10 Most Brilliantly Miserable Soap Christmas Moments

4. Clare Tries To Kill Max In Hollyoaks (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lclxMI9qhLM Clare was originally a friendly and likeable character upon her original appearance in Hollyoaks, played by Samantha Rowley, although she did play Max and OB against each other as they both fell for her almost as soon as they set eyes on her. Clare eventually chose to be with Max and at first acted very loyal towards him, however when Gemma Bissix took over the role of Clare, she revealed a much darker side. In the lead up to this disturbing storyline, Max caught Clare taking cocaine with Warren and after she convinced him it was due to her abuse as a child, Max took some of the drug as well to impress her, unfortunately suffering from a cardiac arrest upon doing so. During his time in Hospital, Clare found out about his £500,000 life insurance policy and decided to kill him and claim the money for herself. As soon as Max came out of hospital, Clare began tampering with his medication whilst also isolating him from his friends and family, before taking him and his brother, Tom, away to a trip near an icy lake. Whilst they are at the lake Max becomes much more ill and soon realises what Clare has done to him, but Clare is still one step ahead of Max and tricks him into believing that Tom has fallen into the lake. Max jumps into the lake, before it is revealed that Tom was alive and well all along, just as it seems Max might be doomed, OB arrives, punches Clare and saves Max and Tom from her evil grasp. A brilliantly executed murder plot involving one of Soap's most popular characters (Clare was voted Villain of the Year in 2007 and was also selected as one of the Top 100 British Soap Characters), this dark storyline proved that Hollyoaks could contend with the bigger, longer-running soaps and although the ending was happy to some extent, Clare was later released from police custody, only to eventually be arrested again in 2009. It was also quite fitting then, that Max did eventually in fact die, on his wedding day no less, when pushing Tom out of the way of a speeding car. Poor guy.