Ofcom rejects 67 complaints about vicar’s gay kiss on Coronation Street
Broadcast regulator Ofcom received more than 60 complaints about a gay kiss on Coronation Street.
The ITV soap aired the scenes last month in which vicar Billy Mayhew (played by Daniel Brocklebank) shared a kiss with Todd Grimshaw (Bruno Langley) after splitting from partner Sean.
You might think that in 2016 people would might better things to do than take issue with every single gay kiss on a TV show… but apparently not.
In its report, Ofcom revealed a swathe of complaints about the kiss. An airing on July 8 attracted 26 complaints citing ‘Generally accepted standards’, while an airing on July 11 attracted a further 41 complaints about standards.
There were 6 additional complaints categorised as ‘Religious/Beliefs discrimination/offence’, presumably also referring to the storyline.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We considered a number of complaints objecting to two male characters kissing in this episode, but won’t be investigating.
“Our rules do not discriminate between scenes involving opposite sex and same sex couples.
“Also the scenes were not in any way sexually explicit. For these reasons they were not scheduled inappropriately and did not exceed generally accepted standards.”
Ofcom also dismissed a further 28 complaints about a Big Brother gay romance, which saw Ryan Ruckledge and Hughie Maughan get steamy.
The spokesperson said: “We assessed complaints about sexual activity between participants in this programme, but won’t be taking the matter forward for investigation.
“The scenes in question were broadcast close to the end of the programme approaching 10 PM, and they were not explicit.”
