TV ‘glamorises rape by using pretty victims’

BROADCHURCH star Julie Hesmondhalgh has accused television producers of glamorising rape scenes by casting ‘pretty young girls’ as victims.

The 46-year-old actress, pictured, plays a middle-aged divorcee who is raped in the third series of ITV drama Broadchurch due to begin this month. Hesmondhalgh, who is best-known for her 16year role as transgender Coronation Street character Hayley Cropper, said: ‘I’m glad they went for someone who looked like me – someone as old as me, instead of a pretty young girl.’

‘I get sick of the way rape is portrayed on television and in films. It’s usually someone young and attractive. It makes the audience think there’s something sexual about it. But rape is an act of violence against women.’

Miss Hesmondhalgh’s comments are the latest in a long line of concerns raised about the way rape is depicted on TV. Last year, the BBC was criticised over a scene in period drama Poldark involving the lead character and former fiancée Elizabeth.

Although some critics said the scene had been toned down from events in the novels on which the series was based, campaigners insisted the BBC’s portrayal was still rape and described Elizabeth’s ambiguous reaction to Poldark’s advances as ‘appalling’.

The BBC was also criticised in 2014 for ‘disturbing’ scenes in crime drama Happy Valley involving actress Charlie Murphy, 28, who was gagged and tied to a chair in a cellar having been kidnapped and raped.