Hollyoaks star Isabelle Smith confirms things get diabolically worse in child exploitation horror

Hollyoaks fans have been watching in horror as vicious predator Grace Black (Tamara Wall) has been grooming youngsters into a child sex exploitation racket – including her own ‘niece’ Frankie Osborne.

Recovering after the trial of her brother JJ, who sexually abused her for years in secret, Frankie is particularly vulnerable, which is what has made her a prime target for Grace and her fellow groomers.

Isabelle Smith, the talented and award-winning actress behind Frankie, has told Metro that things are only about to get worse.

Grace twists the screws once more at a party she invites Frankie and Dillon (Nathaniel Dass) to, looping them into dangerous situations, with viewers learning the true extent and reach of her evil ring.

But it’s just the beginning, warns Isabelle, as she explains to me what comes next and reflects on her recent journey of playing long-suffering Frankie.

How did you feel when you were told about this storyline?

I felt incredibly grateful that I was being trusted with another topic of conversation storyline. It’s something we haven’t done before and something that needs to be spoken about.

It is still leading on from the SSA storyline where we’re showing the exploitation side and the grooming side of these survivors that can be perceived as more vulnerable in society. I was apprehensive at first to take on another big storyline, but very privileged.

Frankie is vulnerable and these are the kind of people that they target, isn’t it?

I did a lot of research with Hannah [Cheers], our executive producer and we went to a Channel 4 event which was also partnering with the NSPCC and we were speaking to some of the police commissioners there and they were saying how important a storyline like this is, because after the trial has finished there’s no support for survivors.

Especially for somebody as young as Frankie, you feel like you don’t know where to turn. Quite a lot of the time their vulnerability can get taken advantage of and they can head down the wrong path, so I think it was really important for us to show that the effects of what had happened to her were still present.

We wanted to show that side of it rather than just leave it there and forget anything had ever happened.

Did you learn a lot from your research? It must have been quite harrowing at times.

Massively, and it some cases it can be quite upsetting as well, which is why I’m so fortunate that I’ve got such a good support team here at Hollyoaks and in my own family as well.

I continue to do my research and still work with the charity SARSAS, who I’ve worked with from the beginning. Hearing survivors speak their truths and their stories is so impactful and that is the reason we’re doing this story. Speaking to them makes me want to succeed in this storyline even more.

Hollyoaks makes sure you always feel safe and comfortable doing stories like this?

Definitely. I’ve got so much support, from the channel, from production, from digital, from press, from everybody. And also from the cast. I know Tam [Tamara Wall] is playing a baddie but we have the best working relationship, inside and outside of work, so we support each other.

There’s a lot of gaslighting and manipulation from Tam’s character Grace. What kind of relationship does Frankie have with her?

I think Frankie has trust issues from childhood and I think she’s never been able to know who she can fully trust.

Coming into her dad’s life and them having a rocky relationship at the start, she’s learning who to trust and who is her friend but she’s still struggling a little bit and I think her vulnerability is being taken advantage of a little bit here.

She does kind of trust Grace. She’s had some decent one on one chats with her. She’s basically her auntie, so I think that Frankie thinks she’s in safe hands.

You would do, you wouldn’t even question it and the kind of gaslighting situations that are going on are making Frankie think that it’s all her idea and she wants to do this and she wants to go down this path. I think that’s hard for the audience to maybe get their heads around but I think it’ll make sense in the end.

Do you feel it’s important that the viewers are on board with this being an authentic thing to happen?

Massively. This whole storyline is completely charity-led. The writing team have done all their research, we’ve researched playing these characters and I really do think this is as close to the truth as we’re allowed to show before 9PM on Channel 4!

This is, sadly, the reality of some children in the UK and if we’re not going to put it on the screen people are never going to be aware of it.

There are a lot of layers to this story, with characters like Jacob being victims but also made to be perpetrators…

It took me a while to get my head around everything and understand the aspect of the grooming gang and the layers and hierarchies that are within that. Ultimately it’s an important story that we need to tell.

Can you talk about her decision to move out of Darren’s?

Ultimately the people grooming Frankie want to drive a wedge between her and her family, which is common in these situations. They try and get you away from people you feel close to and people you feel safe with and get you into a false sense of security where you think you can have anything you want and do anything you want.

You get offered drugs and it becomes this kind of cycle that you get yourself into and becomes your normal routine. Because everybody around you is doing that you just think it’s normal and cool and fun. You’re having a good time at first and then it starts taking a more sinister turn and you realise you’ve not got your family around you any more and you haven’t seen them in weeks and you don’t even feel like you can go back and speak to them, because what would you say?

You’ve gone AWOL for however many weeks. That’s what the groomers want to happen to you. They want you to become even more vulnerable than you already are so that it’s easier for them.

I think that it is easy for Frankie to come away from Darren because of the whole thing she thinks has happened with him and Kat. She’s solely led on the fact that he’s betrayed Nancy, who’s her mother figure and who she really respects.

She can’t bring herself to go back in that house and be near him and all the destruction that’s going on at home, so she is turning to drink and drugs and she’s kind of fallen into the trap, really.

Grace tries to sell this to Frankie as a lifestyle. This is the point where Frankie falls deeper into it, isn’t it?

She definitely falls deeper into it after having that conversation with Grace. Grace is somebody she looks up to. She’s a strong, independent female, everything that Frankie hopes to be.

And at the end of the day it’s her auntie. If my auntie said something to me I’d have no reason to believe it wasn’t true. I think Frankie is really falling deeper and deeper.

It’s just not wanting to let her down, as well. She wants to impress her. She feels a little bit pressured but at the same time Grace it’s made out like it’s Frankie’s decision in the end. That gaslighting that we’re seeing at the start of the storyline definitely carries on all the way through and Frankie falls victim to that.

We discover that the scale of this is a lot bigger than Frankie realises and involves more people than just her and Dillon.

It’s definitely a scary situation that they’ve got themselves into and they’re going to find it quite tricky to remove themselves from that. The wider scale that we wanted to show is just how horrific these rings are but it does happen, unfortunately.

We see it starting off on a small scale, when Frankie and Dillon are drinking and taking drugs and having parties and then it really does get a little bit out of control.

How important is it that this story plays out over a longer timeframe?

When I took this storyline on I was specific that I wanted to work with the charities and make sure that young females out there who could relate to Frankie’s SSA storyline still felt they were supported.

We did a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure that if you think something that is happening to Frankie and Dillon might be happening to you or somebody you know, there is support and help available. We’re working really closely with charities to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else.

How do you prepare for the very heavy and intense scenes you’ve been involved in?

We get scripts maybe two or three weeks in advance. I always read everything, action my scripts, thinking about my objective in the scene and my overall objective in the episode. Then I leave it, because I’ve done my prep, I’ve done the work.

Then the night before – because you can’t learn anything longer than the night before because things change and things happen – because I’ve done my prep the lines go into my head, fortunately quite easily.

When I get on to set I’ve got my back story of what I want to do and then I let Frankie’s raw emotion take over. Just from what I know about the victims and survivors and through working with the charity, I’ve got all of that in the background so I’m able to let whatever comes out in the moment come out.

How do you wind down when you’re not working?

Away from work I like to annoy my boyfriend! And just drop in on my family unannounced when they’re all working from home. In the week all my friends have nine to five jobs.

My other best friend is on Corrie so our schedules never line up so I drop in unannounced on family members working from home. I like to walk, I like to read. I’ve got a new cat that I rescued, so I’m spending lots of time with him at the moment.

He’s called Toad because he’s got massive cheeks. The shelter named him, but when we saw him we thought we can not change that name, it’s the best name ever! And I’ve just decided to redecorate my apartment so I’m keeping busy! I can’t sit still, I have to be doing something at all times.

Do you still have pinch-me moments when you realise the sort of impact your storyline has had?

It is quite overwhelming for me sometimes because I think when I started Hollyoaks I was literally working in a supermarket. To fast forward a year and however many months, I’ve been nominated for all the insane awards against amazing other actors and been lucky enough to win some is alien to me.

We’ve had a massive impact on the charity – from the first episode until now the amount of people who rang in to report their abusers is insane and I feel so incredibly proud that I’ve been able to give these survivors a voice. I still have people messaging me now saying ‘Thanks to you I’ve been able to come forward.’

I read every single message that I get and the lovely people who write me letters at work, I reply to them and to know what impact I’ve had on someone’s life is beyond anything I ever could have wanted as an actor. It’s a very nice feeling.