\'Hollyoaks\' star Gregory Finnegan has hinted James Nightingale will have a "pretty dark" Christmas.
The 39-year-old actor - who first appeared on the Channel 4 soap three years ago - has suggested his alter ego will be struggling over the festive season as he tries to come to terms with his on-screen boyfriend Harry Thompson death after serial killer Breda McQueen (Moya Brady) stabbed Parry Glasspool\'s character.
Speaking to the Mirror Online, Gregory said: "Romeo and Juliet are really looking forward to a proper family Christmas but it\'s not gonna go quite to plan.
"Certainly for James, he gets embroiled in some pretty dark goings on and makes a bit of an exit.
"It\'s not gonna be the family Christmas they\'re hoping for but it never is - hopefully there\'s some cheer on the way."
The soap star admitted he would love his character to expose Breda\'s gruesome reign of terror over the village, but he insisted he has no idea if James will be involved.
He added: "I don\'t know how Breda, if she meets her end, I don\'t know if I\'m involved.
"I certainly hope so but the queue is very long at this point. If he found out that she killed Mac [Nightingale] he\'d be high-fiving her!"
Meanwhile, Gregory\'s alter ego is a suspect in the show\'s Who Shot Mercedes storyline, and he only found out he would be caught up in the drama when he and his co-stars had to have a series of promotional pictures taken for the plot.
He told BANG Showbiz: "We got called in to do a photoshoot and I didn\'t know what it was for.
"So I was like, \'What\'s all this?\' They said, \'It\'s for the Who Shot Mercedes story,\' and I was like, \'Oh, great, OK. Am I part of that then?\'
"I had a meeting with Bryan [Kirkwood, exec producer] the next day and he spelled out what my involvement would be.
"We all got pulled in individually because he wanted to keep the circle tight, so it doesn\'t get revealed before it has to."
