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Soaps

Soaps deal with everyday issues that affect people. They often raise issues such as illness, prejudice or addiction. It is important that they do so in a responsible way.

Each storyline and character is meticulously researched to ensure they accurately reflect the realities that people face. We often work with charities that provide specialist advice to ensure social issues are portrayed in a realistic and convincing way.

When a particular issue features prominently in an episode, we display a charity helpline number at the end of the programme which viewers can call to find out more about the issues or to seek support. These help lines often receive a high volume of calls after the episode is aired and ITV often provides financial support to help the charities recruit more call centre operatives to handle this increase.

Coronation Street

Coronation Street continued to feature the character Peter Barlow’s ongoing problems with alcoholism and the effects on his family. The programme highlights the powerful and destructive nature of the addiction, as the character failed to give up alcohol, even after causing a fire when drunk that nearly killed his son. We contacted charity Alcoholics Anonymous to ensure the scripts accurately portrayed this issue.

During the 2009 Christmas special, character Sally Webster revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The launch of this storyline followed meticulous research and close collaboration with charities Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Genesis and Breast Cancer Care.

Coronation Street featured the impact of the recession on people’s lives through the character Kirk Sutherland who lost his job and was unable to find work again.

Emmerdale

Emmerdale highlighted the effects of cyber-bullying through the teenage character Hannah Barton. Hannah’s life was made a misery after receiving a stream of cruel taunts via email, text message and social networking sites. The storyline emphasises that while physical bullying ends after school, cyber-bullying follow teenagers home.

In another storyline that highlights prejudice experienced by gay people, Aaron Dingle struggled to come to terms with his sexuality. Aaron Dingle is a tough, menacing character on the show which contradicts stereotypical portrayals of gay men.

Read about our efforts the increase the diversity of soap characters

Breast Cancer Care and Corrie

In 2009, Coronation Street character Sally Webster was diagnosed with breast cancer. ITV worked closely with charity Breast Cancer Care, to ensure the issue was dealt with sensitively and realistically.

The week after Sally Webster announced her illness, there was a 55% jump in calls to the charity’s helpline, compared to the same period in 2008.

We broadcast the helpline number at the end of episode on Friday 8th January. The day after there was an 85% increase in calls to the helpline, based on the same day in 2009. At least half the callers made specific reference to the programme during their call.

The callers included people who wanted to know more about the symptoms of breast cancer, and patients for whom the programme highlighted issues or raised questions. A number of male partners of women with breast cancer called in as the reaction of Sally’s husband Kevin bought back the emotions they went through with their wives.

Breast Cancer Care started a thread about Sally Webster on their
online discussion forum on December 18 which has received over 230 comments and the page has been viewed more than 8,100 times.

Dramas

Dramas can also highlight social issues in a powerful and engaging way.

For example ITV aired Gunrush in 2009, a new drama set against the non-aspirational world of a housing estate which explored the increasing problem of inner city gun crime.