Jennifer Metcalfe admits Hollyoaks changes have put her under 'financial pressure'

Jennifer Metcalfe admits the recent 'Hollyoaks' changes have put her under "some financial pressure".

The 41-year-old actress - who has played Mercedes McQueen on the E4 soap since 2006 - has reflected on the impact of cuts, including the number of episodes being slashed to three a week.

She's quoted by the Daily Star newspaper's Hot TV column as saying: "The show changing has brought some financial pressure.

"I'm a single parent looking after a little boy. It's been a tricky time."

As well as cutting the amount of episodes, bosses have also axed more than 20 regular cast members, with the likes of Steph Waring, Annie Wallace and Ellis Hollins all leaving.

Jennifer admitted the mood on set has been "really sad" seeing a lot of her friends "leaving each week".

She added: "The change of the show has been tough. It's been really sad at work.

"I've been on the show for 20 years and the reason I've signed every year is because it's like a family. There has always been such a buzz around on set.

"It's full of best mates. But recently people have been leaving each week. It's been really heavy. It's sad the amount of people that have gone."

Ellis - who played Tom Cunningham from the age of three - is pleased that he got to bow out of the show alongside his on-screen sister Stephanie Waring when the pair of them fled the village following a dangerous showdown with a gangster,

The 24-year-old actor told Digital Spy: "It was a bit of a whirlwind, although a lot of my scenes were spaced out in terms of the schedule. It wasn't that busy towards the end of my filming days, but I knew what was coming so I was still anticipating my last day.

"It was really nice that I could see Tom had come full circle and hopefully deliver on his exit. It was a lot, but I'm finally coming down from that now.

"I hadn't worked with Steph Waring [who plays Cindy] for quite a while. So if Tom has to leave, it's nice that he's doing it with the family that he's got left.

"I'm very glad that they didn't kill Tom off. Obviously that leaves the door open for potential adventures for Tom in the future – I can't say that wouldn't be great."