Ali Taylor

Alistair "Ali" Taylor was a fictional character on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. He was played by Luti Fagbenle and appeared from 2003 up until 2005.

Character Discription

Ultra sensitive and caring, Ali arrived as part of the Taylor family with his father Richard and sister Darlene, but was unsettled when he had to move with his father’s new partner Liz and with her children, Justin, Mel and Sophie.

Character History

Immediately, Ali had a clash of personalities with Liz’s son Justin as the pair did not get on. However, things got worse when on Liz and Richards wedding day Justin found out that his father had not died due to a heart attack as he had been told but, had committed suicide because he was under stress at work. Finding out the truth about his dads death lead to Justin beginning to smoke marijuana. Ali, therefore, found it hard to be around him as the pair shared a bedroom.

At school Justin started hanging out with a lad called Steven Mackintosh (AKA Macki) who sold the marijuana to Justin. The two boys became friends and together with Macki's gang they messed around all the time in class and caused there fellow class mates to suffer for their behaviour. During all this Ali was bullied by both Justin and Macki, but as an intelligent and sensitive child, Ali's natural response to this was to ignore the bullying. Ali then made friends with new girl Nicole Owen.

Back at home Ali tried to tell both Liz and Richard how he couldn't live with Justin, little action was taken and it got out of control when Justin pushed Ali’s sister, Darlene, through a window. This led to Darlene having a scar and Justin being sent to a boot camp. When Justin returned, Ali could not forgive him, despite Justin’s trying to tell Ali that he had changed for the better. Eventually, Ali began to believe Justin as the pair began to get along better. Ali started to develop feelings for Nicole, but he never managed to tell how he felt about her as she had fallen for Justin. Despite Nicole fancying his step brother Ali's relationship with Justin became stronger.

Meanwhile Ali and Justin's friendship had not gone unnoticed by Macki, who had became angry that Justin didn't want to hang out with him and his gang or buy drugs of him anymore. Macki started to bully Justin and Ali. Ali suffered racial abuse and was called names like Monkey boy. Despite confiding with his sister Darlene, the pair still could not shake of Macki's bullying as it got from bad to worse. In the end it got so bad that both Ali and Justin would not even step outside their house and Justin bought a hunting knife for protection. The knife was found by Ali's dad, Richard who put it in a safe place.

Ali then reached breaking point as could not confide in his parents or teachers and decided to take matters in his own hands and it was Ali's unrequited crush on Nicole that eventually proved his undoing. After Nicole rebuked him for being a coward, Ali took the knife, that Richard had confiscated from Justin, from its hiding place and seeked out Macki alone. Ali went looking for Macki and challenged him to a fight, Macki led Ali to a deserted area and whilst Ali's back was turned picked up a brick.

Meanwhile Justin and Darlene found the knife missing and went looking for Ali. The two split up and Justin saw Ali, just as Macki was about to swing the brick. Justin quickly yelled at Ali to watch out and as Macki was about to hit him with a brick, Ali managed to turn around just in time and as an act of self defence Ali stabbed and killed Macki. Justin then ran up to Ali and told him to give him the knife and run home whilst he would deal with the knife. Scared by his actions, Ali ran in fear as he ran straight out into the street and was hit by a car. Darlene reached Ali just in time to see the accident happen and rode with him in the ambulance.

Later in hospital both Ali and Macki died, and Justin hide the knife in the hospital toilets. When Justin went back for the knife a few days later he was arrested by the police who had already found the knife. The police accused Justin of murdering Macki and he was charged for it. Justin went to court and told everyone that Ali had stabbed Macki in self defence because of the bullying. With video evidence of Macki's gang tormenting Ali as well as Darline admitting that the bullying had got out of hand the Jury found Justin not guilty.

Trivia

• Luti Fagbenle is now a film producer running a media production company called Luti Media Ltd.

Family

• Father: Richard Taylor - Left Hollyoaks
• Step Mother: Liz Burton - Left Hollyoaks
• Sister: Darlene Taylor (Older) - Left Hollyoaks
• Step Brother: Justin Burton
• Step Sisters: Sophie Burton - (Deceased)
  and Mel Burton - (Deceased)

See Also

List of past characters on Hollyoaks