Coronation Street to tackle 'culture of silence' with male rape storyline

'Over the next few weeks of Corrie, our message is to talk'

Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton) and David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) appearing on last week's episode of Coronation Street

Coronation Street will air a storyline centred on male rape in an effort to highlight the "culture of silence" which surrounds it.

Starting next week, the story follows the aftermath which occurs after David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) is drugged and sexually assaulted by his new friend, mechanic Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton), after a night of drinking.

After waking up and realising what's happened to him, David feels ashamed and struggles over whether to report the crime, with Josh insisting that their encounter was consensual.

"In the aftermath, we’ll see similar traits of how rapists behave, the manipulation games they play," Clayton told Radio Times of the character, adding that he'd consulted Duncan Craig from the support group Survivors Manchester on the role.

Craig added: "The day the story broke that Coronation Street were tackling male rape as a subject, there was a flurry of activity on social media and Survivors Manchester was being talked about."

"Within 24 hours, we'd had a number of inquiries directly linked to the story. A number of men, and a few girlfriends of men, were contacting us asking about how they access our service, that just fills me with so much hope for this whole story."

The ITV show's producer Kate Oates said the soap hopes to highlight the "culture of silence" around male sexual assault.

"We decided to cover the topic of male rape to help try and highlight the culture of silence that surrounds male sexual assault, and issues surrounding male mental health in general," she said. "Over the next few weeks of Corrie, our message is to talk: it's hard to speak out, but if you're suffering in silence, there are people out there willing to listen and support you."

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