Nancy Hayton
Nancy Osborne is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Jessica Fox. The character first appeared on 6 July 2005. Since the character's inception she has been involved in many notable storylines such as a love triangle; coping with the death of her sister Becca ; marrying Jake Dean ; drug abuse; domestic violence; being the victim of two attempted rapes by Jake and Finn O'Connor ; marrying Darren Osborne ; suffering a miscarriage; prematurely giving birth to Darren's son, Oscar Osborne, who is deaf; an addiction to painkillers; a highly-publicised storyline where Sienna Blake attempts to steal Darren and her family away from her; getting brain damage after an attack from Sienna; an affair with Rick Spencer ; and a fling with Rick's son Robbie Roscoe. Her later storylines have seen the character be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; discovering Darren's affair with her friend Mandy Richardson, leading to the couple's separation; a relationship with Kyle Kelly ; miscarrying Kyle's baby after being stabbed; and dealing with Kyle's suicide. In the character's early stages, she was portrayed as a less conventional character compared to the rest of the Hollyoaks teenagers. Fox left the series on 23 March 2023 so she could go on maternity leave, and she returned on 15 January 2024. On 22 October Nancy along witb many other Hollyoaks characters appeared in the anniversary episode that crossed over with former soap Brookside.
Character creation and casting
Nancy was created as the younger sister of Becca, who arrives to visit. The character was initially only intended to feature in three episodes. Auditions were held for the role with actress Jessica Fox securing the role. Fox auditioned for the role and was given the part. She began filming the next day for which she said she was "completely underprepared" for and "scared out of witts". She was initially contracted for three episodes but on Fox's second day of filming, she was given more scripts and asked to stay on longer which she agreed to, before she was again given more scripts. She has since remained on the serial. Fox extended her contract in January 2012 and predicted that the year would feature Nancy's "biggest storyline" so far.Development
Characterisation
On Nancy's personality, Fox described her as different from other Hollyoaks girls, dubbing her the "anti-Hollyoaks girl". She said that Nancy has "always got some kind of bitchy comeback for everyone". She explained that Nancy "says that you don't have to be the skinny blonde or the skinny brunette, you can be the one who does whatever the hell she likes". After the character had gone through certain transformations, the actress spoke about these changes saying: "Nancy's gone full circle and she's had the chance to become a whole character, rather than just one who has no end of tragedy and no end of silly affairs". Fox has said that her character is "a control freak. Nancy has very definite ideas of what she wants and what she doesn't". She added that Nancy is "a bit posh and stiff" and "uptight" but that she can get "really wild" when she has "had a few drinks". Fox has described Nancy as "a bit of a moral compass for the show. She knows what's right and she's often the voice of that. I think that's a really good role for her, and it's quite an important one. I think it's quite good to have a strong, intelligent woman in the show". She added that Nancy "has a very short fuse and loses her temper quickly".On Nancy, E4's official Hollyoaks website say: "they say good things come in small packages and that's definitely the case when it comes to Nancy, the feistiest fun-size female in Hollyoaks. Nancy has been determined to establish herself as a career woman - though she hasn't always been sure what career". A Channel 4 official Hollyoaks website states that Nancy is vibrant and eccentric" and feisty". What's on TV described Nancy as "fiercely protective of her quirky appearance" and as having "a tough personality". They added that the character "has weathered the numerous tragedies in her life". Holy Soap describes the character as "cool and independent and a total mess".
Nancy's hair has dominated her many styles and she has had several different hair colours. When asked about her character's "crazy" hair styles Fox revealed that the ideas for the styles are a collaboration of her own ideas and the production teams': "I had a brown bob forever and I was sick to death of it, so when we came out of the Jake storyline last year, they wanted to change the image. They asked me if I wanted to dye it any colour, so I thought 'let's go red'". Fox said that her initial Hollyoaks image featuring green hair was "definitely not a good look". She added that during her tenura Nancy has had a "few hair disasters", especially the in between stages when she "went back to black from red and then to blonde". She said that since her character has been through so much she no longer feels it necessary to "desperately shock" everyone with her hair styles as she has had to grow up and evolve. Fox said she enjoys Nancy's style which has "evolved" as she has "been a Goth, she's been a New Romantic and now I like to call her Dusty Springfield on acid! It's a bit Duffy, a bit ’50s-style, and now I’ve got the red hair it gives us more to play with". Fox added that "one of my favourite things about being in a soap for a long time - I do get to change my image a lot". She said that she enjoys the feedback she receives from her style changes and when her latest style was aired and she had "cut it into a short bob, I got so many tweets from people - some negative, but mostly positive thankfully". She said that she would be open to changing her image in future. Fox has also commented on Nancy's large tattoo on her back, which she deemed to be "too masculine". Fox said that when she was initially on the serial she found it "great to be different" but felt that it was difficult playing the "alternative" character of Nancy when her colleagues were such "gorgeous, glamorous women". The tattoo has since disappeared. Of the character's dress sense the Hollyoaks wardrobe department said "Nancy Hayton has a unique distinctive look on Hollyoaks. She wears rich colours and vibrant patterns, which compliment her slim shape".
Introduction and drug abuse
Nancy arrives in the village to visit Becca. Bastian told a reporter from Inside Soap that "Becca's flabbergasted when Nancy turns up!" The pair have not seen each other for some time and Nancy has changed. Nancy is a punk and more "strong-willed" than Becca remembers her. The actress added that Nancy is nothing like Becca. Her arrival gives Becca someone to confide in with her relationship with Justin Burton.Nancy forms a relationship with former tattoo artist Foz. The relationship sees her becoming dependent on him mainly because he was a hippy and free, which at the time represented everything Nancy stood for. During her relationship with Foz, the character begins abusing drugs. Fox revealed how her character's longing to fit in with people like Foz who were different from the rest of society, ended with her taking drugs to be different from others but the same as the hippy scene. Fox spoke about this saying: "I think Nancy's character is very strong, she's opinionated, but if you take all that away she's still very young particularly then, at the time of the drug storyline she was 16 she still wanted desperately to fit in even though she told everyone she didn't. At that particular party she was at she was surrounded by all these people who were traveling, really into their music, they had the life style that Nancy wanted, and she just desperately wanted to fit in at the end of the day, and that's what happens she took LSD and it went horribly wrong".