Survivors Manchester calls went up 133 per cent after 'Coronation Street' kicked off David Platt's rape storyline on Friday night (16.03.18).
Jack P. Shepherd
The charity - an organisation aiming to create a safe space for male survivors of sexual abuse and rape - experienced a surge in phone calls after Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton) sexually assaulted David (Jack P. Shepherd) in 'Corrie's double bill, and producer Kate Oates hopes the plot has encouraged real-life victims to speak out.
She said: "When we worked with Survivors Manchester, Duncan Craig, when he took us on, said he would help us but only if we played it properly and only if we didn't shy away from it.
"He said it was really important that when the storyline went out that viewers who were sitting at home who had been affected by sexual assault could say, 'That's me, that's my story, and now I'm ready to talk about it.'
"I got an email from him on Saturday - their calls went up 133 per cent as soon as the episode went out.
"That's just one charity. It's not about calls going to charities, although they are so important, it's about people having conversations with their friends and their families that they love and trust and can start that conversation flowing, because that's so important."
The hard-hitting storyline is one of many recent 'Corrie' plots which have come under fire from celebrity viewers, including TV broadcasting legend Sir Michael Parkinson, who blasted the soap for its violent and "gruesome" storylines.
But Kate has shot to the soap's defence, insisting times have changed.
Speaking to ITV's 'This Morning', she added: "I don't want to say Parky is out of date. What I go on is our viewing figures, they are up year on year. My bosses seem happy with that, I'm happy with that.
"Everyone is entitled to an opinion, I would love it if Parky still loved the show as much as he did in the 60s but I do think things have moved on and that's OK."
Michael recently said: "I never imagined I would recoil from watching 'Coronation Street', but the storyline of the kidnapping and torture of Andy and Vinny and their brutal murder by Pat Phelan had little to do with that gentle, funny reminder of life in the North Country I discovered and so admired in the early 1960s when I joined Granada Television."