Corrie plans first gay storyline

[jive]

0625 GMT, Monday 24th March 2003 -- by Neil Wilkes from digital spy.


Todd Grimshaw will dump girlfriend Sarah Lou after developing a crush on a man, according to the Sunday Mirror. The storyline will make Todd, played by 19-year-old Bruno Langley, the soap's first gay character in its 43-year history. "There have been meetings about Todd wrestling with his sexuality," a source told the newspaper. "Nothing is written in stone yet but it looks like it is going to happen. The Street never shies away from the big issues."

I knew it from the second i saw him and couldn't belive he was supposed to be straight looks like they had it planned all along now, i might start watchin again.....

"I didn't have a barbie doll as a child, I had an action man. Fair enough my action man didn't have any clothes..."

[damien]

Oh yeah. Todds cute. This can be a good thing definetly. We need to see a bit more gay characters in the mainstream channels.

[velma kelly]

oh my gawd... that is so cool .. i can't wait to see that.. its about time.. they've had ever other kind of issue before except a gay character.. i was hoping that they would make nick tilsley gay when he was in it *(adam Rickett).....

[amnesiac]

Todd Grimshaw?
WEAK FOR IT!!!
p

[redbulljunkie]

As they say in father ted - toddumptious mmmm.

[mattyboy]

Yeah Todd is very cute reminds me of my beautiful boyfriend....
lucky me...

[redbulljunkie]

your boyfriend wouldn't happen to be an ex comp sci student would he? Because I remember there was a guy in my class who was the spitting image of todd. Pretty sure he was gay.

[TheExile]

So Corrie finally bites the homo bullet and has someone wrestling with their sexuality! Considering the guy who created the whole corrie idea and launched the first episode is gay, I'd say a very big shame on them for waiting until now. This is the kind of soap shite that sees no problem with having a mass murderer as a storyline, teenage rape etc etc, but worries that it might offend viewers with a gay character. I suppose now that their ratings have finally hit an all time low they've finally agreed to resort to the one big issue that's sure to get the tabloids writing - the queer thing.

What corrie needs is for the Rovers to be turned into a leather bar complete with back room, porn videos and someone giving that irksome Gale a final seeing off in a sling or something..

only a thought...

[mattyboy]

[D][D] No my boyfriend is not the guy you're thinking off, i think you're wrong to say Corries ratings are at an all time low not after the Richard and Gale storyline, Anyway if that were the case having a queer in it is hardly going to make much differents to the ratings.. Not a big deal having a queer in the show, Now if it were Ken Barlow that we be a real storyline......

[TheExile]

Jock - if it's no big deal having a queer in the show then how come they haven't had one yet?? Reason is fairly obvious - The powers that be at Corrie land see the whole gay thing as being perverse. In their narrow minded visions there is nothing normal about being gay. Of course now having the softened the way with the mass murderer there's room for a on screen perv to keep ratings up.
Ever think what it'd be like if TV soaps actually showed gay people as contributing something to society instead of being the closeted pervs they try to make them out to be?
Of course the ironic thing is that good old Fred Elliot, Mr Straight to everyone on set got done over by a rent boy...Maybe they should make that their next rating grabbing headline

[jive]

I thought esetenders were very upfront about it with simon and tony a few years back and at the moment hollyoaks is pretty good too

"I didn't have a barbie doll as a child, I had an action man. Fair enough my action man didn't have any clothes..."

[northsider]

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god...........
Before i even opened this thread i was hoping it would be Todd. Him and his brother are so fine!

[redbulljunkie]

my first time seeing gay characters in a tv show was gavin and tim in the brittas empire. weird, I remember my old man actually pointing them out to me, sure I was about 7 at the time.

Bouncers - bigger than your average bear but not quite as smart

[jive]

Im flaming. Or at least this thread is, my first hot thread here insert smiley face here.

"I didn't have a barbie doll as a child, I had an action man. Fair enough my action man didn't have any clothes..."

[amnesiac]

OK, whilst taking a break from Pilger, Lehninger, Woolf and Kant... I kinda stumbled across heat magazine... and found pictures of the actor who plays Todd!
WEAK
FOR
IT

You should have stayed at the party Maxine.

[mattyboy]

[|)][|)][xx(][;)]Exile you're right they are very narrow mined in Corrie i'm surprised it's taken to long for a gay character,Eastenders
has been at it for years. It will be funny though Todd has never shown any gay vibes in the past so for him to just turn gay it's a shit idea, i take we'll see him making excuses and heading into Manchester to gay bars.He won't have any problems picking some one up he's a ride but his brothers just as cute.

[amnesiac]

Well Todd has always been portrayed as a very caring, SNAG kind of guy as opposed to his chauvinistic, lad of a brother.

Todd GrimshawWEAK FOR IT!

You should have stayed at the party Maxine.

[TheExile]

Thank you Jock. With the exception of The Bill, I must confess to switching off from TV soaps some time ago, particularly Coronation Street, so I can't really comment on Todds suitability as a gay character. But it does annoy me that the creator of Corrie is himself a gay man who obviously understand the unique problems we all face especially regarding peer/parential acceptance. Least he could have done was broken the ice so to speak.
Sadly much of the anti-gay, homophobic lobby, which is still very much in evidence gets its misconceptions from soap operas.
As gay people we deserve better. We're should be evident in everything mainstream from soap operas to books and gay storylines should no longer be subject to the 'adult only' theme.
An example of this is the amounts of complaints The Bill got for their online screen kiss between Luke and his sergeant. However no complaints whatsoever when mass murderers and rapists take to screen.

We've a long way to go for getting our message across...

[Nkosi]

Ive got a mad possibly idiotic idea, why dont we, instead of bitching about i.t.v. on a site they'll never hear of, flood their inbox with e-mails suggetsing storylines and support for their proposed gay character(s)? if we show an interest and they see a whole group of possible veiwers d'ya really think they'd pass up the offer of possibly a thousand or more veiwers?
And yes todd is a RIDE but i dont like his brother and i think him and that aide crinshaw fella should get it on! As for the rovers becoming a lether brothel i can see norris and emilly becoming such regulars they'll move in!

[amnesiac]

welcome to the board 17mkk.
Ahem check out www.stonewall.org for slightly more thought out plans on how to push gay issues! It's good to see activism amongst the young.

You should have stayed at the party Maxine.

[Nkosi]

Pushing gay issues isnt what i meant, i meant to show support for the storyline, in terms of veiwers. I keep hearing stonewall mentioned but never, ever find anything about what it actually is! and as for the gay rights being alive with the youth there still a million miles to go, for instance i get told in biology im a genetic freak with a disease like down's syndrome so naturally we see the changes still to be made since alot are youth-orientated.

[amnesiac]

"for instance i get told in biology im a genetic freak with a disease like down's syndrome"

17mkk, did thsi actually happen? Because any teacher who is referring to people who are homosexual or Down's Syndrome as "gentic freaks" should be reported to the Equality Authority. Cannot believe that any so-called educated perosn would make such comments in this day and age. I guess I've been very lucky to have relatively little experience of homophobia.

Yes, Ross. One of Pauline's pens. And me and Mr Pen are going for a little walk, down the High Street where we'll see lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of jobs...

[TheExile]

The very reason we have ignorance and prejudice in our society is because of the likes of Coronation Street and the homophobes at ITV who control it. Too late for them now to be talking about introducing gay characters or gay story lines. The time for that has long past. Corrie's only interest is in keeping its viewers, and with it its advertisers.

If you want evidence of the sort of shite they push out just look at the way they treated their one and only Irish character - Dear old, piss head, wife beating Jim Mc Donald. Their treatment of black people hasn't been much better either.

As for your comments 17mkk's regarding my 'bitching' about ITV - I'm not. I'm merely saying that they treatment of gay and lesbian people stinks.
And if you're interested Stonewall was the turning point in gay rights in the USA, when in the 1969 when finally gays had enough of cops raiding their pub and dragging them off to prison. So they got angry, real mad in fact and confronted the cops and made a stand. What Stonewall did was give people everywhere courage to make a stand. Today Stonewall is the name adopted by gay and lesbian groups campaigning for rights. As Amensiac recommends visit their website. Guaranteed more to inspire there...

[Nkosi]

Yup it did happen, we were talking about chromosomes and defects that arise, like super females(XXX) who she made out to be superwoman incarnate, and psycotic males(XYY) hermaphrodites(XYX) whose bodies cant decide what gender to be, the information she was given was that this caused feminine behaviour in men, its what they were told at the inservice for the new biology course so God knows how many teachers across Ireland are spouting off about how homosexual men are XYX instead of XY. As long as teachers are told that homosexuality dosnt exist and to never discuss it in any class these things will happen, especially in biology with all the people out there wasting time on trying to find causes and differences between sexualities and diverting funds from propper research like HIV and cancer. This may sound unfair, but to me it does seem that the education system has been convieniently forgotten by gay rights, sure it will be difficult and embarrasing considering people will link it to all the child abuse stuff but by college allot of the damage is done.

As for ITV they make emmerdale aswell, you know that soap that had the gay barman and still has the rich, scitzophrenic, lesbian new mother? part of the gay barman's character was that he was very good friends with the local old religious lady who goes around preaching morals and the lesbian is best friends with the village vicar. What other soap has had gay characters? shortland street had a gay guy but got rid of him very fast, home and away has never tried it i think, and no irish produced programme has mentioned it!

[amnesiac]

Re. Irish soaps...
Fair City had a long running gay character, Eoghan, whose bisexual boyfirend was killed by a money laundering gang. Ros na Rún had a gay couple from Day 1 in 1996 and has dealt with several gay stories, some of them from the YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS realm of madness (gay guy gets heart transplant from another gay guy whose bf now fancies post op patient due to the fact he has his old lovers heart etc.)
There was always the suspicion that Dinny had Fr. Devereux in Glenroe had a more than platonic relationship.

My adviceSoaps are chewing gum for the eyes. Watch them if you want a giggle but don't expect to take them seriously.

Yes, Ross. One of Pauline's pens. And me and Mr Pen are going for a little walk, down the High Street where we'll see lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of jobs...

[skysabove]

Dinny and Fr Devereux, hmmm? But didn’t Fr Dev live with Stephen Whatshisface? "Lodger", my arse.

Incidentally, this could be an urban myth, but I heard Mary McEvoy (who played Biddy) and Bibi Baskin had a lesbian affair.

[redbulljunkie]

Although in fairness, corrie isn't that backwards, it does have a transsexual character in the form of Hayley. Although who in their right minds picked her as a transsexual and married her to Roy Cropper I don't know. They both look like they'd blush at the mention of the word!

[amnesiac]

I bet ya they're dead kinky and have loadsa BDSM gear under the counter in Roy's Rolls. Roy's Roll indeed!

[redbulljunkie]

dragging up old posts again tut tut. Oh well while we're on the subject, does anyone notice that everytime someone walks into a house in Coronation Street, Todd and Sarah have to tear off half their clothes and run down the stairs to greet them with an "oh my god we're caught" expression. I mean, ffs, you could at least try to button up your shirt again before running down the stairs.

[jive]

cus nothings happening and todd is looking for any excuse not todo the business with sarah. Oh my god i just said do the business i swear im not twelve i do know other euphamisims for sex.

[Nkosi]

Has anyone seen emerdale? I think they're either getting a new gay character or doing a fridgid teen character thing, a cute farm boy lol

[Bootyzilla]

Anything that takes the attention off Salluh un' Kev ('Rawsie and Sawphie, go upsturrs and wash yer 'ands') is alright by me.

But couldn't they have picked a slightly more realistic-closet character to go gay? Like Rita?

[redbulljunkie]

Yeah he's madly in love with sarah. Maybe he's going bi.

[Proud Mary 1980]

Ok, I haven't read all of the posts, foregive me. I think the idea of flooding the tv stastions inbox with e-mail suggestions. Todd being ghay, fine but I think they should introduce a new gay character. I have nothing against Todd, I just think its too easy to write the gay storyline out if its Todd. Think of it, if its not accepted by some of the public, it could be written is as just being a phase, how would that look? Corrie are way behind, a disability storyline hasn't been introduced. Teenage birth has but with a caring supportve mother. A murder storyline was also introduced but when Richard tried to klil Gail and the kids the hype was finished within two or three days, come on like.

[Nkosi]

Forget backward Corie! Emmerdale looks like its doing it again, they got a guy questioning his sexuality and having other ppl slag him off, the whole lot, plus he is cute! cuter then the last gay guy i think!

[Nkosi]

It looks like todds future boy-friend was introduced tonight! sarah didnt get on too well with him, ruling out a threesome while aulpointy face goes off to marrry another weirdo! he was cute, not as cute as todd, but definitly cute, and since they bothered to intorduce an actor maybe there will be some acting?

[redbulljunkie]

damn, missed it. must find pictures.

[Nkosi]

surely you can wait till tomorrow? anyway he's pretty similar to todd, a bit older looking, taller, not as dark skinned, maybe better looking my memory isnt that good!

[redbulljunkie]

have work so will miss it again.

[amnesiac]

I still think Classic Corrie on Granada Plus beats the pants off the tiresome drivel that is 2003spec Corrie!

[solice]

i havent seen corrie in weeks now, i went cold turkey and i came out alive, but was the whole gay thing dealt with or was it just a rumour.

[redbulljunkie]

think it remains just a rumour.

[Proud Mary 1980]

I heard its still a possibility they are meant to be taking in a new character to it.

[jive]

apparently theres talk of adam rickitt comin back and thats who todd falls for but the relationship isn't consumated and todd supposedly moves on to have a relationship

[Nkosi]

I think i remember reading stuff in the papers before that the story line was confirmed, but then they did say it was going to be aired mid july! lol wasnt that adam ricket guy pinch-faced gaels son that ran off to canada? they have a different actor for him now, remember he was over for the wedding.
LOL i badly need to get a life and stop watching this crap!

[NuMarvel]

It's official! - Todd amkes a pass at Nick Tilsey. They kiss and Nick leaves the flat in disgust!!! (Why??? I'd stay!)oo er..... Air date October 5th (after 9 pm of course.. we wouldn't want the little ones to get the wrong idea!)

It's in today's echo so it MUST be true..... Doesn't say who plays Nick so it may or may not be Adam (Abs) Rickett.

What's the big deal? Didn't Fair City have a gay kiss a few years back? Happened right there at 7.30 (ish) and I don't think i heard a word about it anywhere.

And look at the Bill! My god there are more gay/lesbian/bi sexual characters in that than the entire cast of Queer as Folk (America) Not that I'm complaining mind. We're queer, we're hear... now shut up cause I'll miss Home and Away!

[Proud Mary 1980]

Yeah I heard the same on REDFM

[jive]

Told ya

"Huge reaction" expected to Corrie gay kiss
1207 BST, Friday 22nd August 2003 -- by Neil Wilkes
ITV is bracing itself for a "huge reaction" when it airs a gay kiss in Coronation Street this October.

Soap producers had to think "long and hard" before deciding to incorporate the kiss - the first gay kiss in Corrie's 43 year history - into an episode of the show, due to air on October 5.

The plot twist is part of an upcoming storyline involving Todd Grimshaw, who unexpectedly falls for his girlfriend's brother, Nick Tilsley.

"The scene will be screened on October 5 and is guaranteed to provoke a huge reaction," a source told The Mirror. "It will be the first gay kiss we have done and we are expecting a varied response from the viewers.

"Todd has been wrestling with his sexuality and the Street never shies away from the big issues. It will be done in typical Street fashion and the episode will be a cracker."

Todd decides to make his move after a night out on the tiles with Nick, who has recently returned from Canada. Shock by Todd's advances, Nick is left "absolutely mortified" and storms off.

[redbulljunkie]

I wonder does that mean he's split with sarah by that stage, or do we have a long-lost brother story thrown in the mix as well?

[LeBaron]

I always know Nick Tilsley had in in him ( so to speak )
Gail will have the Mother of All Fannybangs