THE Bill is set to stun viewers with its most shocking storyline ever when male copper Mickey Webb is RAPED by a crazed criminal.
Popular Detective Constable Mickey is sent out to track down dangerous villain Martin Delaney, who's committed a string of attacks in the Sun Hill area. But the tables are turned in the most graphic fashion when he's lured into a trap, knocked out and raped. Mickey -played by Chris Simmons -thinks he's got his man cornered when suddenly he's whacked over the back of the head with a shovel.
The full horror of what happened emerges when he comes round and is rushed to hospital for treatment.
A Bill source said: ``Mickey's a changed man after this. He's a tough sort and can accept getting punched, but he's been meddled with in the most personal way possible and he can't come to terms with that.''
News of Mickey's ordeal, which is set to be shown on the ITV
1 show at the end of the month, quickly spreads around his Sun Hill colleagues and all hell breaks loose.
The male rape storyline is the latest in a long line of controversial plots in the hstory of the police drama.
In the past few months, viewers have seen the station burn down, PC Nick Klein (Rene Zagger) become a crack cocaine addict, PC Polly Page arrested for helping to kill her friend and two female CID officers have sex with two of the area's biggest villains.
It's interesting to see it described as controversial and to see how some parts of the story differed in the spoilers (e.g. rushed to hospital) and the actual show.