Starting out with only three episodes of Hollyoaks, actor Glen Wallace - who plays Malachy Fisher in the Chester-based show - has landed one of the soap's biggest storylines of the year when his character discovers he is HIV positive. The situation worsens for Malachy, however, when he realises that his brother may have become infected, too. Here, Glen chats to us about his research for the storyline, what's to come for his character and where the storyline is headed.
What's it like being back with Hollyoaks?
"I'm delighted. Obviously it's one of those scenarios that you read about but don't think is true. Malachy was in three episodes at the start of last year but because of his relationship with Kris, the producers decided to bring me back in. So from three episodes, I now have a year-long contract."
Did you have any idea for what producer Bryan Kirkwood had planned for you?
"Yes. After I shot nine eps before Christmas, he told me that he was very keen on what I did and was interested in bringing me back in for a longer period. When he told me that Malachy would get HIV, I was taken aback. It was a shock to the system when I realised that the last time this topic was dealt with on national TV was 20 years ago with Mark Fowler in EastEnders. There's now a whole generation of children out there who don't understand the implications of HIV."
Malachy's ignorant to it all, too, isn't he?
"He's straight, he gets paid cash in hand on a building site and as long as he's got enough money to buy the beer and pull a woman at the end of the week, he's happy. There's a conversation that Malachy and Kris have where Malachy tells his brother something along the lines of 'this shouldn't be happening to me - I'm normal, you're the deviant'."
The plot's quite intricate. Can you give us a brief summary of what's happened before viewers discover Malachy has HIV on-screen…
"Malachy and Kris go and give blood and Kris finds out that he can't donate because he's bisexual. Malachy's relationship at this stage is still very casual, no strings attached. Malachy then gets a call from the blood clinic telling him that he has HIV and takes himself off on a bender for the weekend. While Malachy's been away, Mercedes and Kris have slept together as a way to get back at him and the condom split. When Kris admits to sleeping with her, Malachy now has to worry that he's infected his brother as well as the woman he probably loves."
Where is the plot headed? It's going to run way into the New Year, isn't it?
"There's definitely a lot of twists and turns along the way. Mercedes does find out about Malachy having HIV and the fact that she could have it. But the worst thing is that he doesn't tell her…"
What research have you done for the storyline? What have you learned?
"I've learned a fantastic amount and we're still learning. What did we do before the internet came along? To do the story justice, I felt that even though Malachy doesn't know the background or the statistics, I needed to know before I started filming. I watched lots of films like Philadelphia to try and grasp on to as much as possible that I could draw on."
You found out quite a lot about the 'PEP' treatment, didn't you?
"Yeah. I didn't know about the PEP drug until I started working on the research for the storyline. The best way to describe it is that it's like the morning-after pill for HIV. You have to up 72 hours from when you think you've become infected to take it. It's horrendous what it does to you - it totally obliterates your bodily functions and builds it up from scratch. But if it has the potential to prevent you from contracting HIV, then it's definitely a step forward."
What would you say to those people that are saying Hollyoaks is tackling issue after issue in its storylines?
"At the end of the day, we're making a TV show. One of the benefits that we have, we can bring up these issues that are important. We're not making an education programme, we're dealing with in as real a way as possible. It's portraying real life. Beyond the diagnosis, we're looking at whether a relationship such as Malachy and Mercedes's can hold strong when one of the partners has HIV."
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