| Character Profile | List of appearances |
Brian Edward Hutchinson was the widower of Charlotte Hutchinson, the ex-husband of Victoria Hutchinson and the father of Tony, Verity and Eva Hutchinson, and Eric Foster.
Biography[]
1970s-2019: Life Before Hollyoaks[]
Brian Edward Hutchinson, a businessman, married Victoria Reilly. The pair had a son, Tony Hutchinson, in 1977. In 1979, Victoria had an affair, resulting in her giving birth to another son. Despite putting her and Brian's names on the birth certificate, Victoria gave the baby to her sister Diane Reilly, who named the baby Dom. Brian was very obsessive over the family's finances, a trait which Victoria disliked about him. His business and finance-oriented ways influenced Tony, who aspired to follow in his father's footsteps.
Victoria eventually grew tired of her boring marriage to Brian, and left him for Tony's best friend Finn in March 2000. The ensuing divorce was bitter, with Brian evicting Victoria and literally cutting their belongings in half to honour their divorce agreement. Tony desperately attempted to reconcile his parents, to no avail, losing contact with his father afterwards. In March 2001, Brian married Charlotte Hutchinson, having had two children - Verity and Eric - beforehand. He also decided on a career change, and ultimately became a surgeon.
At some point between 2011 and 2018, Edward took Verity, Eric and a pregnant Charlotte on a private plane ride. However, the plane ended up caught in an unforecast sandstorm. Edward struggled to regain control of the plane and it ultimately crashed. Saving Eric and Verity, Edward went back for Charlotte but the plane exploded, resulting in the death of Charlotte and their unborn baby. Afterwards, Eric cut Edward out of his life as Edward had been abusive throughout his childhood.
2019-2020: Arrival[]
Edward arrives in the village.
Edward arrived in Hollyoaks in October 2019, visiting Tony's wife Diane Hutchinson after learning of the death of Tony's son Harry Thompson. As Tony had gone missing, Edward decided to care for Diane himself. Whilst in the village, Edward attempted to make friends in the village, 'helping' Cindy Cunningham with her business by killing the rare bird that had been holding up construction. However, he took a dislike to Diane's son Finn O'Connor, who had just been released from Longmere Prison after serving a sentence for rape. In November 2019, Edward began working at Dee Valley University Hospital as a senior surgical consultant.
Edward began plotting against Finn, researching into Finn's past and convincing him to crash the grand opening of Salon de Thé de Marnie to apologise publicly to his victims. As Edward knew, this backfired tremendously. However, Yasmine Maalik found a news article that revealed that Edward was the prime suspect in Charlotte's death, which Finn showed Diane. Edward retaliated by having Nancy Osborne and John Paul McQueen (who had just returned from Singapore) tell Finn that they didn't want him in the village anymore. Seeing that Finn left the village, Edward then gifted the handbag Finn was planning to give Diane for Christmas.
During Harry's funeral, Grace Black played a recording that heavily suggested that Mercedes McQueen was involved in his death. Combined with the struggle of Tony telling her through a phone call that she was leaving her, Diane struggled to process everything that had happened and ended up sleeping with Edward. A few weeks later, Edward's daughter Verity Hutchinson arrived. However, a fire at Stone Mount Farm revealed that Tony had been kidnapped by serial killer Breda McQueen, who had also murdered Harry. Edward attempted to help Tony with his psychological struggles and told him about his long-lost siblings, making Tony ask Edward to stay in the village.
2020: Fighting for Diane and Death[]
Edward locks Tony in the pig farm.
Edward was left jealous when Diane looked set to reconcile with Tony, making Tony realise that Diane had moved on whilst he was kidnapped. He then befriended Marnie Nightingale, who was left smitten by him. After being unable to convince Tony to stop seeing his psychologist, he tried to ruin Tony's life by trapping him in the bathroom, causing him to have a panic attack at work, and make him believe that he wasn't being a good enough father and husband. As Tony continued to struggle, Edward locked Tony in the pig shelter of Stone Mount Farm, releasing him when he found a photo of his family and told Edward about his ordeal. However, after returning home, Tony discovered that Edward and Diane had been seeing each other whilst he was kidnapped and turned on them.
Verity returned to the village in March 2020, having briefly arrived in January to meet Tony but deciding to wait until his condition improved. Verity discovered that although Edward had embarked on a relationship with Marnie, he was still jealous over Diane and Tony's relationship. After Tony evicted him, Edward decided to tamper with Tony's prescription medication, causing him to experience a change in personality. Verity later attempted to reconcile father and son, but Tony collapsed at the family lunch. Edward told the family that he had a brain tumour and convinced Tony to let him operate. Afterwards, Verity came across Tony's medical file and discovered that the operation had secretly been cancelled, with Edward convincing her to keep quiet.
Edward dies on Christmas Day.
After Tony's surgery, Edward began injecting Tony with testosterone (lying that it was blood thinners), which made Tony become aggressive. Diane ended up splitting with Tony, reuniting with Edward who had since ended his relationship with Marnie. Edward began making Diane look like Charlotte, which Verity realised. Verity also realised that Edward had been drugging Tony, but he blackmailed her into keeping quiet. As he faced losing Diane, Edward attacked her, framed Tony, and kept Diane into a coma until he could leave England with her and her children. However, consultant Misbah Maalik discovered that Edward was giving Diane sedatives. Verity and Diane worked together to bring down Edward, who wanted to confess to Tony before going to jail. As Edward poisoned one of Tony's mince pies, they ended up inadvertently being switched by Tom Cunningham. After confessing his plan to his family, Edward realised he had been poisoned and died of a brain haemorrhage in the snow.
2020-2022: Aftermath[]
After his death, Edward was cremated but the Hutchinsons refused to give him a funeral. The family planned to scatter Edward's ashes in the local pond, but Verity snapped and poured them down a stormwater drain. In Edward's will, he left his whole estate to Diane, but Diane rejected it. She then discovered that she was pregnant and a scan revealed that Edward was the baby's biological father. Tony and Diane decided to raise the baby as their own, and Eva Hutchinson was born in June 2021. In March 2022, Eric arrived in the village, revealing that he had changed his surname to "Foster" to distance himself from Edward.
Kill Count[]
Murders[]
None
Attempted Murders[]
- Diane Hutchinson, 8th December 2020 - Beaten with a briefcase to prevent her from exposing his crimes to Tony Hutchinson.
- Tony Hutchinson, 23rd December 2020 - Poisons a mince pie in an attempt to kill Tony, but these are accidently knocked over by Tom Cunningham and Edward finds the pies but ends up consuming the poisoned pie himself.
Appendices[]
Residences[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| 3 Oakdale Drive, Flat 4 | October 2019 to 23rd December 2020 |
Employment History[]
| Job | Duration |
|---|---|
| Businessman | Until prior to 2019 |
| Surgeon | Until 23rd December 2020 |
Background Information[]
- In May 2019, it was announced that Joe McGann had been cast as Tony Hutchinson's father.
Introduction Sequence[]
- 2019-2020: Edward attends a party outside The Hutch with the Hutchinson family.
Quotes[]
| “ | I heard about Harry Thompson's death in the newspaper. My condolences, Diane. | ” |
— First line
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| “ | Ladies… and gentlemen… the final… denouement. | ” |
— Final line
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