The CSI: Miami forensic aren't real, sadly. Photograph:
Are there issues that are simply too big, too complicated for TV drama to tackle? I am thinking, chiefly though not exclusively, of rape. It may be commonplace on telly - with women regularly raped, occasionally tortured and/or mutilated for gory measure - but that's mostly in crime drama. Moreover, usually - from Prime Suspect to CSI and Wire in the Blood - the victim is also murdered, thus truncating any exploration of her situation. When a woman is raped and not murdered, more often than not she's still not central to the story, which focuses on the detectives (or whoever) tracking down her assailant. Indeed, when a drama does focus on a woman who is raped, one of two scenarios is played out.
If dramatists are realistic in their treatment of rape, it's likely the woman won't go to the police immediately, if at all. Even if she does, it's likely her attacker won't be caught, and if he is, it won't come to court, and if it does, it's even more unlikely to result in a conviction as less than six per cent of rape cases end in conviction. All of which adds up to something that is, dramatically speaking, incredibly unsatisfying.
If, on the other hand, the drama depicts the attacker being caught, tried and convicted, it's so far from the usual run of events as to be falmost antastical. You may as well have a judge played by Whoopi Goldberg and a court room made entirely of marshmallow.
Drama is, therefore, caught in something of a dilemma. Does it have a duty to reflect reality, however dispiriting? Or should it act as some sort of beacon of hope and, in doing so, encourage women to report rape by showing that justice can done? (However contentiously).
When rape is used as a plot featuring on a regular character in a drama - rather than simply as a crime for cops to investigate - it usually feels as if it's done so desperately. Toyah's rape in Coronation Street in 2001 was a particularly cack-handed attempt to deal with the subject. It'll be interesting to see how Holby City handles next week's return of the man who attempted to rape Jac. In fact, the only two instances that dealt with it remotely realistically were the rape of Sheila Grant (Sue Johnston) in Brookside and of Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) in EastEnders.
And, of course, a conviction doesn't (necessarily) mean closure. I make no claim to understand what it's like to be raped but it seems such an open-ended crime. In drama, we like neatness - mainly because life doesn't have it. Is rape simply too messy for drama to deal with? And even if that is the case, does that mean it shouldn't try?
