Hollyoaks to get '24' treatment?

Hollyoaks could be about to get a makeover in the style of hit US show 24, according to reports.

The soap's producer Bryan Kirkwood is apparently keen to try out a week's worth of real-time episodes - possibly featuring an in-depth storyline for police officer Calvin Valentine, played by actor Ricky Whittle.

Bryan is said to be in talks with Channel 4 about the idea.

"If any show can play with the construction of the episodes then it's Hollyoaks," he told the Daily Star. "We have toyed with the 24 notion as well. Anything's possible."

Bryan added that the soap was the only one on TV that had a format flexible enough to be changed in such a way.

"We're quite keen to start doing the occasional one-off episode that stops the story and we delve into a character's background," he told the paper.

"Because of the rattling pace we tell stories, it's sometimes easy to forget where the characters have come from and why they're behaving the way they are."