‘Emmerdale’ producer discusses HIV storyline
By Josh Haggis
Emmerdale
producer Kate Oates has spoken about the soap’s recent storyline involving HIV.
On the primetime ITV serial drama, Val Pollard (Charlie Hardwick) went abroad and had a fling that involved unprotected sex, and in a recent episode admitted that she may have contracted HIV. Val refuses to get tested for the disease, frightened of what the results may be.
During an appearance on This Morning, the producer said of the storyline: “It’s one I’m really proud of. It’s about HIV in a straight, middle-aged white married woman, which is not a story that I think soap has tackled yet. Obviously for a lot of soap fans, the last time they came across HIV in a big soap was EastEnders‘ Mark Fowler, which was a fantastic story and very much of its time. Things have changed so dramatically and I suppose I just wanted to tell a story that informed people properly, and made people realise that actually their preconceptions of what HIV is today really probably aren’t right.”
She then added: “What she doesn’t do is go and get tested, because she’s frightened. She buries her head in the sand and she’s not talking to the man who really loves her, Eric, about how they might get through this.”
Emmerdale continues weekdays at 7pm on ITV.