Sophie Burton

Sophie Burton
Hollyoaks character
Portrayed by Connie Powney
Duration 2003–06
First appearance 3 November 2003
Last appearance 8 September 2006
Classification Former; regular
Profile
Occupation Beautician

Sophie Burton is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by actress Connie Powney. She first appeared in 2003 with on-screen family, the Burtons, including twin sister Mel, who was played by Powney's real life twin Cassie Powney.

Storylines

Sophie arrived in Hollyoaks in 2003 as the twin sister of Mel, along with their mother Liz and brother Justin. Sophie was the more outgoing twin (although she was sensible with it) and Mel often felt inferior to her. On her arrival, Sophie took on a beauty course at Hollyoaks Community College where her sister Mel already attended. Mel was unhappy as she felt Sophie would get more attention than her and always felt like the shadow of Sophie. Despite Sophie always trying to make her relationship better with her twin sister, Mel often made it hard. Most of the time, Sophie would be in-between her mother and Mel’s arguments as Sophie would be the peacemaker. Frequently, Sophie supported and helped her siblings through their troubles, as Sophie herself never was involved in any nuisance. She was also supportive of her mother Liz's new partner Richard Taylor, despite Justin and Mel feeling uneasy at his arrival, Mel Burton fell in love with Michael Lane but he sadly left the village. Sophie began dating student Joe Spencer, but it didn’t last for too long as she discovered that Joe was going to dump her and dumped him instead. Sophie also briefly dated Max Cunningham after initially going on a date with his friend O.B. who became Mel's boyfriend.

Sophie became friends with Sam Owen who started to fancy Sophie, but unbeknown to her Sam had recently started date raping girls after prompting from his friend Andy Holt. During Christmas 2005, Andy targeted the Burton sisters as his next date rape victims. After getting himself an invite to the Burton house and spiking both girls' drinks with GHB, Andy offered an unconscious Sophie as a present to Sam. Although Sam was tempted due to his strong feelings he had for Sophie, he found himself unable to go through with the rape because he didn't want to hurt the girl he loved. Although Sophie escaped a sexual attack that night, Mel was raped by Andy. The next morning, when Sam and Andy had long since fled, Sophie and Mel recovered from the drowsiness of being drugged and pieced together what had happened to them. They both went to the police claiming to have been raped by Andy, although tests proved that Sophie had not undergone any sort of sexual abuse. The fact that Mel was raped when Sophie wasn't caused some friction between the sisters. Sophie turned to Sam for support and soon started falling for him. She began a relationship with Sam, unaware of his part of the rapes. After Andy's death, Sam had little choice but to confess his crime to Sophie because he loved her and wanted to run away with her. Sophie tricked Sam into turning himself in by saying she would stand by him until his release. As soon as Sam had come clean to the police, Sophie had her own confession for Sam when she told him she could never forgive him for letting Andy rape her sister Mel.

Gradually Sophie managed to put Sam behind her and began to work at the newly opened salon Evissa as she was hired as an assistant for Sean Kennedy. She also found an unlikely friend in Russ Owen, Sam’s brother, as the pair both had something in common, being betrayed by Sam. Things didn’t get any better for Sophie as she was briefly sacked after false allegations made by Mercedes McQueen that Sophie had injured her during a treatment, but was later reinstated after Russ got photographic proof that she was faking it. From the moment Mercedes arrived in Hollyoaks she and Sophie were immediately enemies. Also Sophie, along with Mel, moved in with her friend Louise Summers after a brief spell of being homeless when Liz left Hollyoaks and sold the Burton house. Meanwhile, Sophie's feelings grew stronger for Russ and she eventually told him how she felt, but was left devastated when he told her that he was dating Mercedes. Things went from bad to worse as Sam escaped from prison, which again brought Russ and Sophie closer together. This time the pair ended up sleeping with one another and began to date, but Russ was secretly still seeing Mercedes.

Sam had returned to the village and was told by his sister Nicole that his brother was dating Sophie. Sam then forced Nicole to tell him where Russ and Sophie were. She told him that they were at the local pub The Dog in The Pond - in fact only Sophie was there (with Mel and OB) as Russ was having sex with Mercedes. Sam headed to The Dog in The Pond and dramatically set fire to the pub. Sophie tried to escape but Sam tried to strangle her. Mel then jumped on Sam in an attempt to pull him off her. Russ arrived and pulled Sophie out of the burning pub. In her final moments Sophie was concerned about Mel as she couldn't find her. Sophie then died in Russ's arms after suffering from smoke inhalation. Mel also died in the fire. Some months later, when Justin overheard Clare Cunningham taunting OB by saying Mel and Sophie's deaths were "two for the price of one", an enraged Justin pushed Clare off the balcony of The Loft. Warren Fox was accused of the crime, but acquitted, thanks to the testimony of Mercedes, who had been sleeping with Warren at the time Clare was pushed. A disgusted Russ, who had by that time married Mercedes, told her he would have been at The Dog in The Pond with Sophie if not her luring him away for sex, and that he blamed her for Sophie's death. Also in 2008 Leila was trying to be a fortune teller on Justin and said there was a blonde girl from beyond the grave calling out for him. He took it angrily, she didn't know Sophie and Mel had died and apologised.

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