Rape storyline interviews

Earlier this week, EastEnders' Executive Producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and cast members Kellie Bright (Linda) and Matt Di Angelo (Dean) spoke about the research and production around the rape storyline that is shortly to unfold in Albert Square.

Why did you decide on this storyline for these two characters?

Dominic Treadwell-Collins: EastEnders has a history of telling big, important stories like this. I would say when EastEnders is on fire doing something like this, you can make the world a bit of a better place; you can change the world a little bit.

Last time when I and all the team were here we did the Whitney and Tony storyline, and a few young girls across the country put their hands up and said, “This is happening to me.” And I think a story like this - this is what EastEnders should do. But also it’s a good story. You can’t just tell an issue, you’ve got to be able to tell a brilliant story around it. And what I think is so powerful about this story is [that] it’s Greek in its origins; it’s biblical. Dean and Mick are brothers. They don’t know. Dean rapes his brother’s wife

What discussions did you have internally to make that episode as powerful as you can?



Dom: A lot. I mean this is going to go out at 8:00pm on a Monday night and you’ve got to be so, so careful. But we’re also EastEnders and we need push as far as we can, and so we had a lot of discussions. A lot was cut, because we thought it was too close to the edge. But I think that shot when Dean gets up and leaves the kitchen and Linda is kind of left on that table like a piece of meat is shocking and simple and powerful. Yet, if your child walked into the room, they wouldn’t know what was going on, which I think is also important.

We know that up to 80% of women are raped by somebody that they know, so was it important for you to reflect that in your storyline?



Dom: Yes. What has been very, very challenging about this story - and I think this is the most challenging story that any of us have ever worked on - is that you can’t be sensationalist. Yet you’ve got to keep the story going, and the easy thing to do is to make Dean a baddy. And that’s not what we’re doing.

In real life rape often happens with somebody the woman knows - it’s not a dirty old man in a mac - and that’s important. It was important to get a clever, young, attractive actor who is also known to the audience as well, playing his part in the storyline. Also in the magic world, rapists don’t go to jail; you don’t murder your rapist and put them under the patio.

How did you prepare Kellie and Matt for what was going to happen?



Dom: Kellie knew a while ago. It was very important to us that Mick and Linda would never cheat on each other, yet you cannot have the landlady and the landlord of the Queen Vic not having a very big story. We’ve known were going to be doing this story for a very long time and made the audience fall in love with the Carters. And then we’re going to start pulling the Carters apart. So Kellie and I went out for dinner and had a really long talk about it. And then Matt and I talked and argued! I think the problem often with these stories as well is that… the audience can get confused between the actor and the character. And that is something that we and Matt were very aware of. And so we talked it through, and if Matt had said he really didn’t want to do it we wouldn’t have done it.



Matt Di Angelo: I realised that when you’re involved in an institution like EastEnders - it’s been going longer than I’ve been alive - that’s incredible, and with that great kind of power is a genuine responsibility to address these situations and problems that women go through a lot. That is what pushed me over the edge; that I have that responsibility under Dom’s reign to address that situation. I feel honoured to take part in it. Dom said: “When you come back, I will challenge you,” and he really, really has.

Kellie can you tell me a little about what it was like to film? Were you given more time to rehearse and how did you get yourself in the right frame of mind?

Kellie Bright: We were given some extra time which was fantastic. Jennie [Darnell] is a director who likes to rehearse when she can, and we worked with her a little before we started shooting. It was actually the build up to the rape which was the tricky part of that episode actually. It was a closed set for the day we actually shot. We spent a day shooting less than two minutes of air time I would say, which is unheard of. Matt is a dream to work and I really loved filming with him.

We’ve worked really closely with rape crisis and personally that was very important to me. I learnt an awful lot that I didn’t know before. One of the things that I felt very strongly about after speaking with them is that people have a perception of what happens during a rape, and if it’s not violent and if the woman isn’t covered in bruises and beaten, then why not? Jennie and I talked about this; women in those circumstances are sort of expected to fight back - why didn’t you fight him off and why didn’t you try harder. Actually I think these are all the questions that Linda has in her head in the aftermath, and I think it’s a very natural response.

 I think actually what happens is a very physiological response and your body kind of shuts down… Your body does what its needs to do so you don’t get hurt in that moment. So, for a lot of women, they feel betrayed by their bodies. They don’t understand why they don’t fight back, why they don’t shout out. Why they literally sort of go limp and let it happen.

How do you feel about how this will change Linda’s character?

Kellie: It’s going to have massive repercussions. It does for women in relationships where this happens. Like I said before, it turns Linda into someone she doesn’t want to be. She starts lying to her best friend, making excuses for things. Obviously it affects their physical relationship. I think one of the most heart-breaking elements of this story is what it does Mick. And how he is affected by it all. He doesn’t know what’s wrong. He just knows his wife is not the person she used to be.

Dom: On a positive note, it does mean he calls up the amazing Maria Friedman, Elaine, who livens up the Vic and sings a little bit behind the bar!

Kellie: One of the questions I asked of Fiona from Rape Crisis in my first meeting with her was, “Do women get over this? Is it possible? Do you get past something like this if it happens to you?” And she said “What’s Linda’s history?” And I said, “Well, she’s had a lovely life. She’s got a happy marriage; she’s got three lovely children. Her dad died when she was young, but she’s not had great trauma, she’s not been abused.” So she said, “Then she will get over it. It might take a while, but she will bounce back.” And somehow that has given me a little bit of comfort, thought it all. One of the things I love is that it’s happened to Linda Carter - and that she is a strong woman. It’s important that we show that this happens to strong women and not just women that have suffered years of abuse, are in an abusive relationship or are in some way seen as weak, for whatever reason. But that this does happen to anyone, and it’s going to add something to her.

Dom: And the sad thing is that Linda has only ever been with Mick, and there are some lines coming in future episodes that are heart-breaking.

Does Linda come close to confiding in anyone about her ordeal?

Kellie: Yes. She comes close to telling a few people, but in true EastEnders style something happens and she doesn’t. That’s truthful as well. She wants to tell, but she doesn’t know how or where to begin; what to say. Going into the back-story of Dean and Linda, there have been those moments where Dean has touched her bum, he’s kissed her, she’s thrown him out of the pub one night when he was drunk - and she hasn’t told anybody per se about that. The first person she confides in about that is Sharon, who kind of throws it back in her face and tells her daughter. So then there are huge repercussions from that because then Linda is trying to convince Nancy not to tell her dad - because ultimately she doesn’t want Mick to lose it. Linda is always trying to protect her family. And ultimately I think she’s still trying to do that in the aftermath of this. It’s not really about her. She’ trying to do what she thinks is best for her children and her husband.



Linda doesn’t tell Mick, certainly in the immediate aftermath. Why does she not?



Kellie: I think they’re many stages to Linda’s post-rape self and initially there is shock which then leads into questions to herself about what has happened and why it’s happened. I think she feels a huge sense of guilt. And consequently realises that Dean sees it in a very different way so she is worried that’s she not going to be believed. I think she’s also scared of what will happen if she tells Mick and what he will do to dean and I think she feels like part of her is broken and I don’t think she wants to break him and its partly because she loves Mick so much that she doesn’t tell him because she doesn’t want to spoil what they have. Which is already spoilt for her but if she tells him then that really has then it’s gone. The worst thing for me, the saddest thing for me about Linda, is that it’s turned her into a person that she never was. She’s become someone she never thought she would be, which is a liar, and someone that is shut down in a certain way.

How do you think the audience will respond to the storyline?

Kellie: I think it will affect everyone differently. Everyone watches it from their own perspective; has their own opinion. And that’s how it should be, I think.

Dom: I’d so like it to make a bit of a difference. That’s important. But also it’s time for the audience to see Dean in a new light. An exciting and interesting light. And it’s also time for the audience to see how much these actors can do.

Matt: If one person watches this and says, “Do you know what, I saw how that played out and if that’s true life - I should say something...” Not just the women, [but] to the guys out there who are young and can get women, but are overly-forceful with it. And it’s happening so much. There’s this really grey area of consent and non-consent... For me, that was the part we were playing out that was different to the everyday rape stories you see on TV. Some people are going to want the obvious stuff. They’re going to want him to go to prison straight away, and they’re going to want him to get punished, but that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen. [And] if it changes a woman’s point of view and she speaks out and it puts the seed in some guy’s head: “I shouldn’t be doing this,” then job done.

How long will this story play out?

Dom: In real life a lot of people don’t get come-uppance. There will have to be a satisfying conclusion to the story, but it won’t be what you expect. It would be very easy to end it very quickly, and that’s not what real life is like. The easy and wrong way would be to bury him under the patio quickly; to have him arrested and taken off to prison. That’s not what happens. There aren’t trials. I would have liked to have done a big trial. But we won’t be doing a trial.

Matt: I think 80% of rapes aren’t reported and of the 20% that are reported, 2% are prosecuted and go to prison. How shocking is that? How scary is that?

Is Mick going to find out?

Dom: Mick has to find out. We’ve set it rolling that Mick has a temper, and we keep referring to Mick’s temper. And we have Danny Dyer there. [Dean} has raped Danny Dyer’s wife. He will find out. And that’s what we want to wait for – what will happen. All I’ll say is that we are rumbling towards Christmas.

The epsode ist set to be screened on BBC One next week.