Exclusive: Hollyoaks stars reveal months of secrecy over Cindy and Imran

Hollyoaks spoilers follow.

Hollyoaks bosses have been secretly working on Cindy Cunningham and Imran Maalik's shock romance twist for months.

Stephanie Waring and Ijaz Rana, who play the unlikely pairing, revealed the behind-the-scenes details as they spoke to Digital Spy about their unexpected new storyline for the first time. You can see the full video chat at the top of the page!

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Wednesday's episode (14 October) saw Imran reach out to Cindy for help after leaving Lucas Hay for dead following a frightening showdown.

The bombshell scene resolved a long-running mystery, revealing Cindy as the ex-partner Imran hasn't been able to get over.

Asked by Digital Spy how long she's known the truth for, Stephanie laughed: "Oh, for months! I found out about three weeks after returning to the show – and it was a surprise, to say the least, that I was going to be involved with Imran!

"I was surprised. I did wonder how it was going to work and what the storyline was. We didn't find out until a lot later, when we got brought into the producer's office and they sat down and told us the scope of it all. It was very, very exciting and I couldn't wait to get started."

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Ijaz added: "I think Imran's always had a crush on Cindy, from the get-go! But to find out that they'd taken it a step further whilst they were off screen, it was a nice surprise because it meant that I'd get to work more with Steph."

Fans can now look forward to an unmissable episode on Monday (19 October) as Hollyoaks bosses fill in all the blanks.

A flashback special explores how Imran and Cindy reconnected in LA and how their relationship developed from there.

We'll also get some very surprising insights into how things have progressed for the two of them since they've both returned to the village, shedding new light on recent ambiguous scenes and mysteries.

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Steph admitted: "It was very complicated when it was explained to us! There was a lot of filming flashbacks of certain things, before we even got started on the LA episode.

"It was like 'this is all going to make sense soon!' I found that really tricky to get my head around. I was like: 'Where is this going to go? When is this revealed?' Then when we got the LA episode, that's when it all fell into place for me."

Ijaz agreed: "But it was nice to see the puzzles all [come together]. Because it's written so well, and the story is so nicely connected, it helped as well because we were trying to figure out what our characters had got up to whilst they were off screen. Then they put the backstory into place. That's why I keep a spreadsheet!"

Steph laughed: "He does have an Excel spreadsheet, which is very nerdy but we'll just go with it!"

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Digital Spy has already had a first-look screening of the episode and can promise that it answers a whole lot of questions. But where on earth do Cindy and Imran go from here?

Ijaz told us: "It was lovely working with Steph. She is brilliant. Altogether we just had a really good vibe and chemistry."

Steph concluded: "I really enjoyed my time working with Ijaz. I really hope we do get more scenes together. He's professional, talented, and I was really surprised at the chemistry that our characters did have."

Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release.

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