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17.01.03

ABOUT THE Â鶹Éç FACTUAL & ARTS TV TV DRAMA

Hitting Home – tackling domestic violence head-on

Press pack available

For many people in the UK, domestic violence is a fact of daily life.

Hitting Home is a special Â鶹Éç season, from 15 to 23 February 2003, featuring bold and inspiring programmes across TV, radio and Â鶹Éçi that will help break down the taboos and abolish the myths surrounding this sensitive subject.

Working closely with the relevant specialist agencies, Hitting Home brings to the fore the many issues involved in abusive relationships, showing that anyone can be affected, irrespective of age, gender, sexuality or social status.

As well as informing a wider public, Hitting Home provides encouragement and support for all those affected by domestic violence.

Lorraine Heggessey, Controller Â鶹Éç ONE, says: "Hitting Home is a significant landmark in Â鶹Éç ONE's Winter schedule. We are hoping that it will increase awareness and understanding of this issue that affects so many, yet is so often swept under the carpet."

Through real-life stories, expert advice and celebrity testimony, Hitting Home features in primetime and Daytime Â鶹Éç ONE programming, storylines in Casualty and Neighbours, a powerful, intimate documentary, Dangerous Love – Tales Of Domestic Violence, Hitting Home – Trevor And Little Mo and Panorama.

CÂ鶹Éç shows a specially-written drama and Newsround feature; Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 4, the Asian Network, 1Xtra and Â鶹Éç Local Radio are all making programmes for Hitting Home; there's a Â鶹Éç THREE documentary; Storyville on Â鶹Éç FOUR; and films on Â鶹Éç ONE, Â鶹Éç TWO and Â鶹Éç FOUR.

Further support, advice and features are available on an extensive website - www.bbc.co.uk/hittinghome (live on Wednesday 5 February) - and from a freephone advice line - 08000 934 934.

Seetha Kumar, Head of Â鶹Éç Lifeskills, explains: "Domestic violence is a subject the Â鶹Éç can explore in an accessible way – through popular soaps, children's drama, documentaries and radio programmes – to help break down taboos.

"Looking not only at the misery it causes, but also at the bravery survivors' stories offer, and perpetrators facing responsibility, it's important that Hitting Home offers hope, and reflects the universality of the issue – domestic violence affects us all and is all of our problem."

There are the practicalities, for example, finding refuge and accommodation and battling through a minefield of legal issues, which can seem like an endless uphill struggle.

So numerous are the consequences of domestic violence that the burden it places on society, both economically and socially, is virtually impossible to quantify.

Kacey Ainsworth (EastEnders' Little Mo) says: "It is time more people realise that domestic violence crosses all boundaries and also that it's not just about violence.

"Domestic abuse takes on many forms, such as financial, mental and physical, which are less visible and sometimes forgotten about."

Notes to Editors

The Hitting Home press pack is available below, in . You may require Adobe Acrobat Software to read PDF files which can be obtained .

Â鶹Éç ONE, Daytime and CÂ鶹Éç (581 KB)

Â鶹Éç THREE, Â鶹Éç FOUR and Films (442 KB)

Â鶹Éç National and Local Radio (442 KB)

Â鶹Éç Support and External Support Agencies (457 KB)

UK Events (418 KB)

Fact File (427 KB)

Pictures are available, for media use only, via the Â鶹Éç Press Office.

Hitting Home - a Â鶹Éç campaign tackling domestic violence head-on (12.12.02)

Freeview offers the Â鶹Éç's eight television channels, as well as six Â鶹Éç radio networks.

The soon to launch Â鶹Éç THREE will become available as it goes on air.

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