Julie Hesmondhalgh slams ‘gratuitous images’ of female bodies in TV drama
She said Broadchurch, in which she played rape survivor Trish Winterman, took a different approach.
Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh has criticised the depiction of rape on the small screen.
The former Coronation Street star, 47, played rape survivor Trish Winterman in the third series of Broadchurch, starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, earlier this year.
Hesmondhalgh told Radio Times magazine: “Too often we’ve seen rape portrayed on-screen in a titillating way, young women being pursued by unseen predators through dark alleys and woods, the graphic depiction of the act itself, gratuitous images of naked and brutalised female bodies.”
“In casting myself, an ordinary-looking middle-aged woman, as the survivor of rape, it was clear that Chris Chibnall, the writer of Broadchurch, was hoping to take a different look at the issue,” she said.
The actress added: “Rape is not an act of sexual desire, it’s an act of violence.”
Several TV dramas, including The Fall, Silent Witness, Ripper Street and Scandinavian crime series The Bridge, have been criticised for scenes of violence against women.
Dame Helen Mirren has said that too many victims in crime dramas were women, while acclaimed playwright Sir David Hare criticised the mounting “body count” and lack of realism in contemporary film and TV drama.
