Stephanie Waring reveals Hollyoaks stunt week filming secrets as a crane collapse causes chaos

Unconscious Breda is in hospital but Tone is still trapped in the back, unable to raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, volatile Luke Morgan hit the bottle after discovering that baby DJ was his son, not Darren Osborne's, and recklessly seized control of the crane to try and move it only to make it topple over, eventually falling onto the florist where Mitchell Devereux and lover Scott Mitchell were having a secret liaison.

And just for good measure, Nancy and Darren Osborne are trapped underground.

The building site of Cindy's 'Grand Bizarre' covered market is now a disaster zone – does this mean the Cunningham cougar is to blame for this whole business?

"Yes, pretty much!" Stephanie Waring, aka Cindy, grins to RadioTimes.com. "I suppose the machinery wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Cindy's plan to build her empire. She has pushed through the regulations for the project, despite it not being safe to be built on. But Cindy is impatient and wants to get things moving and cut through the red tape.

"So part of the blame does lie with her, but not fully. Luke's the one who takes control of the crane and that's when the chaos starts – but I guess the machinery wouldn't be there in the first place if it wasn't for Cindy…"

What was it like filming stunt week?

As one of Hollyoaks' longest-serving cast members, Waring is thrilled to see Cindy at the heart of the annual stunt storyline. "The last time I was this heavily involved in stunt week was the bus crash at Cindy's wedding back in 2012," she recalls. "That was very intense. Actually we used the same director, Paul Riordan, for this week so I knew we were in good hands.

"It was great working with all my old friends Sarah Dunn (Mandy), Gary Lucy (Luke), Ashley Taylor Dawson (Darren) and Ellis Hollins (Tom), it felt very nostalgic. I love that core group being together, we play off each other really well and they write well for those characters.

"And having my old Dancing On Ice mate Jake Quickenden guesting as Woody the builder was great fun, he slotted in really well and made us all laugh.

"We were in our own little stunt bubble as we didn't really work on anything else for the whole summer. One of the biggest challenges we had was the weather," she continues. "We had a lot of rain! The stunts are such a big undertaking and it takes a lot longer to shoot than a regular episode, but it's all broken down into individual sequences.

"The crane swinging in the air took about half a day to film and it's only on screen for minutes. When you read the script you wonder how they're going to do it, so it's interesting to see it unfold.

"And it's not as dangerous as it looks as it's all special effects and clever filming – the magic of Hollyoaks keeps us safe!"

Can Cindy and Luke's relationship survive?

It's not just the soap's set that is destroyed, the burgeoning romance between Cindy and Luke is also in tatters now that he knows she colluded to keep the secret about DJ. Presuming they both survive stunt week, and can curb their mutual self-sabotage habit, does Waring think there's any hope of a long-term relationship now?

"They have a lot of baggage but are actually good together. After losing Dirk, Cindy is ready to settle down again. She is inherently selfish but when it comes to true love, she'll do anything to keep that special person in her life.

"I feel like they should've been together all along. As for Luke being DJ's real dad, Cindy got told that and it wasn't her secret to tell. She thought she was doing the right thing keeping it from him.

"So while there's a lot of stuff to be put to rest before they can move on and be together properly, I think it's heading that way. As long as they stay away from cranes in the future!"

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