Photograph: PA Images/AlamyĪs the Heartstopper plot unfolded, however, so too did a real-life event. My own similar experiences at school, I believed, had taught me far better the notion that television executives would commission – or that British audiences would welcome – a mainstream, queer and adolescent happily-ever-after was firmly beyond the realms of possibility in my jaded millennial mind.Ī Norwich City player wears a t-shirt supporting Jake Daniels earlier this month. The idea that the show might end as it did – with a tear-jerkingly joyful celebration of young queer love in full bloom, depicted gorgeously – seemed impossible. “There’s no way,” I declared to my partner with confidence, “that this is going to end well.” His love would go unrequited. Aimed primarily at a younger audience, the show is about an openly gay male sixth former at an English comprehensive (played by 18-year-old Joe Locke) who falls in love with the school’s most popular rugby player in the year above. B arely three minutes into the first episode of Heartstopper – Netflix’s new LGBTQ+ coming-of-age romcom series, which has been a knockout success with critics and viewers – I turned to my boyfriend, curled up next to me on the sofa.
