Hollyoaks is to explore stranger violence towards women in a new storyline, run in partnership with the Home Office.
The Lime Pictures soap will focus on character, Maxine Minniver, who walks home alone after a night out and is attacked. The following episodes will see her examine whether she could have made different choices and subsequently realising that she wasn’t to blame for the attack.
“What happens to Maxine in town that night is completely relatable and a situation that will be recognisable to many women,” explained Executive Producer Lucy Allan.
“She is alone and worried and tries to find the safest way to get herself home. Maxine does everything that women do either instinctively, or have been told to do, to keep herself safe from harm.
“Across the week it will be made clear to the audience that the onus should not be on Maxine to keep herself safe, We will also, through discussions between our characters, explore the role that other people can take in intervening in abuse and influencing peer behaviour”
The episodes are accompanied by on-air continuity announcements to direct viewers to support pages.
“We’ve called the episode The Long Walk Home, but in reality the theme of the piece is essentially ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’,” said Hollyoaks core team writer Jayshree Patel.
“Ours is a positive message – girls need to enjoy their lives, they want to go out and be free to live as joyously as they can.
“It’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that this can happen. In truth it should not be a lot to wish for…”
Lime partnered with the Government’s ‘Enough’ campaign tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) for the episode and also worked with Rape Crisis throughout the editorial and filming process.
“All too often, men and boys are left out of the conversations on women’s safety,” said Rape Crisis CEO Jayne Butler.
“The onus is on women to think of ways to keep themselves safe, rather than addressing the root cause of our fear: violent men.
“This episode of Hollyoaks highlights how the narrative that by taking certain actions we can avoid rape and sexual abuse is completely false.
“We know that many victims and survivors struggle with self-blame, asking themselves what they could have done differently or what more they could have done to stop it.
“That’s why it’s so important to clearly show that women are not responsible for preventing sexual violence against them, and that the only person responsible for sexual violence is the perpetrator.”
