Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks fans are convinced they know who shot Tony Hutchinson after he was left fighting for his life on his wedding day
Angie Quinn Screen Time Reporter
10:15, 26 Oct 2025
Tony fell to the floor after being shot in Hollyoaks(Image: Channel 4)
In a shocking turn of events on Hollyoaks, Tony Hutchinson was shot on Wednesday (October 22) episode, leaving viewers in suspense about his fate.
The drama unfolded during a crossover episode with Brookside on Channel 4, where a plane piloted by serial killer Jez (Jeremy Sheffield) crashed into the village, causing a massive explosion.
However, the chaos didn’t stop there. On what was supposed to be his wedding day to Diane (Alex Fletcher), Tony (Nick Pickard) found himself confronted by Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor Dawson) for having an affair with his wife Nancy (Jessica Fox).
Darren was livid upon discovering that Tony is the biological father of his daughter, Morgan, following a past fling with Nancy. Their heated argument was briefly interrupted by the plane disaster, but quickly resumed, much to the dismay of Tony’s son, Ant Hutchinson (Brook Debio).
Adding to the confusion, Tony believed he had got Marie Fielding (Rita Simons) pregnant, only to find out she was wearing a fake baby bump. Meanwhile, Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe) was also expecting his child, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Tragedy struck when Mercedes lost her baby in the aftermath of the plane crash. Tony had left her trapped under debris as he rushed to save Marie, a decision that will haunt him.
Diane (Alexandra Fletcher) stepped up to rescue Mercedes, mirroring how Mercedes had previously saved her. Now, both Mercedes and Diane are furious with Tony – Mercedes for her heartbreaking loss, and Diane for her groom’s reckless behaviour.
In a later scene, Darren was seen in tears as he pointed a gun at Tony, who pleaded for his life. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed from behind Tony, and he collapsed to the ground after being shot.
Now, Tony’s fate hangs in the balance.
Hollyoaks viewers are now speculating about who could have shot Tony, with some suggesting that his own son Ant might be the culprit following their earlier disagreement.
One fan took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to ask: “So…Who shot Tony? My guess is Ant! #Hollyoaks.”
Another declared: “I’m calling it ant was the one who shot Tony! He was pretty mad at his dad #hollyoaks.”
A third joined in, saying: “My early theory for who shot Tony in #Hollyoaks: It was Ant!”.
“I feel like Ant was probably the 1 that shot Tony #hollyoaks”, another viewer added.
Hollyoaks airs Monday to Wednesday on E4 at 7pm and first look episodes can be streamed Channel 4 from 7am
When he first started spreading the word about Waymond Jordan, Mike Bennett figured the film would speak for itself. The Escambia High coach had been in the South Florida preps scene long enough to know what he was seeing from his new running back.
“Just watching him run the football for the first time, he was amazing,” Bennett said. He figured scholarship offers would roll in soon enough.
Jordan had similar expectations. Since he first picked up football, at 4 years old, he’d always told himself that he’d play at a big school, on the biggest stage. He’d come to Escambia as a senior with that in mind.
But in 2021, four years before Lincoln Riley and USC would see that same star potential, other college coaches, for whatever reason, weren’t paying much mind.
USC running back Waymond Jordan carries the ball during a win over Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday. Overlooked earlier in his career, Jordan has become a key piece of the Trojans’ offense.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Given where Jordan stands today — the top running back on one of the nation’s top rushing offenses through two weeks of the college football season — plenty of them probably regret that now.
“Every coach in the country, I sent stuff to,” Bennett said. “I mean, everybody. I sent it out to everybody.”
Some smaller schools monitored Jordans’ senior year at Escambia, keeping a close eye as he rushed for 1,225 yards and 12 touchdowns. A few schools said he could walk-on. But none of them extended a scholarship offer. Jordan couldn’t understand why.
Hutchinson Community College, a junior college in Hutchinson, Kan., was one of the only places to give him an opportunity. Hutchinson was a thousand miles from his hometown of Pensacola, and a world away from the major college football he thought he’d be playing. But the staff there knew Escambia well, and they believed in what they saw in Jordan’s tape.
If all went well with junior college, he could still get the Power Four offers he was looking for.
“He believed in himself. And he bet on himself,” said Greg Cross, the Hutchinson running backs coach. “And I would say he bet right.”
Cross figured it was a worthy bet then, before most anyone else. He could see on film that Jordan had a rare instinct for making defenders miss. In the open field, not many people could bring Jordan down on their own either. In some ways, his skillset reminded Cross a little bit of Alvin Kamara, who played the 2014 season at Hutchinson.
“But that wasn’t going to happen for him overnight,” Cross said.
USC’s Waymond Jordan stretches out to score a touchdown against Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
Jordan was by no means a finished product on arrival at Hutchinson. He hadn’t really learned yet how to take care of his body. He was out of shape. He needed to add muscle and change his diet. Plus, he struggled early on with pass protection.
Then his hamstrings started bothering him.
“I knew it was in the best interest for him to redshirt,” Cross said.
Hutchinson could afford to be patient with him. But it was a tough pill to swallow for Jordan.
“He went through a phase where he was kind of down,” Cross said. “We had a lot of talks. We would talk every day. I just wanted to keep him focused, keep him locked in, keep him motivated.
“So, me and him had a talk about it, and I said, ‘You can either let it get the best of you, or you can stay motivated and work 10 times as hard.’”
It was a formative chat for Jordan. Cross implored him to get serious about taking care of his body. He wanted him in the training room every day. They started tracking his meals. He began using the head coach’s YMCA membership.
From then on, Cross says, “I was grilling him, 24/7.”
He came back that second season looking like an entirely different player. He lost weight. He was stronger and more explosive. He had a full recovery routine.
But his hamstring was still acting up. Then, after appearing in two games as a redshirt freshman, Jordan suffered a minor fracture in his foot.
“It felt, to him, like he couldn’t catch a break,” Cross said.
He wore a boot for a couple of weeks. When he came back, he had to play through pain.
Even still, there were glimpses of what Jordan could be. Late in the season, in a game against No. 2 ranked Iowa Western Community College, Jordan broke out with two fourth-quarter rushing scores, one from 47 yards out, the other from 16, that helped put Iowa Western away. He finished with four carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns.
Hutchinson lost its next game to East Mississippi Community College and fell short of an NJCAA national title in 2023. But for Jordan, everything was trending upward that offseason.
“You really saw him take that next step,” said Drew Dallas, Hutchinson’s head coach. “It was just how quickly he was hitting the hole, how fast and confident he was playing. He’d trimmed down his body fat to hardly any at all. He was just this rocked-up ball of muscle who could see the field really well.”
That spring, as word got around, some smaller schools like Florida Atlantic and Florida International started asking about him.
By the end of that spring, Jordan had the scholarship offers he’d been waiting for.
Cross figured he would take the opportunity and run with it. And he wouldn’t have blamed him for doing so. In fact, he couldn’t remember anyone in his time at Hutchinson turning down an FBS opportunity to return to junior college.
But in Jordan’s case, he believed bigger offers could come.
“He told me that if I stayed, I would be able to come to places like [USC,]” Jordan recalls. “That it would all pay out in the end.”
USC running back Waymond Jordan cuts and changes direction while carrying the ball against Georgia Southern at the Coliseum on Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Jordan called Cross back with a decision just a few minutes after their conversation.
“When you leaving?” Cross remembers asking him.
“He says no, ‘Coach, I’m gonna stay. I know what I can be.’”
Cross was stunned at the time. Thinking back on that conversation, he laughs.
“He put it all on red, I guess,” he said.
But it took all of one week that season for Jordan’s bet to be vindicated. He rushed for 179 yards and two touchdowns during Hutchinson’s season opener on just 14 carries. That Sunday, Cross got a call from a coach at Michigan State. Was Jordan for real? Because, he said, they were watching closely.
It was “one phone call after another, every week after that,” Cross said. Jordan rushed for 174 yards the following week, then 175 yards and four touchdowns on just nine carries in Week 4. Over a two-week stretch in November, Jordan exploded for 348 yards and four touchdowns, prompting Missouri and Central Florida, two Power Four schools, to offer him scholarships.
He finally had the opportunity he’d been waiting for. So in December, just before the NJCAA playoffs, Jordan committed to Central Florida.
USC didn’t come into the picture until later that month, just as Jordan was named the junior college national player of the year. Other Power Four schools, like North Carolina and Mississippi, were already making their cases to Jordan. But USC had a connection to Cross through Doug Belk, the Trojans’ secondary coach.
USC didn’t necessarily have a need at running back, having already added explosive New Mexico transfer Eli Sanders to its class. But when Anthony Jones, USC’s running backs coach, spoke to Jordan on the phone, he came away convinced that “USC needed this young man.”
“Waymond checked all the boxes that we were looking for,” Jones said.
Hutchinson beat Iowa Western to win the NJCAA national title in spite of Iowa Western’s all-out efforts to bottle up the Blue Dragons’ star running back. Two weeks later, he was on USC’s campus.
As soon as Jordan called him during his visit to L.A., Cross knew he was committing to USC.
Nine months later, the same running back who didn’t have a single Division I offer as a high school senior was bursting out of the USC backfield, weaving through a crowd of defenders on his way into the Coliseum end zone, just like Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen and O.J. Simpson once did.
As he scored his first touchdown as a Trojan, Jordan looked up into the stands and saw his family.
He’d waited four sometimes-frustrating years for that moment.
“His patience, his perseverance really built him into something a lot bigger and better,” Dallas said.
“I think that’s as big of a part of his journey as anything.”
Arsenal are set to approach Crystal Palace for Eberechi Eze, Liverpool hold talks with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Manchester United reach agreement to sign Bryan Mbeumo.
Arsenal are set to approach Crystal Palace to discuss whether they can do a deal for England winger Eberechi Eze without triggering the 27-year-old’s £68m release clause. (Talksport), external
Liverpool have held talks with Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, 28, with the Frenchman meeting with the club’s representatives in Paris. (Footmercato – in French) , external
Brentford are considering a move for Ipswich Town and England Under-21 winger Omari Hutchinson, 21, as a possible replacement Mbuemo. (Standard), external
After holding initial talks in January, Chelsea have active interest in 21-year-old Manchester United and Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho. (TBR Football) , external
France defender Benoit Badiashile, 24, has been linked with Marseille but says he will be staying at Chelsea next season. (Footmercato – in French), external
West Hamhave added Liverpool’s England Under-21s duo, forward Harvey Elliott, 22, and defensive midfielder Tyler Morton, 22, to their list of targets. (Mail) , external
Manchester United have made contact with Lyon to ask about the availability of 30-year-old French midfielder Corentin Tolisso. (L’Equipe – in French) , external
Gabon international and former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 36, is set to leave Saudi Arabian side Al-Qadsiah and join French club Marseille. (La Provence – in French), external
Manchester City will sell England Under-21s midfielder James McAtee, 22, this summer with an eye on generating pure profit from a Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and Financial Fair Play (FFP) perspective. (Football Insider) , external
Wolves are close to agreement on a £15m deal for 27-year-old Fluminense and Colombia winger Jhon Arias. (Mail) , external
Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka has agreed to join Saudi Pro League side Neom SC, who have yet to finalise a fee with Bayer Leverkusen for the 32-year-old. (Sky Sports Germany), external
