Sanderson takes hit for Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks newcomer Nikki Sanderson has revealed she gets slapped for real during a fight scene on the soap.

The former Corrie star plays Mitzeee Minniver's troublemaking sister Maxine, who gets a far from warm reception after arriving in the village five years after running off with her sibling's fiance.

"She just turns up and expects a cuddle - let's just say she doesn't get a cuddle," Nikki revealed.

Things are set to flare up between the pair, culminating in Mitzeee (Rachel Shenton) striking her sister.

"I said to Rachel to actually slap me, because I feel with a slap sometimes it can look really eggy if you move your head and you've not really been hit.

"I said to her, 'Don't give it 100 per cent, maybe 50 per cent!'"

Nikki - who played hairdresser Candice Stowe in Corrie - said her glamorous character will try and swindle everyone when she arrives in Hollyoaks next week.

"They've given me such a wonderful way of coming into the show, it's fantastic. She just literally lands in the middle of Hollyoaks and decides to pretty much con everybody that she meets on the way through," she said.

"She's just come back from Marbella, where she sold the bar she had with her boyfriend over there, took the money and ran. She's come to Hollyoaks to find her sister, which was quite arrogant of her really because five years earlier she stole Mitzeee's fiance, and that's who she moved to Spain with, and then she comes back expecting to be welcomed back with open arms by Mitzeee."