Happy Pride! The Hollyoaks cast were as welcoming as ever to Metro! (Picture: Lime Pictures)
You can’t think Hollyoaks without thinking LGBTQ+. Synonymous with years of representation, groundbreaking storylines and character journeys, as well as iconic ships that have had audiences over several generations in a tizzy, the Channel 4 soap is an ally and then some.
Now approaching its 30th anniversary, Hollyoaks boasts a history of fantastic gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and non-binary characters, all who have been at the centre of storylines both focusing on their gender identity and sexual orientation but, just as crucially, not.
As show stalwart Kieron Richardson said when we sat down for a chat on set recently, the characters ‘just are – they can be lead characters at the forefront of the show.
‘It’s not like, “We’re going to have a gay one, we’re going to have a lesbian in it or a trans person,” they were just lead characters. They had stories and their sexuality was just a part of them, it was never that this was a focal point of why they were in the show. I think we always led the way with that.’
And if anyone should know, it’s Kieron himself whose character Ste Hay has been central to some of the soap’s most blockbuster storylines of all time.
Drug addictions, murder mysteries, far-right grooming, explosive affairs – he’s done it all, and his love for the show that made him a household name shone through when we chatted.
Ste’s life is a bit of a car crash for the most part, sometimes even literally – at the start of this year, his world was upended once more when he accidentally hit and killed teenager Ella in a traffic collision.
Amplifying Kieron’s point that Hollyoaks’ LGBTQ+ characters are far more than box-ticking vehicles for certain topics, Ste’s marriages have also been chaotic, packed with drama and created online frenzies.
Kieron has racked up an impressive 17 years as Ste (Picture: Lime Pictures)
Perhaps most notably, the chemistry between Kieron, 38, and former co-star Emmet J Scanlan drove the iconic ‘Stendan’ relationship to a cult status it will never shake off.
Ste and Brendan were a couple far from your traditional boy meets boy – it was as messy and often toxic as any soap couple and it created an online buzz that was off the charts and pretty new for the time of the early 2010s, when social media shipping was just starting to take off.
Stendan set the foundation and tone for how soap shipping would very quickly progress over the years that would follow.
In my work in the TV drama industry over the last decade, it is something that I have found consistent – if a TV show gets an LGBTQ+ pairing right, then they are onto a winner.
Your Syed and Christians, Sophie and Sians and Robert and Aarons in EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale respectively are proof that the soap …read more
Source:: Metro
