James Sutton Radio 4 Interview - 20/09/07

James Sutton Radio 4 Interview - 20/09/07



Interviewer: "More recently, Hollyoaks has been praised for its sensitive handling of the love affair between Craig and John Paul."

Bryan Kirkwood: "It's a really interesting process for me, as the producer of the show. As I said, we're telling a story, a very straight forward, honest, story between two lads, who have fallen in love. You know, we go through endless edits of the scripts and the actors approach it and put their own interpretations of it, as does the director and I can watch episodes in the rough cut, which is the first viewing and to be perfectly honest, I've been quite shocked sometimes by how upfront the love scenes have been. And I've kind of had to have a word with myself, almost, to sort of think, no, we're not doing anything wrong here simply because it hasn't been seen in this kind of honest way before that I'm kind of a little bit hesitant. It doesn't make it wrong. We've portrayed this love story in exactly the same way we portray a heterosexual love story and it's the first time I've seen that on telly, where the camera hasn't moved away at just the right moment so as not to offend viewers. We haven't shied away from the idea of offending viewers because quite honestly, to me, there's nothing to be offended by."

**Clip is played of the scene in the Dog between JP and Craig before Craig goes to take his exam that he ultimately walks out of to go see JP.

Bryan Kirkwood: "It was very important for us, right from the start, that JP didn't fall into any kind of any ready-made, kind of cliches, the likes of which you see all the time on TV. You know, this is a lad who is great at football. He was in the soccer team at school. That's where he fell in love with Craig, in fact. So, we see him taking his frustration out on his punch ball in his bedroom. You know, it may seem like detail, but it's been very important we show a straight forward, masculine lad, who just happens to be gay, who doesn't sort of surround himself with the kind of paraphernalia that's kind of accepted to mean gay. The icons and the actresses and all that kind of stuff. That's valid and that matters to some people but not all. And so, yeah, it was very important that we veer away from that stereotype."

James Sutton: "There's always going to be some idiot, isn't there, who shouts something at you across a bar or whatever, but it's 99% of the time people have been absolutely brilliant. Straight men, gay men, you know, right across the board, are just astounded at how sensitive and how wonderful this story has been. I've encountered very little abuse, really. I can only think of a couple of instances where someone's, you know, shouted something or, but not very much, not very much."

(http://jamessuttonfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=876)