[bbfan1991]

Neil cam:

http://docyou.e4.com/neilcam-action

[bbfan1991]

http://docyou.e4.com/top-secret

[bbfan1991]

More here:

http://docyou.e4.com/posts/neil

[bbfan1991]

Hollyoaks interested 1.04m (5.1%) at 6.30pm on Channel 4 and 131k (0.6%) on +1 as Dodger met his long-lost father Patrick, while E4's first look had 598k (2.9%) at 7pm.

[bbfan1991]

Hollyoaks Jazmine Franks discusses Esther Bloom’s bullying anguish!



Whilst the drama of themini bus crash comes to an end, and the residents of Hollyoaks try and return to normal, things will never be the same for one teenager again!

Fans of the hit show will know how Esther Bloom (Jazmine Franks) has been tormented at the hands of bullies for months, in particular by her so called friends Maddie (Scarlett Bowman) and Sinead (Stephanie Davis), and while to some it may have seemed like harmless ‘banter’ and ‘mickey taking’ ,to Esther the constant teasing built up to a much more serious issue leaving her feeling isolated and scared to go to college.

At one point, Esther was set up by the gang for a horrid prank. Believing that she is going to meet a new friend she found online, she is horrified when she gets a call from the friend on route to meet her, saying that she had been followed.

When Esther turns up she finds what she believes to be a dead body, before being grabbed from behind by an unknown assailant. In reality, the friend was made up, controlled by Maddie, the dead body was Ruby (Anna Schafer) and the grabber, Bart McQueen (Johnny Clarke), but poor Esther was so terrified, she ends up wetting herself, which of course Queen Bee Maddie captures on film and instantly posts online!

To help raise awareness of the issues, Channel 4 even launched its own interactive special online project, DocYou which explores the issues raised in the main TV drama, taking the lives of its sixth form characters online with the creation of Channel 4’s first fictional micro-blogging site within a TV show.

However, this didn’t help Esther much at all, but now with her main tormentor dead (Maddie died during last weeks epic Enjoy The Ride mini bus crash), and Sinead having more important things to worry about (she has just discovered that she is pregnant) Esther’s living nightmare may finally be over, but to mark Anti-Bullying week (19-23 November), Jazmine Franks, who plays Esther, has spoken out about her experience of playing Esther and how she has recently attended a Channel 4 funded BeatBullying CyberMentors training session in a Liverpool school.

Esther’s been the victim of a pretty sustained bullying campaign on Hollyoaks. Explain to those who may not have seen it what’s been going on.

“Recently Esther’s been bullied quite a lot through college and through social media sites. She’s not had an easy time of it – they’ve played various pranks on her. At Halloween they pretended to be Silas, who’s the serial killer in Hollyoaks. They dressed up as him, and it scared her that much she wet herself. Now she’s known as Esther ‘Pissypants’ Bloom. She kissed Maddie in Absersoch last summer, and Maddie’s spread a rumour around the school saying that she’s got a moustache. So when she stood to be the Peer Supporter, all the posters that were up around the school ended up having moustaches drawn on them so no-one would vote for her and that kind of thing. She’s having an absolute time of it, really.”

One of the ways she’s suffering has been cyber-bullying on the fictional micro-blogging site, DocYou, that’s been set up for the programme. What sort of things has she experienced?

“Her bullies always seem to upload videos of her doing stupid things. People upload videos of her, and then loads of people start making really horrible comments underneath, telling her to have a rubbish day, and just generally not being nice. So she can’t get away from it even when she goes home and logs on. They’re all there making nasty comments.”

Explain a bit more about DocYou, it’s a site created in the programme by one of the characters, Dylan, but also exists in reality on the web for viewers to visit and see how devastating cyber-bullying can be.

“Yeah. The public can’t go on and comment, but they can go and look, and read what’s being done to Esther. It’s there as an example of how someone might be bullied on a social networking site. It will hopefully make people think twice about making nasty comments, when they can see what it’s doing to someone. Because in reality, whoever’s sat behind a computer screen can’t see what they’re doing to the person they’re bullying. They can’t see their face, they can’t see their emotions, they can’t see them break down. So I think DocYou is really good, because it shows Maddie and Sinead doing all these horrible things, but it also shows Esther’s interviews, and her point of view, so shows the effects of the bullying as well.” [Viewers can see this content on DocYou by visiting http://www.e4.com/hollyoaks and clicking on the DocYou link.]

Hollyoaks and Channel 4 Education are using the storyline as an opportunity to draw attention to the issue of bullying and funding BeatBullying Cyber Mentor training days in schools, aren’t they?

“Yeah. Channel 4 Education and Hollyoaks have teamed up with BeatBullying. I was lucky enough to go into a school recently to observe students being taught to be Cyber Mentors. It was great to see how serious the kids were about it, how they weren’t taking it as a joke. They understood that it was an issue that needs to be sorted out, and were keen to help.”

What do Cyber Mentors do?

“It’s a website that BeatBullying have set up where people who have been affected by bullying, or are being bullied, can go online and speak to someone confidentially, without anyone finding out, and pass on their problems. It’s like a weight’s been lifted, just being able to talk to someone about it – even though they can’t go in and sort out the bullies, just being able to let someone know what’s going on is so important. And also, if the mentor thinks it is a real problem, and there is a risk of danger there, they will pass it on to someone who is more trained, and they will take further action. I think it’s brilliant. I think Esther could have done with that.”

Who are BeatBullying?

“They go into schools and talk to all ages, from primary to sixth form. They talk to students about bullying, and about how harsh the online world can be. They also help people with their privacy settings, and educate kids about being safe online. And they talk about bullying, and help people who are being bullied. I met a young girl who’s been bullied really badly. She came to Hollyoaks and we had lunch – just to help me with my storyline, to help me get into that frame of mind of being bullied. Listening to that experience was really hard but it was amazing. She now works for BeatBullying herself, she goes round schools talking about her experiences, and shows people that you can get over it. It does stop. There is a light. And BeatBullying is that light, really. She said she would never have been able to get over it if it hadn’t been for BeatBullying.”

That must have been a really emotional experience for you, hearing her story.

“It was awful! It was so helpful – it has helped me a lot- but it was an awful story. And her mum was there as well, and it was really interesting listening to her mum’s side. Her mum said she just wanted to go in and punch them all, but you can’t, because it’ll make things worse.”

Have you found it emotional having to play a character who’s being badly bullied?

“Yes! It has absolutely drained me. I’m enjoying every second of it, and I hope I’m doing it justice, I hope I’m getting the message across. But I’ve been told a few times by fellow cast members that when I finish on set and it’s a wrap for the day, I mustn’t take my job home, and should go home and do something fun. They tell me to remember that I’m Jazmine and not Esther. I do get really into it because I want to make sure I do it to the best of my ability.”

Do you think it’s fair to say that most of Esther’s bullies are unaware of the level of distress that they’re causing?

“Yes, I definitely do. When we first met Esther, she was confident. She was comfortable with her sexuality, she knew she wanted to do fashion, she’d been to London on an internship with Company magazine, she was really happy with herself. I think Maddie then realised that she didn’t have power over her like she did over everyone else, and started to pick away at her. But I think people always think with Esther, because they’ve seen such a confident side to her, that she can handle it all, and it’s just a joke. Ruby and Sinead have said that a lot through the storyline. I don’t think they really understand what they’re doing.”

That’s probably the case with a lot of bullies, isn’t it? They’re not necessarily really malicious people, they just have no idea the damage they are causing.

“Yeah, exactly. Just small comments can really hurt. Like for me on Twitter, if someone writes something, about me personally, or even if they say it about Esther, I can get upset. They don’t realise what they’re saying.”

So do you feel, as someone with a relatively high profile, that you yourself can sometimes be the victim of bullying on social networking sites?

“Definitely. More so now than ever. Everyone has an opinion, and a lot of people decide they want to voice it over Twitter. But for every bad comment, there’s 20 good ones, so you just learn to carry on with your day and not get too bothered about them. But sometimes it does get to you – like if someone has a go at me about my weight or something. Like someone tweeted the other day “Just seen Jaz Franks in London. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, well in her case it takes off 30.” It was basically saying I look fatter than I do on screen. So I just wrote back and said “Thank you, your mother must be so proud.” She tweeted back saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was my boyfriend that wrote that.” So she realised that she’d upset me, and she apologised. I don’t think she’d realised what she’d done.”

What kind of response have you had from viewers?

“I’ve had an immense response on Twitter from people who’ve been bullied, saying how much they can relate to Esther’s storyline. I had one woman come up to me when I was out one night. She came up and said “I just want to say thank you.” I said “Why?” And she said “My daughter’s bullied quite a lot at school, and she watched Hollyoaks the other night and said “Mum, I can stop the bullies like Esther.” I broke into tears, I was out in a club and I couldn’t believe it. That kind of thing makes it all worthwhile.”

What advice would you give to someone who was being bullied?

“Definitely tell someone. If you can’t tell a parent, a guardian, a friend, if you feel really on your own, then get onto the BeatBullying website [at http://www.beatbullying.org/ ] and click on the Cyber Mentor’s button. Just chat to someone who can understand and knows where you’re coming from. Definitely don’t keep it locked up. The longer you stay silent the worse it’ll get.”

Do you think it’s important for Hollyoaks to tackle issues that affect young people?

“Yeah, definitely. We have a youthful audience, high school students, college students, young adults – and for Hollyoaks to tackle this, and to do it so well, I’m absolutely honoured to be part of it.”

[Kate!]

Great interview with Jazmine.

She reminds me so much of Carly Stenson whenever I see her.

[InOne]

Can't be doing with all this Savage nonsense at the moment and the way the teens are reacting to the crash is just ridiculous

[bbfan1991]

Sinead and Bart.

I like Darren fighting Dodgers corner vs Patrick and Sienna.

[MeMyselfAndI]

My TV's breaking cus of weather & I can't watch HO

[bbfan1991]

Nana McQueen.

[bbfan1991]

Hollyoaks‏@Hollyoaks

Watch Esther telling the members of DocYou what she really thinks > http://bit.ly/UZukL7 #HelpEsther

Find out more about new girl Sienna, and what she has in store for #Hollyoaks here > http://bit.ly/TYiwUN

[bbfan1991]

Grr Ruby. I have lost any sympathy for her over Jono's death now!

[MeMyselfAndI]

I'm finding Ally & Lacey really creepy

[Marsh.]

Are they really gonna have this guy react badly to her scar?

[MeMyselfAndI]

The scar is so tiny & barely is recognisable, It's pathetic

[bbfan1991]

Originally Posted by MeMyselfandI

I'm finding Ally & Lacey really creepy

I agree, although it will be over shortly hooray.

[DrunkerThanMoses]

Originally Posted by DrunkerThanMoses

The Hollyoaks 2012 Awards

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Storyline
Best New Character
Best Couple
Best Exit
Best Episode
Best Bitch
Best Villain
Favourite Character (Can be Male or Female)
Worst Actor
Worst Actress
Worst Storyline
Worst New Character
Worst Couple
Worst Exit
Worst Character (Can be Male or Female)
Most Overrated Character

Just a bit fun for the end of the year, send me your nominations via PM for each of these category's.
Closing date to send in your nominations will be Sunday 16th December and the Ceremony will be Monday the 17th of December

Just a reminder

[bbfan1991]

I've done mine. Set up a separate thread too, so the results can be on there?

[bbfan1991]

After the accident:

http://docyou.e4.com/after-accident

Dylan has found the footage, which means that we could possibly see Maddie being outed for the bitch that she was about time.

[bbfan1991]

Eww Lacey and Ally.

[bbfan1991]

Nana McQueen and Carmel are hilarious.

[bbfan1991]

Ouch Sienna is really angry at Dodger.

[Marsh.]

Naive little girls. Tut tut.

I still don't see the point of this storyline, what was all his stripper visits and stuff about?

[bbfan1991]

I think the writers themselves did not know what to do with the character from the start and the audience had already lost interest in him at that point.

[Vanessa]

Omg! Stendan!