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- "Enjoy the Ride" is a storyline from the British soap opera Hollyoaks, broadcast between 12 and 16 November 2012 on Channel 4. The storyline focuses on the double wedding of Tony Hutchinson (Nick Pickard) and Cindy Cunningham (Stephanie Waring) alongside Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) and Doug Carter (PJ Brennan). Jono (Dylan Llewellyn) and Ruby Button (Anna Shaffer) plan to elope to Gretna Green so Maddie Morrison (Scarlett Bowman) steals a minibus. Bart McQueen (Jonny Clarke) and Esther Bloom (Jazmine Franks) plan to stop the wedding. They momentarily distract Maddie, causing her to swerve off the road. Maddie is unable to stop due to the minibus' faulty brakes and crashes into the venue of the double wedding, endangering the wedding party and the occupants of the minibus. The minibus later explodes, causing further danger for the characters. The storyline was announced by the Daily Star on 21 October 2012. They reported that the disaster is the biggest in Hollyoaks yet. Steven Roberts, who plays George Smith, said that after the crash "no one will be the same, everyone is going to be affected by it in some way". To promote the storyline a televised advertisement was shown, featuring clips filmed specifically for the trailer. It revealed no details about the plot and was instead about the subtext of the storyline. Filming took place on location at Knowsley Hall, which Pickard described as a "very grand setting for a big Hollyoaks disaster". The scenes were filmed over a full week with two days dedicated to the stunt sequences. The filming of the stunts used dummies and stunt doubles and employed a mix of CGI effects and live action. It was initially reported by Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy that "at least two characters are expected to be killed off in the momentous episodes, but their identities will be kept closely under wraps until transmission". When the scenes aired, four regular characters were killed off in the disaster: Neil Cooper (Tosin Cole), Maddie Morrison , Rhys Ashworth (Andrew Moss) and . The identities of the characters to die remained secret from the public up until the moment of transmission. Moss and Bowman said that they found it difficult to keep their exits a secret. Moss said he wanted his exit to remain secret so his death "came as a shock" while Bowman felt if better that the exits were not announced as "to build the suspense and the shock". Reception of the Enjoy the Ride storyline was positive. Inside Soap critic Sarah Ellis opined that the storyline treats viewers to "everything you could possibly want from a soap", including drama, "moments that will make you gasp with shock as something completely unexpected happens" and "heartbreak as we're forced to say a premature goodbye to much-loved characters". All About Soap journalist Kerry Barrett said the episode in which the minibus crashes is one of the best episodes of Hollyoaks she has seen due to the "brilliant mix of terror, shock, surprise, and even a bit of humour". Anthony D. Langford from AfterElton.com said he "really enjoyed" the storyline, saying that "Soaps rarely have big splashy events and this soap delivered ... Soaps usually don't do action scenes well, but the car accident, following by the explosion was terrific. They were well shot and suspenseful and you really were on the edge of your seat seeing who would survive".The episodes achieved high ratings for the serial. The first episode's E4 broadcast achieved the highest ratings for a Friday episode of Hollyoaks in more than two months, while the fourth episode achieved the highest Hollyoaks' ratings for an E4 broadcast of 2012. (en)
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