Reception
The episode showing Dawn Swann handcuffed to the bed grabbed 9.3 million viewers in total. In the episode, Rob lures Dawn out into the country so that May can handcuff her to the bed in order to give Dawn a home Caesarian. This screening prompted over 200 complaints to the BBC. Laing commented: "I was shocked when I read the script and my girlfriend Ali has been a bit disturbed by what I've been up to. She's enjoyed it but she's been a bit horrified at the same time! I didn't have any idea how bonkers it was going to get. Rob and May were going through real problems with IVF then made some bad choices which got them spiralling into this very dark place. It's good drama and a difficult thing to pull off when it's going out at 8pm. Although we received a lot of complaints last week nobody was trying to offend people." Dawn falls in love with Rob, and he uses this to get a child for May and himself. Laing admitted it was an "intense" period, and commented: "As an actor, you've got to find a way to get your head around it. I never thought about Rob as a villain, he's just someone who makes bad choices and digs holes he can't get out of. The very last turn, when it got so extreme, I put it down to him falling out of love with Dawn and his wife having this spell on him. He justifies it to himself by thinking Dawn wants to give the baby up anyway and she was going to take money for it. I think deep down he has a conscience and there is probably a part of him which is horrified but there's no going back."
The kidnapping of Dawn sparked further complaints, as police were still searching for Madeline McCann, who was abducted on a holiday to Portugal. An spokeswoman for the show confirmed: "In the current circumstances it was felt any storyline that included child abduction would be inappropriate and could cause distress to our viewers. It was felt any storyline that included a child abduction was inappropriate and could cause distress. Police are still searching for 4-year-old Madeline, who vanished 18 days ago in Praia da Luz, Portugal. There were some quite disturbing similarities to the situation in Portugal and we didn't want to add to the torment of Madeleine's parents."
Read more about this topic: Rob Minter
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