Coronation Street
From LGBT Archive
Coronation Street is a British television soap opera, set in the fictional town of Weatherfield in Greater Manchester. It has been appearing regularly since 1960, and was originally conceived by Tony Warren. It is now the world's longest-running soap opera.
For many years there were complaints that the show was unrepresentative in not showing any gay characters, but more recently there have been suggestions, for instance by some of the actors[1] and by Brian Sewell, that it's "too gay".[2]
Characters
LGBT characters include:
- Todd Grimshaw
- Sean Tully, played by Antony Cotton
- Hayley Cropper (trans woman), played by Julie Hesmondhalgh
- Sophie Webster
- Sian Powers
- Marcus Dent, played by Charlie Condou
- Marc Selby (heterosexual cross-dresser)
- Ted Page
- Maddie Heath
Actors and writers
Sir Ian McKellen appeared in the show in 2005 as the confidence trickster and supposed novelist Mel Hutchwright.
Besides Antony Cotton and Charlie Condou, other LGBT people who have appeared in the show include Peter Dudley, Heather Peace and Jane Hazlegrove.
Writers have included Maureen Chadwick.
References
- ↑ http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/07/11/coronation-street-stars-complain-about-gay-characters/ article in Pink News
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/07/coronation-street-gay-brian-sewell Comment by Charlie Condou in The Guardian