Hollyoaks confirms new story for Tony and Diane's children as roles are recast

 They will be back on screens later this month.

Hollyoaks will air a new storyline for Diane and Tony's children next week, as fans get their first glimpse of the new actors playing them.

can exclusively reveal that Ava Webster and William Thompson have joined the cast in the roles of Rose and Ant, respectively, while Lacey Findlow is reprising her role as Dee Dee.

Isla Pritchard and Caelan Cobbledick-Manning, who previously played Rose and Ant, have now left the show.

Aside from brief appearances, all three young characters have been largely absent from the show since 2020, when the roles of child actors were reduced during COVID restrictions.

Upcoming scenes will see the Hutchinsons brought back into the limelight with a big new story which will kick off with Rose going missing on her 12th birthday.

Rose will run away after the Hutchinson family find themselves hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

As we have already revealed, Tony plans to get more customers at The Dog by arranging an interview with The Chester Herald, and even lies about helping those in need in the hope of making front page news.

His wish comes true but not how he imagined, when an oblivious Jack tells the journalist about all the skeletons in the Hutchinsons' closet.

Unfortunately, the unsavoury article hits the headlines the day of Ant, Rose and Dee Dee's birthday celebrations, leaving a furious Tony determined to sort it out.

To make matters worse, the article mentions Rose and Dee Dee being swapped at the hospital after they were born, causing tensions between the siblings.

Dee Dee blames her sister for taking her place when she was born, and the comments hit a nerve with a traumatised Rose.

Later on, Dee Dee and Ant let their horrified parents know that Rose has run away.

 Alex Fletcher, who plays Diane, said: "I'm so excited. We've got so many exciting storylines ahead and it's going to be good to get back some family stuff with some some gritty realism. We've already started and it's been really, really nice.

"We were all thrown into the deep end with the story of Rose going missing, but it starts up something quite big for her as a character. She's gorgeous, she's such a gorgeous little actress and she's going to be great. It's been quite Rose-centric and it's been good to get our teeth into something as a family.

"Because they are a little bit older, there's a little bit more scope as to what we can do. We've got a storyline that's going to be a bit of a slow burner. We're gonna be telling some big stories, which I am really excited about."

Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.