User:Bluebolt94/Rob Grayson

Rob Grayson, played by Jody Latham, is a pimp who exploits Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) for financial gain. His first appearance was on 22 February 2011.

Storylines
Rob first appears when he witnesses Whitney attempting to pickpocket a man but ending up with cuts on her face. Rob rescues her from the situation, and buys her a meal. He gives her his number so she can contact him any time she needs get away, before taking her home. They stay in contact and Rob is seen showing a friend a photo of Whitney. When Whitney either rejects or is rejected by all her friends and family, she contacts Rob and he takes her to stay with him. After Whitney has been missing for several days, Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) tries to phone her, leaving several messages. When she finally gets a voicemail back, it is from Rob saying if she calls again, there will be trouble.

Lauren tracks Whitney down to Dartford, but Whitney insists she is fine with Rob, and that they are in love. Rob meets Lauren at their bedsit and invites her out with them, but Lauren leaves. Rob then leaves Whitney alone with Chris (Richard Simons) and it is revealed that Rob is using Whitney to pay off his debts. Rob meets Lauren in a café and again invites her out and calls her beautiful. He then threatens her, saying he does not want to see her again. When Rob returns to the bedsit, Whitney is there with Janine Malloy (Charlie Brooks), who says she is taking Whitney home. Whitney refuses to go and Rob ejects Janine from the building. Rob then tells Whitney they are going out immediately, and drags her to the car as she refuses to go. Lauren and Janine watch as Rob drives away with Whitney.

Rob takes Whitney to a house where she meets Chloe (Georgia Henshaw), another girl being exploited. Whitney realises she is there to have sex with men, so asks Rob if she can leave. Rob says to either be nice to his friends or he will hurt her. He grabs her and locks her in a room. She is unable to open the windows so when she hears people outside the door, she smashes a window, jumps to the ground and runs away with Rob calling after her. She then stops a car and asks for help.

Development
In January 2011, it was announced that Whitney would be part of the sexual exploitation storyline. She is left alone and vulnerable, and falls for Rob, who then exploits her. EastEnders worked alongside charity Comic Relief on the storyline, which started planning in 2010. The storyline culminated during Red Nose Day 2011 on 19 March 2011, in a special 10-minute episode. Gilly Green, Head of UK Grants at Comic Relief, said: "It is vital that we continue to alert young people to the dangers if we are to stop them being exploited and the opportunity to work with EastEnders will make a huge audience aware of this issue. We have been working with the EastEnders script writers and some of the young women from projects we support to ensure the story reflects the reality of young people caught up in sexual exploitation." Kevin Cahill, Chief Executive of Comic Relief, added "We have worked over many years with EastEnders in all kinds of ways. It's been a real pleasure this year to work together on a piece of serious drama, in the best traditions of public service, which will highlight an important issue and also, because it occurs on the night of Comic Relief, actually help raise crucial funds to help young women caught up in it." A Walford Insider told The List about the events of what happens:"Janine's a terrible influence and is soon dragging Whitney into all sorts of shady schemes. Given that Janine used to be a prostitute, it makes sense that she's part of Whitney's journey."Whitney has no idea what she's letting herself in for. Janine is only part of the problem though. It's when she meets Rob - a deeply unscrupulous man - that her life starts to fall apart in a terrifying way." Rob is described as a deeply unscrupulous man, evil ,a nasty piece of work and a villian.

McGarty hoped the storyline would raise awareness of the issue for young people, and explained that the storyline would be a continuing one, as "Whitney will live in fear that Rob and his gang are going to come after her when she escapes. That's what these people do. They don't just leave you to get on with your life. In their mind they own you." She also added that she hopes that the storyline will lead to better conviction rates as she said that they aren't 'good enough'. Latham met real-life prostitutes at a drop-in centre as research, which he described as "heartbreaking". One of the girls who spoke to Shona McGarty who had been exploited told The Mirror, “I spoke to Shona on the set of EastEnders. I wanted them to know that it’s not like they bundle girls into the back of a van and take you away. John would drive me to “parties” all over the place. The only people there were creepy men and young girls. He’d say, ‘they’re my mates... you would do it if you loved me’.“I told Shona about the manipulation and the threats – there was always a threat. It was hard living in such terror all the time. I became addicted to ­alcohol.“It’s hard to speak out, but I wanted to help Comic Relief and EastEnders. It’s the best ­opportunity I’ve got to make the biggest difference.” A special 'EastEnders Revealed' episode was shown were it showed the upcoming events towards to the sexual explotations storyline.

Reception
It was reported by The People that Latham had received criticism from viewers who struggled to understand his Burnley accent. He said, "I'm sorry people are having ­difficulty with my accent. I'm sure the great fans of EastEnders will get used to it!" The Citizen said that many viwers could not understand his 'strong' Lancashire accent but some readers defended Latham saying that it was, 'Fine and nice to hear a refreshing change to all the mockney actors'. The storyline reportedly recieved criticism from fans. The BBC issued a statement, saying:

"The EastEnders audience would have been aware of the dark situation Whitney was getting into. In the preceding episodes viewers saw Whitney feeling increasingly unwanted and unloved, with her brother and her step-mother absent, her life was taking a downward spiral. [...] It was a natural progression of Whitney's story thus far and we felt it was an important story to tell, and hopefully to raise awareness of amongst our audience. In doing so, we believe it was right to show the—albeit unpleasant—reality of the situation faced by these girls, rather than put a gloss on it. In the episode Whitney is seen to escape and to raise the alarm—we did not leave the audience on a cliffhanger. The menace and danger Whitney is in whilst clear is implied rather than graphic or sensationalised and is in keeping with the audience expectations of how EastEnders would tackle a tough story in a pre-watershed manner and indeed how Whitney's story has evolved over the last few years. We are conscious that Red Nose Day programming includes many different tones and themes, ranging from light comedy sketches to difficult and emotional appeal films, all of which played out around the time the EastEnders episode was scheduled to transmit. We hope that the majority of the audience would have heard the first extended warning and that the serious tone of the introduction, though truncated, pointed to the fact that the upcoming film was a gear change. It was further put into context by the presenters at the end of the piece, when they talked about the Comic Relief-funded charities working to help girls like Whitney.'"

TV Throng defended the BBC saying, Do these viewers not have an ‘Off’ button on their TV sets? And are their children so swayed by soap plotlines they’re out there, as we speak, hunting out pimps of their own?? I’m so sick of a few anally retentive whiners picking up on every storyline that might be described as “controversial” on EastEnders and moaning about it, when all they need to do is CHANGE THE PIGGIN’ CHANNEL! Nobody’s forcing them to watch so at the first hint that there was a scene coming up that may affect viewers’ sensitivities, they should have just turned over or off… And I find it quite telling that these viewers are presumably happy to have had their kids watch scenes in which babies were dying in African hospitals – a real life tragedy – but feel compelled to ring or write in to complain about a soap storyline?? To those who complained, I have this to say: Get a life, get a grip and get a hobby other than checking Ofcom is still on speed dial.