Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks never shies away from controversial issues, so its portrayal of respectable teenage students rapidly descending into heroin hell made shocking viewing. CIC's You First magazine to Hollyoaks writer Maurice Bessman to discuss the impact he hopes their story will make on the show's young audience.

For over a year, Hollyoaks viewers got to know Sasha and Fletch as likeable, average sixth-form students, experiencing the usual teenage ups and downs. As their story progressed they fell in love and supported each other through set-backs and insecurities.

Slowly, the dramatic storylines began to unfold. Sasha’s mum died in a hit and run accident and she felt isolated when her fathers new girlfriend moved in with them. At the same time we see Fletch developing into a hedonistic, easily led, desperate to be cool young man, with aspirations of becoming a rock star.

Fletch first sampled drugs at a house party, trying his first joint with friends and quickly became a regular cannabis smoker. At first Sasha wanted nothing to do with it, but as her home life began to bring her down, she joined him. From these first seemingly ‘innocent’ smokes they moved on to trying speed at a party. On finding a small bag of heroin, curiosity got the better of the pair and they tried the drug. It was one experiment too far as both characters quickly became hooked.

Scriptwriter Maurice Bessman explains;“There was a lot of research and debate amongst the writers about the characters route to heroin addiction. Many people have friends that smoke cannabis recreationally that never move onto trying harder drugs. It was my experience, however, that some people do and I think that we were right to reflect this.”

As the characters became desperate for their next fix, they began stealing from friends and family to fund their habit. Sasha had sex with her dealer in exchange for more drugs. They failed their exams, lost the trust of the people who cared for them and became isolated from everyone but the people who wanted to exploit their addiction. They hit rock bottom. Sasha overdosed on the drug, almost killing herself, and was arrested for stealing. Fletch was made homeless and trapped in a cycle of theft to fuel his addiction.

The script was shocking, pushing the boundaries for youth television. Maurice wanted Sasha and Fletch’s story to make an impression with the Hollyoaks audience, “The episodes were very edgy, we wanted to show people the effects and the massive consequences of heroin use.”

Despite working within the constraints of early evening television and the soap opera format, the Hollyoaks writers wanted to ensure that the story would be realistic, contemporary and informative. “I pitched the idea of the heroin storyline a year before it was aired”, Maurice explained. As an accomplished scriptwriter, Maurice had been involved with a ground-breaking heroin storyline on the legendary soap Brookside. He had also worked as a nurse so was already acutely aware of issues surrounding heroin use. The Hollyoaks writers also spoke to addictions and mental health practitioners to ensure they brought an accurate portrayl of addiction to our screens.

60 young people with learning difficulties who access CIC’s Rievaulx Resource Centre are excitedly preparing for a visit from their football heroes.

CIC’s Learning and Development Department have been selected as finalists in the National Training Awards 2008. The department, which received praise for its E-learning induction programme, will attend the NTA awards ceremony in October where they hope to scoop the top prize.