Mel Burton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melanie "Mel" Burton was a fictional character on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. She was played by Cassie Powney. She was the daughter of Liz Burton and the twin sister of Sophie, who was played by Cassie Powney's real life twin Connie Powney.

1 Description
2 Character History
3 Family
4 Relationships
5 See Also

[edit] Description

Mel came to Hollyoaks in 2003 to attend Hollyoaks Community College. She was eager to escape her family, and was dismayed when her mum Liz, identical twin Sophie and brother Justin set up home in Hollyoaks. Mel did not get along with her new stepdad Richard Taylor.

Although nearly identical in appearance, Mel and Sophie had very different personalities. Mel was outgoing and spoke her mind, as opposed to the introverted Sophie. Although the two girls often fell out over minor disputes, they were still quite close.

[edit] Character History

Mel became an alcoholic during her time in Hollyoaks. She was totally in denial however, and rejected Liz's attempts to help her. Mel just saw her drinking problem as a normal student lifestyle of enjoying alcohol every now and again.

One night when she was drunk, Mel had unprotected sex with a stranger and feared that she had caught a sexually transmitted infection. Luckily, tests for STIs came back negative. Mel curbed her drinking problem to an extent after this traumatic experience, but she still hadn't overcome her alcoholism.

Serial date-rapist Andy Holt targeted the Burton sisters around Christmas 2005. He spiked Mel and Sophie's drinks with GHB after getting an invite to their house. Although Andy raped Mel that night, Sophie escaped a similar fate because Andy's fellow rapist Sam Owen decided that he couldn't hurt Sophie because he had genuine feelings for her.

After the rape, Mel and Sophie recovered from the drowziness of the drugs enough to piece together that Andy had supposedly raped them both, although they were still unaware that Sam had been involved. Mel and Sophie went to the police to make their accusations, but Andy disappeared before he could be charged. Tests by the police proved that Sophie had not been raped, causing friction between the sisters as they wondered why only Mel had been raped.

Turning once again to alcohol to block out her problems, Mel fell into a drink-induced coma on New Year's Eve 2005. While she was in hospital being treated, Mel admitted to Liz that she had been raped.

Mel developed a friendship with her former boyfriend Sam "O.B." O'Brien and he offered her a job at the nightclub he was managing at the time, The Loft. Mel didn't get along well with O.B.'s fellow manager and best friend Max Cunningham, and developed a rivalry with Max's girlfriend Clare Devine.

When Liz kicked Mel out of the house due to her extreme alcoholism, O.B. offered Mel a place to stay at his house, where Max and Clare were also living. Clare schemed to get Mel kicked out, and framed Mel for accidentally getting Max's young brother Tom drunk due to negligence.

Mel finally decided to get professional help for her alcoholism. She had her drinking problem under control.

Mel, along with Sophie, used to live with Louise Summers after Liz moved away and sold the Burton house. She was unemployed for a short while but had just been given her old job back at the salon.

On the 8th of September 2006 Mel, along with others including sister Sophie, died in an explosion at the pub The Dog in the pond. It was caused by Sam, Nicole and Russ' brother. The escaped convict was out to kill Mel's sister Sophie for trapping him with the police. Mel's charred" body was seen at the scene, but Sophie was dragged out by Russ to the church where she quickly collapsed and died herself of smoke inhalation.

The Irony of Mels Death is that she managed to quit drinking only to end up dying in a pub.