The Long Walk Home
In Film & TV Production it’s still especially hard for women to get their foot in the door within the industry - this is slowly starting to change.
After hearing about a special episode of Hollyoaks, which was backed by the home office, which was created with an all women crew, I had to get involved. The episodes titled ‘The Long Walk Home’ was written and created by an all women crew at Lime Pictures, to showcase the dangers women face on a regular night out through no fault of their own and it had a brilliant response from both male and female viewers.
Maxine featured in ‘The Long Walk Home’
© Lime Pictures
After watching the episode, we were moved to tears by how powerful the episode is and how important the message behind it is. The special focuses on the trouble the character of Maxine (Nikki Sanderson) faces on her night out compared to how care-free the character of Romeo can be on getting home from his night out.
The situations Maxine finds herself in has happened to many of us on our team over the years and it brought home just how important it is to educate everyone. It’s important to note that it isn’t ALL men who make women feel uncomfortable on nights out but it is ALL men’s responsibility to be educated, to educate those around them and to call out their friends when they’re making inappropriate comments.
It’s simple really, if you wouldn’t want your sister, daughter, friend or family member to go through anything you witness happen to a women, call it out if you can safely do so and report it to the authorities immediately, you could be saving someone’s life. After sharing our experiences online and posting about the episode to congratulate the amazing women who put their heart and soul into that episode we were contacted by one of the writers of the episode. They shared their gratitude with our team and agreed it’s important that we all share the message.
Nikki Sanderson portraying true, hard hitting emotions as her character Maxine Miniver
“What happens to Maxine in town that night is completely relatable and a situation that will be recognisable to many women,” - Hollyoaks Executive Producer, Lucy Allan.
This powerful episode, backed by the home office proved a bit hit with fans of the show but also a much wider audience;
“Hollyoaks really excel at special episodes. maxine's long walk home is definitely bsa-worthy material, fantastic from start to finish. there were so many little details in this ep i could relate to & the acting was outstanding #hollyoaks” - @SoapVillian
As seen on Twitter, even viewers who don’t normally watch the show have been impacted by the special.
“Tonight's episode and the long walk home episode are some of the best soap episodes in a while. I hope they get some awards for them #Hollyoaks” - @Karynmoo
We believe the ‘Long Walk Home’ should be shown in schools, colleges and sixth forms across the country to educate young teens what the dangers are and how they can help stop the issue by calling out their friends on inappropriate behaviour. We hope to work with the team of strong females who created this episode in the future.