mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, Denise Fergus, condemned the storyline and when interviewed by Click Liverpool, she criticised the decision to air a plot without consulting her first. Channel 4 released a statement defending the plot, but it was abandoned soon afterwards. In December 2009, Hollyoaks became the first British soap opera to air a 'flash forward' episode whereby the storyline looked six months into the future. The episode focused on the second wedding of Calvin Valentine (Ricky Whittle) and Carmel McQueen (Gemma Merna). It also saw Calvin's murder, starting a six-month-long whodunnit. 2009 also saw the first time in the history of Hollyoaks that it received praise from reputable broadsheet newspapers, being The Times and The Guardian who claimed the soap had become compelling viewing. 2010s Leila Roy was written out after Kaur decided she wanted to work elsewhere from serial drama. Mike Barnes left after Tony Hirst decided he wanted to try producing plays. It was announced on 15 January 2010 that Paul Marquess would succeed Lucy Allan as the series producer. His first episode was broadcast on 5 July 2010. Marquess then announced he wanted to take the serial back to its roots and change the way its stories are told. In February 2010 he axed three characters, Josh Ashworth (Sonny Flood), Suzanne Ashworth (Suzanne Hall) and Neville Ashworth (Jim Millea) as well as replacing three of the soap's leading producers including, Henry Swindell, Caroline Roby and Rachel Hall who were replaced by Trina Fraser and Claire Fryer. In the same month it was announced that former Emmerdale actress Sheree Murphy would join the cast as Eva Strong, the biological mother of Anita Roy (Saira Choudhry). This was his first signing since becoming series producer. Stephanie Waring (who plays Cindy Hutchinson) then revealed that all remaining cast members feared their character would be axed. In March, Marquess axed further characters, including Sasha Valentine (Nathalie Emmanuel), Lauren Valentine (Dominique Jackson), Leo Valentine (Brian Bovell), Zak Ramsey (Kent Riley), Spencer Gray (Darren John Langford), Archie Carpenter (Stephen Beard), Jake Dean (Kevin Sacre), Dave Colburn (Elliot James Langridge) and Des Townsend (Kris Deedigan). Nico Mirallegro who plays Barry Newton and Gerard McCarthy who plays Kris Fisher, both quit to pursue other roles. Marquess decided to write Loretta Jones out after he felt there was nowhere left to take her as a result of her child murder plot being rewritten.