It’s the year 2020 and homophobes are still complaining that two gay men kissed on Casualty
Marty (Shaheen Jafargholi) and Jack (Jack Hardwick) shared a kiss on Casualty which was apparently too much for some to handle. (BBC)
More than 100 people complained after Casualty aired a gay kiss.
Casualty viewers have in recent weeks watched as Marty (Shaheen Jafargholi) began to fall for the wealthy and mysterious Jack (Jack Hardwick).
In an episode which aired on January 25, viewers discovered that Jack is married after his husband was admitted to the hospital.
Marty found himself dumped, but not before the pair shared a passionate kiss.
The episode sparked further melodrama off screen, as the BBC’s complaints department has confirmed that 111 people found the kiss “offensive”.
This is despite the fact that both men were fully clothed, and that the kiss aired well after the 9pm watershed.
The sole issue was that the Casualty kiss happened between two gay characters, something which even in 2020, still riles up homophobes.
BBC told Holby City and Casualty have ‘too many gay characters’.
Casualty and its sister show Holby City have introduced a number of LGBT+ characters in recent years, a move which has led to a number of complaints.
In 2017 the BBC’s head of continuing drama Oliver Kent revealed that a number of viewers had bemoaned that there were “too many gay characters” in Holby City.
“And that’s because at the time we had two gay love stories. We had four characters out of 17. I don’t think that’s disproportionate,” he told the Daily Star.
Elsewhere on the BBC, a same-sex dance on Strictly Come Dancing attracted 300 complaints.
The long-running dance series made history in November 2019 when pros Johannes Radebe and Graziano Di Prima performed together, a move which was praised by the vast majority but still garnered complaints, none of which were upheld by the BBC.
Two months later, in January 2020, Strictly‘s rival Dancing On Ice introduced its first-ever same-sex pairing: Ian ‘H’ Watking and Matt Evers.
Their debut performance attracted 16 complaints, all of which were rejected by Ofcom.
