The Maalik family will "respond in different ways" during the 'Hollyoaks' far-right extremism storyline.
Rishi Nair
At the end of Wednesday's (13.03.19) first-look episode on E4, Jonny Baxter (Ray Quinn), Stuart Sumner (Chris Simmons) and another associate stared out Sami Maalik (Rishi Nair) in comfortable scenes as the soap's radicalisation storyline intensifies.
Scriptwriter Jayshree Patel told Digital Spy: "Individual members of the family respond in different ways, so you'll see a range of different things where each of the Maaliks are offering a different response.
"I think that reflects reality. When I was a kid and my dad used to face racism, he'd just smile and walk away. He'd come home and he'd say: 'Well, I didn't say anything because I feel more sorry for them than I do for myself'.
"Whereas my mum would give them an absolute mouthful back. So people do respond in different sorts of ways. That was one of the things that we were really keen on representing."
Meanwhile, the show will also took to show different views within the Muslim community, and last night the episode saw the Maaliks gather for a meal and then row when Sami challenged his family for how traditional it was.
Opening up about how Muslims are presented on TV, Jayshree added: "There are actually very, very different interpretations of what it means. There are differences in terms of the bits that people take from the religion and which bits they reject.
"So on the one hand, you've got some young people who won't touch alcohol at all, but they will do other things that they're not supposed to do. On the other hand, you've got people who do the bits that fit in with them.
"Sami is somebody who feels like he needs to be identified as a British person before he's identified as anything else."