Hollyoaks star Denise Welch has revealed her soap character Trish Minniver’s storyline are inspired by a documentary about abuse.
Denise, who is also a Loose Women panellist, says her character’s plotline is drawn from Athlete A.
Athlete A is a true crime documentary about a gymnastics doctor Larry Nasar, who was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of underage female gymnasts.
The documentary also looked into the bullying young gymnasts suffered at the hands of their coaches.
And Denise Welch has revealed that her character’s storylines were inspired by the documentary.
Speaking to the Daily Star, she said: “On one hand, Trish is camp and a bit of fun, but on the other she’s incredibly passive aggressive, a narcissist and a bit of a bully.
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“Trish’s storylines were inspired by Athlete A, where loads of gymnasts came out and said the coaches had bullied them.
“Hollyoaks has diluted that story and put it into the form of Trish and how she behaves at the village’s dance school.
“I’ve seen documentaries and spoken to a lot of people over the years who have had mothers who are like that and we’ve also seen it coming out in recent storylines that she behaves that way towards her daughter Maxine.”
Hollyoaks: Trish Minniver
Trish first appeared in Hollyoaks back in 2010, played by Paula Wolfenden. The character returned earlier this year with Denise taking over the role.
Upon her return, she opened up a new dance school in the village. However she was shocked when her rival Marco, played by professional dancer AJ Pritchard.
Hinting at his character’s upcoming conflict with Trish, AJ recently told Inside Soap: “Marco is Trish’s rival from a previous dance school.
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“He’s a very cheeky and confident guy. Marco knows what he wants and when he turns up, he acts as if he owns the place.”
He added: “Marco arrived for Trish’s grand opening which, as you’ll see, is not so grand due to a couple of mistakes on Maxine’s part, which was fun to film.”
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