Danny Valentine

Daniel "Danny" Valentine is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by David Judge. He first appeared in 2007 and made his final appearance in 2008.

Character creation

Background

Danny Valentine is the illegitimate child of Leo Valentine who first arrived in the village in September 2007, when his mother Valerie Holden drops him and his sister Lauren, off at the Valentine residence and demanded that Leo looks after them while she takes up a free holiday in Greece. Danny and Lauren were totally unknown to Calvin and Sasha, and it was not until his sister Lauren referred to Leo as "Dad" that they realised that Leo had been living a double life. Danny has shown to be extremely protective of Lauren and Sasha with her drug problems.^[1]

Casting

Judge's casting was announced on 13 August 2007.^[1] In a turn of events, the actor was sacked from the series on 10 July 2008, due to "persistent bad time-keeping".^[2] This mirrored a similar situation which cost Devon Anderson, who portrayed Danny's on-screen brother Sonny Valentine, his job in January 2007.

Storylines

2007–08

Much more than his sister, Danny adapted to his new family, becoming very friendly with Calvin forging a better relationship with him than he had with his younger brother Sonny. When Valerie decided to stay in Greece, the two planned to join her. However, when she said she would like to stay, he decided to stay in Hollyoaks, saying he was happier there. He showed interest in Mercedes when he attended Sarah and Craig's engagement party.

Danny befriended Justin and initially tried to get him to forget about Katy by going out and trying to find women. However, he soon realized Justin was only interested in winning Katy's affections back and tried giving him support by dressing up as a policeman to lead her to a table set out for a romantic dinner with Justin seated at it. However, this plan was unsuccessful. Danny then tried to convince Justin the Freshers Ball was the perfect opportunity to get Katy back, however this also failed when she thought he was having an argument with her new best friend John Paul, when he was actually trying to stop an argument between John Paul and Nancy. Danny tried getting together with Steph Dean after helping her fix a burst beer pipe at The Dog in The Pond, when she was working. As thanks she offered him a free drink, which he then insisted she have with him after her shift. She did agree to this, but only one drink which annoyed Danny when she wouldn't stay for a second. However, she promised Danny she would go for a drink with him anytime, which he tried to take advantage of the following day. When she agreed to go again, he began flirting with her and upset her by trying to say how his status would be advanced if he dated her. Eventually, this resulted in her finding Max and the two agreeing to go out.

When the hot water boiler in the Halls broke down, Jessica offered Danny £50 to fix the boiler. Despite telling her he had little experience fixing boilers he agreed to help. While examining the box, he noticed a hole which was causing the pilot light to go out. While Jessica's back was turned, he blocked up the hole with newspaper. Unfortunately, this caused a buildup of carbon monoxide. Later, at a house warming/welcome back party for Kris and John Paul, the gas caused everyone to feel ill. Danny left with Mercedes before the others began to lose consciousness. They went to the SU Bar and kissed and were interrupted by a phone call from Justin, saying that Katy had passed out as well as everyone else. They rushed back and Danny helped Justin pull everyone out of the room. Danny refused a lift from Darren, who suggested he ought to go to hospital to be checked, but Danny refused and ran off. Jess visited him the following day, suggesting that the two of them keep a low profile. However, Danny could not take the guilt and confessed the truth to Mercedes. Jacqui overheard, threatening to beat him up, but Mercedes told her to let him go. Later, Myra and Jacqui forced Danny into confessing that Jessica was the one who allowed him to fix the boiler. They then threatened to sue Jessica. A few days later, Myra took some money Jessica had been given by Zoe Carpenter, and this seemed to make the family forget about what Jessica and Danny had done.

Danny met Hannah at the SU Bar and both were instantly attracted to each other. With encouragement from Beth, Sarah and Nancy, Hannah went over to him and they swap phone numbers. They began with a passionate kiss in the bike sheds at HCC. One day while Justin and Danny were attempting to turn on the Christmas lights for the village, Danny was electrocuted and caused a blackout. He recovered almost immediately, and went to The Dog in The Pond with Hannah, Katy, and Justin. He joined the latter two in a drinking game which involved shoveling crushed crisps down their throat,with him not knowing about Hannah's struggling road to recovery from her eating disorder. When Hannah did not participate, he asked if she was on some kind of diet, which caused her to flee to the toilets. Justin forced a reluctant Katy to go after Hannah, and told Danny about Hannah's eating disorder. Katy comforted and encouraged Hannah,and told her she once knew a girl who also nearly died, finding friendship in each other, while Justin asked a shocked and confused Danny what he knew about eating disorders. When Hannah returned, Danny told her he supported her, and apologized for his comment and they made up. After, a bit of time to think, Hannah asked Danny out again and the two went to "Il Gnosh' were. Danny decided it would be romantic if they ate spaghetti and met in the middle like in the cartoon film Lady and the Tramp and held a forkful of pasta to Hannah's face. This reminded her of when her brother Josh had force fed her during her anorexia problems and she panicked and walked out. After making up, there was a further unpleasant surprise for Hannah when Danny's ex-fiancée, Michelle, came looking for him. It turned out that Danny had told Michelle he'd left to join the army because he was unable to break up with her any other way. Hannah managed to handle herself when Michelle called her "Barbie" but she was still upset and wondered what other lies Danny had told. The two later made up at Sarah's house party. Danny later dumped Hannah again because she was taking things too slow, Hannah was hurt by this and tried to accept it initially, but discovering that the real reason her Father Neville disliked Danny was because he was black Hannah chased Danny and got back with him. He soon backed out once more, dumping her again, causing her to have a relapse in her recovery from anorexia nervosa, this made Danny release that he wanted to be with her and support in any way he can, they got back together for good.

However, following a drunken evening at The Dog in The Pond with Nancy, Hannah was accompanied home by Darren. When she was fixing her top, Darren took an incriminating photo of her with his mobile phone, to try to convince Mercedes that he had slept with her; and win the bet that the pair had with each other. Mercedes did not believe him but sent the photo to Danny anyway, causing him to punch Darren, dump a bewildered Hannah - who had no memory of the photo being taken - and subsequently sleep with Mercedes, who used the situation to her advantage. Danny later left to go and find his mother in Spain.

Reception

Virgin Media opined that while he caused the odd disaster, Danny did have "a good heart".^[3]

References