{"id":22639,"date":"2022-09-26T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1707928"},"modified":"2022-09-26T10:19:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T08:19:11","slug":"jeff-rawle-hollyoaks-writers-have-pushed-silas-to-another-realm","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/jeff-rawle-hollyoaks-writers-have-pushed-silas-to-another-realm\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Rawle: \u201cHollyoaks writers have pushed Silas to another realm\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Johnathon Hughes\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 26 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Last seen on screen in January 2021, sinister serial killer Silas Blissett has been lurking in the shadows of Hollyoaks grooming grandson Bobby Costello into inheriting his murderous mantel.<\/p>\n

Much of this has been done remotely, with Silas and the impressionable schoolboy conversing off-screen via email and through online games of chess, his favourite pastime (other than killing people for fun).<\/p>\n

Now the gruesome granddad is ready to strike and against the backdrop of Hollyoaks\u2019 latest stunt week, which sees an explosion ripping through the village carnival, Silas returns to take Bobby from tiger mum Mercedes McQueen and turn him to the dark side\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting Bobby has overtaken every other priority for Silas,\u201d smirks Jeff Rawle, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/strong> about reprising his villainous role. \u201cHe\u2019s older and has become more desperate in his dotage, he has a feeling that maybe on his way out and there is a sense of passing on his work and preparing Bobby from afar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I come back it always surprises me to learn Silas has carried on being evil, often through cajoling someone to do bad things on his behalf, and he\u2019s still influential in the background, despite not actually being in it. Silas never really leaves the stage. But this is his big, final push and he\u2019s determined Mercedes won\u2019t slip through his fingers \u2013 she\u2019s the one that got away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mercedes and Silas in Hollyoaks<\/span><\/figcaption> Lime Pictures\/Channel 4<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The cat and mouse capers between Silas and arch-enemy Mercedes stretch back over a decade during the villain\u2019s first wave of terror, where his MO was bumping off young women to punish them for being what he perceived as \u2018promiscuous\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mercy cheated on Silas\u2019s grandson Riley with his dad Carl (Bobby\u2019s father), which put her straight to the top of Mr Blissett\u2019s hit list back in 2011. Despite numerous efforts over the years, and across many reappearances, finishing off Mercedes has always eluded him, so his latest comeback is fuelled by the double motivation of finally making her his victim and stealing her precious son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant they\u2019ve kept me alive,\u201d smiles Rawle, as affable and warm in the flesh as his alter ego is creepy and cold. \u201cSilas has managed to escape every time, and I\u2019m always happy to return to such a great job, I love the crew and everyone here. And the beauty is I\u2019m not tied down, often in a soap you effectively become part of the furniture but with this particular character he can drop in and out: that\u2019s his strength as a player, you never know when he might return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rawle is practically soap royalty thanks to Silas, but Hollyoaks is not his first brush with the genre. \u201cAt one point I might\u2019ve gone into Coronation Street to work behind the bar at the Rovers Return,\u201d he divulges. \u201cMy mum would\u2019ve loved that, she never missed an episode. She passed away a couple of years back and I remember watching the first black and white episodes as a family, we were enslaved to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusie Blake, who I\u2019ve worked with a lot, usually playing husband and wife, was in it some years back (she played Bev Unwin for three years from 2003) and it was mooted I might go in while she was there. It\u2019s appealing to do a soap for a bit, I think in your lifetime as an actor you can afford to do one. The disciplines are different to anything else, but the acting remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rawle\u2019s 40-year career is packed with high-profile stage and screen credits including appearances in Doc Martin, Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders and the Harry Potter franchise \u2013 he was Cedric Diggory\u2019s dad Amos in the fourth movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.<\/p>\n