Gay snog on "Eastenders" threatens to destroy UK!

I particularly like that last complaint as well, that the son is thinking he's gay because he kisses his dad. Did the son previously think that he was getting to first base when he kissed his mom?

EastEnders is a different kind of soap than Hollyoaks. EastEnders is on the BBC so people expect it to be clean-cut and well, boring. HollyOaks is on Channel Four, and the channel has a reputation for pushing the boundaries. John Paul is not the kind of character you see in every TV show, just the very good ones!

EastEnders is watched by older people whereas HollyOaks is aimd at teenagers. I think this means the majority of Middle England who would object just aren't watching it. Also, they assume it is grotesque because us teenagers watch it; and it has no substance obviously, just beautiful people in bikinis, right?

 

 

Doesn't bow to a few complaints, but tells parents that ultimately THEY are responsible for deciding what they let their children watch:

The BBC have now issued a statement standing by their decision to show the kiss. “We approach our portrayal of homosexual relationships in the same way as we do heterosexual relationships,” it read. “We believe that the general tone and content of EastEnders is now widely recognised. Parents can make an informed decision as to whether they want their children to watch.”

http://www.heatworld.com/Article/7543/EastEnders+/EastEnders+react+after+viewers+complain+about+THIS+kiss

Beats American networks' 'Oh sorry, it will NEVER happen again. God bless America!' any time!

The Gays Of Daytime

I think the most surprising thing about this story to me is that young children watch Eastenders.

at least to me. I wouldn't have thought that a gay kiss on a soap would cause controversy in Great Britain. I've also never heard about this 9 p.m. "watershed". after hollyoaks, little britain, graham norton, beautiful thing I thought the Brits were pretty much "down with the rainbow". After all it's just a kiss. Forbidden love is also shown before the 9 p.m. watershed and on a governmental network and no one seems to be bothered by its gay content.

I believe it was some 15 or so years ago. Then there was all sorts of snarking and calling the show "EastBenders."

 

Besides it featues the great Barbara Windsor so it's gay no matter how you slice it.

You should probably take more care when choosing your sources. The Daily Star is awful, Their 'news' is generally made up of soccer gossip and which giant breasted media-whore is on drugs, has gotten pregnant or has exposed said breasts.

Isn't Torchwood BBC?

And didn't they have a pre-watershed version WITH the gay kisses?

I didn't even know EastEnders had Gays right now.

I love when parents say now they have to 'explain everything' to their kids. It's not like if a kid sees two men kissing and asks 'why?' you suddenly have to explain about anal sex, rimming, lube and STIs. If you ask the kid 'why do you think?', they'll probably just shrug and say 'I guess they like each other.'

Kids only get weirded out when their parents do. Prejudice is a learned trait, and these parents are just trying to cover up for their own discomfort (which would likely be considered innappropriate) by dragging their kids into it. People's skulls have been bashed in with ash trays and irons on this show.

Watershed bring up an interesting question. We moan and complain about Nuke in comparison to the various European shows, but even if we ignore the historical religious right influence, there is also the side to this that Nuke is on much earlier than any of those other shows? Would Christian and Oliver be snogging if they were on on one of those 2pm, 3pm shows? Ok, maybe they would, but so far the fact is that likely they wouldn't be on those shows at all (these shows are deliberately targeted at retired viewers, rural viewers and they always have one central female character; so gay characters showing up in a relevant fashion seems quite unlikely).

Not that that excuses the US, afterall, I don't notice any better quality snogging on the shows that are on later on the major networks. 

... and I wouldn't call it mass hysteria either. 

People write in to the BBC with comments, opinions and complaints all the time. Some media outlets have pointed out that another recent storyline received more complaints, and that hasn't been pulled or watered down either. 

There really isn't strong public feeling about this kiss at all so far as I can tell. Even the comments made by readers on the Daily Mail story (and the Mail is a socially conservative paper) were mostly quite supportive of the kiss.

I thought it was interesting that the scene made Dot look like an old-fashioned spoilsport (not for the first time!) because she complained about the kissing. The suggestion from EastEnders was that not only do gay people kiss in public, but that anyone who objects to that is a fussy old woman. That might have spurred a few people to complain who might otherwise not have bothered. In that sense the scene was actually quite groundbreaking.

Now as long as they don't follow it up with a scene in which a gay PDA leads to gaybashing, soaps might actually be making some progress towards representing real life.

I think we've got to remember that the source of the story for this 'outrage' is the Daily Star.  Easily the worst newspaper in the UK (and that's up against some stiff competition).  At the beginning of the article it states that the BBC was 'flooded' with 'thousands' of complaints however later in the same article it says that the BBC has not divulged how many complaints it recieved.  Hmm.. could it be the figures were plucked out of the air to make the story more of, well, a story?

As for all this watershed nonsense.  Emmerdale, a soap which goes out half an hour earlier than Eastenders has had numerous gay (male and female) storylines, kisses and all without much of a problem.  So as far as I can see there can't have been enough football and naked women news to fill the paper that day so they thought they'd chuck in a bit of gay panic to bulk things out a bit.

"I had to explain to my seven-year-old son what was happening. He now thinks he is gay because he kisses his dad.”

^ Oh man, i love this. at the same time, i would've said "if you're gay for kissing your dad, then we're both pedaphiles for kissing you goodnight every night.."

...but eh, the damn kid is 7.....I thought Eastenders was more of an adult show to begin with...? like, way moreso than Hollyoaks...

Eastenders did do this back in the '80s.  Kisses on the lips and not just on the forehead - in fact they were the first soap to do it on British television.  Best part of it all was back then it made the front page of one of the nationals - including a photo of the moment in full colour covering the WHOLE of page one.  Strangely no one complained about this.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the whole story was either manufactured or deliberately given to the paper by the production office - 'stenders hasn't been doing too well in the ratings for a while.  A daytime programme called 'Doctors' which goes out around 2pm shows the same thing every now and then and yet doesn't provoke the same outrage.  But for its timeslot it gets good ratings and feedback, both from viewers and within the industry, so doesn't need to drum up the same kind of publicity.  Go figure.

The watershed's a bit of a mouthful to explain here but in a nutshell it means nothing overtly explicit to be shown on any BBC channel before 9pm.  And even programmes after 9 are carefully monitored - down to the number of expletives used in any 7 day viewing span.  The BBC would probably play this down if asked but I've worked for them in the past and I know it's a fact.  If you want to the full wording for the watershed ruling try the BBC website.

Isn't Torchwood BBC?

And didn't they have a pre-watershed version WITH the gay kisses?

Yes, but I think the content was toned down more than you think for the pre- 9pm repeat.  Because it was aimed at a younger audience.  But, the individual programmes are given different latitudes - there's no absolutes.  Hope that helps more than it confuses.

I should have said before 9pm nothing overtly explicit, or handled in an irresponsible, gratuitous, sensationalistic or exploitive way.  This goes for violence and swearing as well as quote, scenes of a sexual nature, unquote.  Ok?

at the reaction. Specially when I picture in my mind who I think watches Eastenders.

I just saw the episode in question. The kiss seems to be the result of a blind date, so I should not expect much backstory. The first time one sees the couple though is a post coital scene getting dressed.

The kiss happens later and it was kind of sweet. An older established character calls them on it and they answer it just young love, she answers that young love is fine but she frowns upon public displays of affection in general. I think that exchange was set up to show an older person being somewhat open minded about the kiss and not make it about them being gay.

They seem to be smithen with each other, so this might be the begining of a couple. 

Great to see the BBC stand up for itself and equality, I wouldnt expect anything else.

is there gonna be a section on this storyline on the tv section << like there is for Hollyoaks, ATWT and forbidden love??

please? 

Ten years ago there was a lot of complaints to gay kisses in daytime high school soap Al salir de clase, they have some kind of nuke relationship because everytime they gonna kiss always ring the phone. An the channel opted to get back with their storyline (even they finally get together at the end).

Three or four years ago there was complaints about the gay couple in the sit com Aquí no hay quien viva, but the couple and the sit com was so popular (and the times were changed) that the channel (even when Antena 3 is the most conservative channel, maybe because the rest are left handed) don't change a thing.

This year it was a lot of complaints about Física o Química, but not about the gay character (Fer didn't have any sex life till this week), because they think that the portray about teens were a bad example (because everybody knows that teens don't have sex and nobody consumes drugs). The channel (Antena 3 again) don't make changes  at all and defend their choices in the storylines

...it's from staying up late every night so they can actually enjoy realistic tv that isn't whitewashed or dulled down. :P

 

Eastenders has done a few gay storylines already.  They had Simon and Tony as a couple on the show for awhile several years ago and I recall them kissing.  That was even more scandalous because one was dating the other's sister.  I just find it strange, especially since I read the other day that no one complains anymore when Luke and Noah kiss on ATWT.  So I can't imagine why folks are getting upset in the UK since they've seen far more of it than we have here.

This can't be right! It must be manufactured or some journalist was bored out of his/her mind!

And please, let's not repeat the same stupid debate as 10 years ago. Of course there have been gay kisses on "EastEnders"! For instance, when Mark Homer and Andrew Lynford played the gay couple Simon and Tony. Tony was dating Simon's sister at first, when he met out Simon. I remember watching a debate of parents arguing about the on-screen kisses and how far too many seconds they lasted or something of that sort.. It must have been around 1996 I think. I was living in the UK at the time and bought my first VCR because of it..

Oh and yes! I was going to mention "Doctors" too! It's on BBC1 every day at 2pm and they have had gay story lines repeatedly and they also had Greg(!) (Ben Jones) who dated Ollie (Lawrence Penry-Jones). When LP-J left the show, Greg dated Tom (Mark Healy), when he left the show, Greg dated Rico (Felix d'Alviella). They got married. When both actors left the show in April last year, their characters ended up in Denmark, together and with a kid.

So that EE panic attack over the gaykiss before watershed can't be but pure nonsense, I say!

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R.I.P. - Heath Ledger [1979 - 22 January 2008]

R.I.P. - Sayif [2006 - 12 June 2008] - my cat, run over by a car..

.. you beat me to it!  ;o)

But that shows that we are both right and that these 'complaints' just don't make sense at all! 

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R.I.P. - Heath Ledger [1979 - 22 January 2008]

R.I.P. - Sayif [2006 - 12 June 2008] - my cat, run over by a car..

I live in the UK and I can assure you this has all been blown out of proportion - you shouldn't trust anything you read in The Star!  Yes there have been a few complaints but some people complain about almost every storyline.  According to a much more reliable story on the internet, the BBC received 146 complaints about the kiss - along with 110 about a character breaking his fasting at Ramadan and over 200 regarding a current child abuse storyline.  There will always be a minority ready to complain about anything, but I'm pretty sure most viewers didn't take much notice.  It's also worth adding that in tonight's episode Christian and Lee kissed twice more, so the BBC don't seem to be backing away from this storyline at all.

I hate the fact that this gives the impression that the UK is a homophobic country when it's not. It is one of the most gay-friendly places on the planet. We more or less have all the civil rights we need, the final one is just getting passed through parliament as we speak. I kissed my boyfriend in a straight club the other week and also a Starbucks over coffee and no-one batted an eyelid at all. For the most part being gay is not a problem. It's just a shame that we have such a tiny (and I actually mean miniscule...I mean 100 or so complaints out of a viewing audience of around 8 Million just goes to show how insignificant it is) minority of homophobes who are so vocal about their beliefs. And it's not as if they are vocal about it in their everyday life, it's quite taboo to be openly homophobic to be honest. It's seen as very anachronistic, even with the older generation that I know. So these people don't complain publicly, they have to do it by writing on a message board because they know being homophobic is quite shameful in this country to be quite honest. The fact that Eastenders is showing an unashamedly honest portrayal of a gay couple and making no bones about it and the BBC having no qualms about basically telling the complainers to shut up, shows that the overwhemingly majority of this country do not agree with these complaints.

So Ive been meaning to try this out, the uploading business. This my fist try, be nice. Its a little choppy, but it will have to do for now.

This are the scenes of the October 7th episode of Eastenders that contains the kiss featured in this post.  Already uploading todays episode, more kissing involved. Well see how this develops.

Anyway, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIMYDIHrFUI

Enjoy.

 

Well, I dont know what to say to be honest. I still dont get why people make such a huge deal about this even in 2008.

I agree with BBC on this one. The parents can control what their kids watch on TV so I dunno why they have to get their panties in a twist about this. I think there is much more ''offensive'' stuff happening on daytime TV than a minor gay kiss that would be so threatening to those poor kids.

I say, good job BBC for doing the gay kiss! Looks like the UK has a long way to go just like like US.

 

About ten years ago (my god, I'm old) there was the Simon/Tony storyline, also with a few chaste kisses and hugs. Simon ended up stealing his sister's boyfriend away from her :-), said boyfriend then became very confused and -I think- a drug dealer, before he announced he was bisexual, after which the both of them skipped off happily traveling to continental Europe.

I remember so well because it was one of the first gay couples I ever saw on TV.  Well, them and Tim&Gavin on the Brittas Empire (alas, Tim and Gavin never snogged)

This is the exact mentality that I thought this was going to convey. The UK hasn't got a long way to go at all, it is miles ahead of the US. We're more or less there already, just a few legalities to iron out and a tiny amount of hearts and minds to change. That's it. This 'controversy' that the press is trying to make out is just an exception to the rule. 

 

Thanks so much for the clips.

What a lovely thing to do.

I actually really liked the way this character handled himself during the whole closeted step nephew false accusation situation.

He's so sexy and unapologetic.

 

Yet no-one complained about Hollyoaks all that time it was on at 6:30pm in the evening and aimed mostly at young people?

Just shows the kind of idiots that watch Eastenders.