Nancy’s home! But the couple can’t rest for long (Picture: Lime Pictures)

Soap fans are at odds over most things – we can’t always be on the same page, that’s simply no fun – but one of the few things we can all agree on is that Hollyoaks isn’t the same when Darren and Nancy Osborne aren’t together.

Hallelujah and praise the soap Gods then, as Jessica Fox’s comeback scenes air next week, and show stalwart Ashley Taylor Dawson sat down with Metro.co.uk for a chat about the viewer love for the couple and the absolute chaos that’s coming up.

Nancy, as viewers will recall, left Chester for the US last year to try and get the best treatment available for baby Morgan, who had been diagnosed with a heart condition.

Darren resolved to stay in the village and keep things running in her absence but it’s been a traumatic year for the mainstay, who has struggled to cope without his beloved soulmate by his side.

So, order is about to be well and truly restored. Well, to an extent anyway, as Ashley told us that there is no real time for them to be re-acquainted, with Darren’s twins about to land into their lives.

Here, the Hollyoaks icon tells us what’s to come and reflects on show’s new era as a whole.

Are you excited to have some familiar faces crashing into Darren’s life?

It’s great, I love it. This place, as cheesy as it sounds, is like a big family. And that family gets detached a lot! It’s nice to get people back, there’s been quite a few recently!

There’s been Suzanne Hall (Suzanne), Emma Rigby (Hannah) and also Darren’s kids have now been cast and they’re great. And obviously Charlie Clapham (Freddie) – didn’t see that one coming! (laughs)

You just don’t know what’s going to happen. I knew the kids would come back and haunt him one day and I was like, don’t bring them back age four and five, it’s nice now they’re older to get something out of them and really enjoy performing with them. And having Charlie back is amazing – some of my happiest years here were when we were all there, so it’s great.

Ashley is delighted to be working with Charlie Clapham again (Picture: Lime Pictures)

Are you looking forward to the scenes Darren and Freddie will have together?

At the moment, we’re quite in the dark about what’s going on, the first scene we have, Darren’s like: “what you doing back!?” It just kicks off as and when, I don’t know much more about where their relationship goes, the what, the why or the when. Apart from it being a lovely shock and I hope the viewers will reciprocate that.

I think nostalgia is good for the show, there have been so many strong characters over the years. Some people nip back then go – Claire Cooper was back recently for those crazy scenes that were just like a perfect bit of madness – it’s nice to do things like that as it feeds the show. People who have been watching for years want to see that kind of thing.

Are you excited for the show to be leading the way with the digital first way of viewing?

Eventually, everyone will go that way – going into the business side alone, it’s efficient. My problem with it all really was having E4 as the first look, why would you ever watch the Channel 4 show?

They kind of shot themselves in the foot doing that – people always want to see the next bit, you want to watch the latest one and so you’re splitting the viewing figures. Now, we have a more substantial place on a channel, that’s where we are and we are also streaming – it will bring the show back to where it needs to be.

Our producers now are fantastic. Hannah [Cheers, co-executive producer] was here in the heyday when we were winning all the awards, including the first Best Soap in 2014.

Things have been hard without Nancy (Picture: Lime Pictures)

And Angelo Abela [co-executive producer] has been here throughout the years and has been a director here too, so it’s really helpful having someone here on the floor who knows the visions and is able to put them into practice, as it isn’t always that easy.

So we have the perfect balance up there, it’s the happiest I’ve been here in a long time. The show is going in the right direction, with the right stories and so many good characters – and they are making very bold decisions and a show like this needs that. So it’s exciting!

Does it feel like a fresh era?

Purely because I understand the people behind the beast, Hannah’s a massive advocate of the show, it’s her baby as well. I have top confidence on what she believes and how she tackles it and, with Angelo, it’s a perfect yin and yang. It’s a big job, a lot of pressure so it’s helpful having two people there.

The show has been through a lot of ups and downs but I definitely feel that it’s on a big up now and I am excited for the future. And these decisions, storylines, characters coming back – they’re being made overnight like, bam, we’re doing it, let’s go.

That’s the way soap should be, it should have that pace and I think that sometimes gets lost. It’s kind of going back to basics – but doing it even better.

Are you loving having Jess [Fox, who plays Nancy] back?

Jess had been away from Hollyoaks for maternity leave (Picture: Getty)

It’s great – it’s been a houseful of lads for a year while Darren’s been losing his head. I’ve been working with Jess now about 20 years, and we’ve been together most of those – married three times! You become like a real-life couple, we know each other inside out and it’s very easy to work with.

There’s always a great vibe on set with the family. Charlie [Behan, who plays Charlie] has been incredible this year, some of his scenes have been absolutely outstanding.

There’s a kid who’s never done drama school or anything, he literally learnt on the job – he was three when he started here. He’s just a beautiful guy inside and out – his performances have shown that and I am proud of him

How do we find Darren and Nancy’s relationship?

It’s straight out of the frying pan and into the fire! He’s been struggling with money but Hannah turns up with the kids out of the blue. They don’t get time to settle back into their lives or relationship in any way as they’re immediately hit with this wall of chaos. It’s great, you have all these characters mixing in, it’s a cauldron of bonkers and it’s great!

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How does it feel for the couple to have such an amazing following?

It’s great, and it’s something we have always fought for with producers, you can’t split them up. They’ve been married three times now, we’ve had the affair, done this, done that – it’s become that they need to be THAT couple that go through absolutely everything, pull them apart, and seeing how they are going to get through it. Viewers respond well to that I think.

Life isn’t easy, having a relationship isn’t easy, having a family isn’t easy – a lot of people respond to finding these things tough because it’s real.

It’s all very well having these storylines with car crashes and everything, but when it comes to it, everyone can relate to the emotions of going through certain things and Darren and Nancy have always had that family life, which is a struggle.

You can read the full interview with Ashley in our exclusive and free soaps newsletter – sign up here or in the box below.

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‘Out of the frying pan, into the fire!’