Hollyoaks legend exit confirmed after nine years and final scenes have been filmed

Hollyoaks legend Annie Wallace is leaving the Channel 4 soap after playing fan favourite Sally St Claire for nine years.

The 59-year-old actress was told earlier this year that her character had been dropped and her final scenes will air next week.

Show bosses have been forced to cut its weekly output from five episodes to three, starting from September 9, and among the jobs being cut are some of the show's beloved characters as some families leave the village when the action moves forward one year.

In upcoming scenes, Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) struggles to control a motorbike as she attempts to escape the clutches of her abusive partner Abe Fielding (Tyler Conti).

She ends up going through the market and crashing into the front of the McQueen's house. Inside are Sally, Marie Fielding (Rita Simons), Jack Osborne (Jimmy McKenna), Suzanne Ashworth (Suzanne Hall) and Frankie Osborne (Isabelle Smith).

The fallout of the jaw-dropping stunt is yet to be revealed but it has been confirmed that several villagers will their lives in danger.

Speaking about leaving the show, Annie said: "We were really on the up until this bombshell hit in February that none of us were expecting.

"The whole company has reeled from it and nobody has been untouched by it, whether they are working there or not. Friends have gone, family have gone and it's been an extraordinary purge. There's a lot of healing to be done and a lot of licking of wounds.

"I didn't have any intensions of leaving and up until this bombshell. There was no incline it was going to happen."

Since making her debut in 2015, Sally has been at the centre of some gripping storylines, including being revealed to be the biological parent of John Paul McQueen (James Sutton).

Whe