David "Bombhead" Burke

Infobox soap character
series =Hollyoaks



name=David 'Bombhead' Burke
portrayer=Lee Otway
first=2001
last=2005
born= July 22, 1985
occupation=Student

David "Bombhead" Burke was a fictional character on the long-running Channel 4 British television soap opera "Hollyoaks".

He was played by actor Lee Otway between 2001-2005.

Initially the character was known as David Witherspoon.

Character History

Bombhead was Lee Hunter's best friend, and was introduced into the series as a schoolfriend of Zara Morgan, Cameron Clark, Norman Sankofa, Abby Davies and Lee Hunter. Slightly odd, socially inept and occasionally stupid, but with a heart of gold, David frequently misunderstood other characters to comic effect. Bombhead liked to cook. He became somewhat of an apprentice to Tony Hutchinson, and worked in Il Gnosh. He was close friends with Gordon Cunningham, who was a father figure to him. He was devastated when Gordon and his wife, Helen, were killed in a car crash and briefly became a Christian.

When Bombhead's mother died, David suffered a mental breakdown. Unable to accept her death, he continued to act as if she were still alive, doing her dry cleaning and cooking her meals. David's only form of comfort during this time was a recurring hallucination of Gordon Cunningham, who would offer advice and try to convince Bombhead to accept what had happened and ask his friends for help. Cameron had noticed something was wrong with Lee and wanted to help him in return for Bombhead helping him when he attempted suicide. Cameron tried to get David to open up but he refused.

David's mother's body was eventually discovered by his friend Lee. Lee had gone round to the house thinking it would be empty so he could have sex with his friend Stacey Foxx. Stacey sat down on Mrs Burke's body and screamed. Realising what had happened, Lee and his mother Sally convinced Bombhead to move in with the Hunters. After his mother's funeral, Bombhead stopped seeing visions of Mr Cunningham.

After his mother's death, Bombhead spent considerable time trying to track down his father, a person he only knew through letters his mother had hid from him until her demise. After much effort, it became apparent that he would never succeed. It wasn't until Lee decided to hire a collection of clowns as a fundraising exercise for students at HCC that David would finally meet his father, a clown, of which ironically Bombhead had always suffered an irrational fear.

Bombhead's friendship would finally come to an end when Lee was turned against him by the evil machinations of Chris Fenwick, although once he found out what Chris was up to, Lee made up with Bombhead. David decided to leave Hollyoaks and join the circus to live with his father. Bombhead mattered so much to Lee that after Lee's hearing over diverting college funds, during which Chris used Bombhead's joining the circus against Lee, he punched Chris square in the face, saying, "This is for Bombhead".

ee also

List of past characters from Hollyoaks