Viewers watching ‘first ever gay kiss’ on UK TV can’t understand backlash it got at the time

People watching the first gay kiss broadcast on British TV are wondering how it prompted such a backlash at the time.

The year was 1989, the show was EastEnders and Colin Russell (Michael Cashman and Guido Smith (Nicholas Donovan) were turning in for the night.

Before bed they discussed getting a nightcap and then shared a kiss, and given some of the reactions, you'd think the world had ended.

EastEnders aired the first gay kiss on UK TV in 1989 (BBC)

When it was first broadcast in 1989 it was slammed by certain politicians as portraying a 'revolting scene' which displayed 'perverted practices'.

Another MP said it might be time to 'reconsider the whole future of EastEnders', while the BBC was bombarded by complaints.

This is the environment in which the first gay kiss on TV in the UK was broadcast, and you can see the moment here:

If that footage angered you, then I suggest you put down the newspaper complaining about how everything is woke these days, wind your neck in and take some deep breaths.

Also remember that it is Pride month so you can either re-examine your views or stay hateful and scared of a world that has already left you behind and will only continue to move on without you.

For the rest of you whose heads were already firmly screwed on, I know what you're thinking: was that it?

While pretty tame by modern standards, the backlash this received in 1989 is still remembered today. (BBC)

Folks watching the clip these days have said it was 'a lot of fuss over a quick kiss on the lips'.

"Imagine how hard the writers and producers would have had to push for this at the time! We've come such a long way!" another wrote, and a third hailed it as a 'ground breaking' moment.

"People were freaking out about that? It was a peck," someone else commented, and while it was the briefest of pecks on the lips in 1989 some people were acting like it was the end of civilisation itself.

Colin had kissed previous boyfriend Barry Clark (Gary Hailes) on the forehead back in 1987, but this was the first time British audiences were seeing two men kiss on the lips on their TV screens and some of the responses at the time were quite extreme.

This was part of the reaction when the kiss was first broadcast, Piers Morgan later apologised for some of the language used. (The Sun/X/@piersmorgan)

Back before the character was even introduced The Sun ran the headline 'Eastbenders' about the popular soap getting its first gay character.

Cashman told The Guardian in 2020 that after the forehead kiss in 1987, he was targeted by having bricks thrown through his window and men paying children to go to his house and ask for money so they could try and photograph him handing over cash.

Five years after Colin and Guido kissed on the lips, the first pre-watershed kiss between two women was shown on Brookside, while 1994 also saw children's TV show Byker Grove have their first gay storyline.

Two years later the longest running soap in the world The Archers introduced their first gay characters, and a couple of years later in 1998 Coronation Street brought in the first transgender character in a British soap with Hayley Cropper.

A year later and a decade after that kiss on EastEnders, the Channel 4 drama Queer as Folk released.