Hollyoaks: what’s wrong with gay couples kissing?

The news that Channel 4 had received some complaints about a gay couple, Kieron and John Paul, kissing on Hollyoaks was clearly as surprising to many fans as it was to the programme makers.
Since A Cook’s Tour of Spain diverted The TV Show’s pre-watershed debate on Saturday away from the issue of the Hollyoaks' kiss, we are delighted to welcome Marianne Buckland, Channel 4's Hollyoaks Editor, to have her say on kissing, the show and to invite feedback from the fans. Share your thoughts below.

Actually, what I was going to say echoes what has been said in the forums already. Both Channel 4 and the makers of Hollyoaks firmly believe that homosexual and heterosexual relationships should be represented equally. The regulations for what we can show pre-watershed are exactly the same for gay and straight couples in drama or factual programming. Sexuality and how it informs your identity is obviously very important in young people’s lives and as Hollyoaks is aimed at a teenage audience this is not an issue we are going to avoid or water-down unnecessarily.

As viewers of the show will know, Hollyoaks isn’t a children’s programme and has never been marketed as such; we want to provide viewers with relevant, dramatic, and engaging storylines. At the same time, we take the responsibility of deciding what is and what isn’t suitable for broadcast in the Hollyoaks time slot very seriously. This is particularly important for storylines that deal with sex (gay or straight!) as well as violence and drugs. Working this out often proves to be quite a subtle balancing act and there is an ongoing dialogue between the producers of Hollyoaks and Channel 4 to try and make sure we get it right. Please let us know how you think we’re doing..

Now the serious stuff is out the way, I thought I should let you know that we have some juicy storylines coming up to take us through the summer - late June sees Steph and Max’s wedding plans hanging by a thread and we’ll finally find out if Max gets the happy ending he deserves. Some dramatic events for Kieron and John Paul run along side this and it’s a dark and confusing time for Newt.

We know Hollyoaks is great but how could we make it even better? Is there a subject you’d like to see the show tackle? Please do keep the feedback coming in, we really do appreciate it!

Marianne x

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