reason that he has a crossbow and not a gun in that episode is because we know that a lot of the radicalisation is happening through gaming and the notion of shooting people is something almost distant from yourself – it's not visceral in the same way as shooting someone with an arrow or a bolt.

"There is also a point at which Eric is sick after he's shot somebody and that was for us, we wanted to see that even for Eric, even in his extreme state, the horror of something in reality, rather than in a game or on a screen is still quite shocking for him."

Eric will stream the siege live to his incel community, locking the doors of The Dog and threatening the funeral guests with a crossbow.

The episode also marks a huge turning point for Mason, who decides to no longer protect Eric and get help for the women in danger.

When Mason notices the livestream on the Men’s First site, Mason quickly warns his parents Dave and Honour.

Tony and Beau also come up with a plan to save Diane by convincing Eric to let the men leave.

Hollyoaks airs new episodes from Mondays to Fridays at 6.30pm on Channel 4, with first-look screenings at 7pm on E4. Selected omnibus episodes are available via Amazon Prime Video.