Audiences continue to swoon over Heartstopper, the new gay, teen series now streaming on Netflix. One key to the show’s success: the way it tugs–pardon the phrase–at the heartstrings of viewers, especially LGBTQ people who never could have come out as teenagers.
To review: based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel, Heartstopper follows the story of Charlie (Joe Locke), one of the few openly queer students at his British grammar school. He has a secret boyfriend who refuses to acknowledge him in public, and who generally makes life miserable for him. That changes with the arrival of Nick (Kit Connor), a handsome new student and rugby player with whom Charlie develops an immediate attraction. Nick encourages Charlie to join the rugby team, and sparks begin to fly.
Heartstopper has earned wide praise for the tenderness with which it treats its subject matter. That extends to British TV personality Phillip Schofield, who fought back tears while interviewing the stars of the show.
Locke and Connor stopped by the British morning show This Morning to sit down with Schofield and his co-host Holly Willoughby on April 28. For Schofield, who publicly came out as gay at age 58 in 2020, seeing the acceptance with which friends and family greet Nick and Charlie proved more emotional than he expected.
