When Julie Clapham's son, Charlie, landed the role of Freddie Roscoe in Hollyoaks, it was obvious it would change his life. But she never really considered that it might change hers as well.
Freddie, who has been on primetime TV for well over a year now, has become one of the soap's most popular characters, thanks to storylines including a will-they, won't-they affair with his brother's girlfriend, a kidnapping and the whodunnit shooting of his drug dealing, murdering and all-round bad guy stepfather, for which he was later revealed as the killer.
So when the fan mail started coming, not long after his first appearance on screen, it wasn't completely unexpected.
It started with a letter, sent to Charlie's agent and then forwarded to his family, from a young girl in Ireland. She wrote to say she suffered from anxiety and that watching Freddie deal with his problems helped her cope. The second came from the mother of twins who had autism, who said there was something about Freddie that made their faces light up when he appeared on screen.
The letters from girls with crushes also poured in. But the majority were, and still are, from people who say Freddie has helped them in some way.
With Charlie often working on set from 7am to 9pm, he simply hasn't got time to reply to them all himself. But Julie, who lives in Humberstone, Leicester, has taken it upon herself to make sure every single one gets a response.
"When he first started, I remember that first letter. The girl said she focused on the character of Freddie and that it made her more positive,'' says Julie. She said it was because he was not a bad guy, really, and that he always managed to pull through any situation.
"After that, Charlie told me they would keep letters for the cast at Lime Pictures (where Hollyoaks is filmed, in Liverpool). I went up one weekend and there was a massive box for Charlie, full with about 800 letters. I was expecting about 50, at the most.
"I took it home with me and I took a weekend to open every letter and read every single story and some of them were just heartbreaking. There were some that really touched me. It's a strange world out there. People are willing to share so much with their idols, even things they've never told anyone else."
As Freddie's popularity grows, the higher the pile of post every morning.
Now, Julie reads and replies to about 600 letters a month, going through them all at Kazbah, the tattoo and piercing shop she runs with her husband, Martin, in the city centre.
"We actually now employ someone to help as it just became too much for one person, that's how many we get," she says. "We've made him a space upstairs, above the shop, and he does 18 hours a week. We open all the mail and see what kind of letter it is, and we have different letters that Charlie has written to send back.
"If it's a girl asking for a signed picture, we send a signed picture with a copy of a letter from Charlie. If the person needs a bit more help, we'll respond differently. Charlie wants it to be done properly, he doesn't like the idea of letters being left unopened.
"Not all are asking for signed pictures. Some people just want him to know how much they love him and the show. Some people ask for advice on acting.
"Charlie was chubbier when he was younger and a lot of his fans know that, and that he lost a lot of weight. Some fans ask about that, and ask for help about being bullied. It's become a sort of agony aunt thing.
And they come from all over the world. Last week, I think we sent 18 replies to America, because Hollyoaks is on a subscription channel over there. It's gone crazy."
Julie says the support from fans is very important to Charlie, who remembers what it was like worshipping his own idols growing up.
"People have a choice and they choose to follow Charlie and be a fan. We want to be able to say thank you, we don't want to ignore anyone.
"I know it's hard for the actors themselves. Charlie does such long days. I'm sure it can happen that some might take fans for granted. But to some of these fans, it's a lot bigger than a TV show. They see the characters as their friends, their allies. These kids, they really relate to what's happening on the show.
"Charlie gives them as much time as he can. The way we see it is that you need all the help you can get in life to get anywhere and if we can help then we're more than willing.
"We keep a record of everyone we've sent letters and pics to, we've got a database. And when a new picture or something comes out, I put it up on Twitter to see if people want one sending."
Charlie will now often receive free gifts, from companies maybe hoping for a tweet (he has more than 140,000 Twitter followers) or Instagram picture to promote their brand.
Most of these are now being sent to fans.
"Well, Charlie doesn't really need most of it," says Julie. "We always say thank you, but it's nice to give them to others. And they really appreciate it.
"Fans send him gifts as well, but obviously we keep those. You know those little plastic bracelets? Loom bands? We had more than 100 in two weeks. He gets teddy bears, T-shirts, underwear – men's underwear, for him, as a present – and bottles of vodka. For his birthday, we had 14 cakes brought to the shop.
"Someone actually asked what he did with his hair when he has it cut. But we're not sending hair out."
It's strange, says Julie, thinking of her son as a celebrity, a heartthrob for thousands of teenage girls.
"He's got groups of Twitter followers who will support him wherever he goes. We've got people who just come outside the shop to get pictures with the sign, even when Charlie's not there. They just want a picture of Charlie's shop.
"He did a personal appearance recently and me and his dad went with him and it was just crazy. We couldn't get out of the car as there were screaming girls all around. It's a wonder his hand hasn't fallen off because of all the signing he's done."
Charlie, who is very close to his parents, comes back to Leicester all the time to see friends and help out in the shop.
"He loves coming back, he always gets such an amazing response," says Julie. "He'll often get: 'Hey, Freddie! Why did you kill Fraser?'
"We were in Tesco a couple of weeks ago and a little old woman said to him: 'I love you Freddie, but you're turning into such a naughty boy.'
"He's made such amazing friends up in Liverpool but he comes home all the time. We've got a pretty big family in Kazbah. I love every minute of all of this and I'm so proud of him. "I think back to when he was about seven and saying he wanted to be an actor and now he's doing it, the job he always wanted to do."
Info: Watch Charlie in Hollyoaks, weekdays at 6.30pm on Channel 4.
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