Jessica Fox thinks ‘Hollyoaks’ adds realism to difficult storylines.
The soap star’s character Nancy Osborne is going to fight for justice after rapist Laurie Shelby (Kyle Pryor) has been released without charge, and it marks a change after her alter-ego had refused to believe Sienna Blake’s (Anna Passey) sexual harassment allegations.
She told Digital Spy: "I think ‘Hollyoaks’ has handled it really well and they’ve shown how different characters have given their opinions on the situation.
"Ideally, something bad would happen, it would get reported and then the person responsible would be punished.
"But that’s not always the world that we live in and I think it’s important to remember that the characters in the village don’t see everything that happens.
"Nancy hasn’t seen Laurie behave badly or being abusive, she only sees his good side. It’s good to show that and I think it makes the storyline more realistic."
Jessica, 36, added she has enjoyed playing a character who "hasn’t believed the truth" because it’s vital to portray "that side of" such a difficult subject matter.
She said: "I think it’s been really good to play someone who hasn’t believed the truth. It is something that happens in real life and it’s one of the reasons why people sometimes don’t want to speak out – they’re worried about not being believed.
"So it’s important to show that side of it. But it’s also nice now that Nancy comes round and gets her redemption. Hopefully it also will be a path to more scenes between Nancy and Sienna in the future."