Coronation Street is cleared over first gay kiss
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
The television watchdog has rejected complaints made about the first ever gay kiss in an episode of Coronation Street.
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) said that there was nothing wrong with the scene in the soap, which depicted a kiss between the characters Todd Grimshaw (Bruno Langley) and Nick Tilsley (Adam Rickett).
The programme prompted 21 complaints from viewers upset by pre-watershed homosexual scenes when it was broadcast on ITV1 last month, but the ITC said the scene was acceptable and was an attempt to show "a young man's confusion with his sexuality".
It said: "Although gay relationships have been shown for many years in other soaps, Coronation Street has always attracted an older audience, who may be less comfortable with this behaviour.
"A young man's confusion with his sexuality, expressed in a clumsy and inexplicit manner, did not go beyond what has previously been seen in a drama at this time of the evening," the ITC report concluded.
But the watchdog did acknowledge that some sections of the viewing public still regarded homosexuality as an unacceptable subject for television. It said: "The ITC is aware that some viewers do not wish to see any representation of homosexuality on television.
"Some parents are especially concerned that any overt behaviour, such as a kiss, should be featured before the 9pm watershed when children could be watching television."
Other soaps such as Brookside, Emmerdale and EastEnders have featured storylines involving gay characters.
But although Coronation Street does feature a transsexual character, Hayley Cropper, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh, it has lagged behind its competitors.
Brookside, which is based in Liverpool, featured the first lesbian kiss on British television. Anna Friel's character Beth Jordache kissed the former Holby City actress Nicola Stephenson back in 1993.
The soap, which ends tonight on Channel 4, also shocked viewers with an incest storyline about a brother and sister who fell in love.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments