From his first appearance in A Woman of Substance, it's clear to see that Gerald Fairley (Harry Cadby) is the kind of character who is so mean-spirited and cruel, he can't help but make your skin itch.
In the sixth episode of the series, he's on a mission to find the people he owes money to, a matter that is looming like a dark cloud over his head. When he tracks down the address of the firm and finds out that it belongs to Emma, though, he merely discounts it as not being worthy of his time.
As soon as Gerald moves closer to Emma and touches her hips, I feel as though most women watching would immediately have a pit in their stomach, willing the series not to go in the direction they think it will. But unfortunately for the viewer – and ultimately, for Emma – it does.
As if the scene couldn't become any more painful to watch, the camera pans to Emma's plaid skirt afterwards, now stained with "the final deposit and settlement of my account", as Gerald puts it while grinning. It's all really rather disgusting – and that feeling isn't just reserved for Gerald here.
Rape scenes aren't exactly an easy watch for many but they aren't ones that should necessarily be shied away from, I think. After all, today's staggering statistics reveal that one in four women have been raped or sexually assaulted since the age of 16 in the UK. The impact, survival and justice aspects of those stories should be showcased. When depicting it on TV though, there should be a responsibility to ensure this 'plot device' is being handled appropriately and effectively.
My issue comes when sexual violence against women is simply a surface-level storyline without any real depth, something that many shows – and some period dramas – have been guilty of in their time. 'Should the assault be shown in great detail?' and 'What does it actually add to the story?' are both questions that more series creators should consider.
But in the world of adaptations aplenty and series creators putting their own spin on original material, omitting entire scenes, characters and the like, this needn't have been included. More importantly, did it need to play out in such a lurid manner?
Compared to the original 1985 three-parter where we saw Jenny Seagrove's Emma escape Gerald's violent grip by reaching for a knife and holding it to his neck, this modern iteration could have easily taken a leaf out of that seminal series. The scenes in the two series unfold in very similar ways with a weapon laying close by – surely a nod to the '80s drama – but somehow, in this new instalment, Emma is made to suffer.
In a series that's delightfully boasting a female-led creative team and is championing an assured heroine, do we really need to include such a graphic scene to underline Emma's comeback story? An arc can be triumphant without dragging a character down to life's rock bottom. What with Emma already having to face heartbreak, the death of both parents and relocation in a whole new town, surely she's been through more than any one character should take.
Throwing in a rape scene such as this one – where perhaps Gerald could have just been confronting and his usual classist, verbally aggressive self – appears gratuitous in the grand scheme of things. In keeping with the feeling of the time (I assume), decisions had clearly been made not to revisit the storyline later down the line. We're never steeped in Emma's emotions for too long and that's just the tone of the series.
Emma's blank stare at the end of the episode (alongside Gerald's accompanying narration) does eventually hint at the impact the assault has had on her, with it fuelling her plot against the wealthy family. But her mission to tear down the Fairleys was never that wavering to begin with so it remains an odd storyline inclusion, in my opinion.
A Woman of Substance is all about Emma's revenge plot against the Fairleys and we do know from the show's first scenes that she becomes a business mogul in her own right (when we see Brenda Blethyn take centre stage). But as to how she gets there, that's what the later episodes uncover.
Not only does she call in that collateral and acquire the mill, she also has quite the defining final confrontation scene with the Fairleys where she admonishes the entire family one-by-one. When it comes to Gerald, she simply refers to him as "a monster and a weasel of a man who preys on women in a vain attempt to feel strong in the face of his own overwhelming weaknesses".
Emma finally arrives to Fairley Hall to enact her final twist of the knife and evicts them from their stately home, delighting in telling them that she is now the official homeowner.
I don't have the answers – I'm not the one who wrote the series, nor am I the one to choose whether to make Gerald's confrontation one that was simply in line with the pathetic antagonist that he is, rather than utterly violating in the way it was depicted.
But when victory comes to Emma in A Woman of Substance's final episode and she has that final moment with Gerald, I look back on the show's assault scene and wonder about removing it entirely. If not that, at least making it an off-screen moment or one that could have been handled more delicately and not with the nigh-on melodramatic nature that has worked well throughout the rest of the drama.
For support and advice on matters raised in this article, please visit www.rapecrisis.org.uk, call the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line on 0808 500 2222 or chat to Rape Crisis online 247sexualabusesupport.org.uk.
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