‘Eastenders’ won’t face action over funeral parlour gay sex scene
By Will Stroude
Ofcom has cleared Eastenders of any wrongdoing after a controversial episode last month which saw an implied gay sex scene take place in the presence of a corpse.
76 viewers complained about the scene in July 17 episode of the BBC One soap, which saw characters Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid) and Paul Coker (Jonny Labey) strip off during a secret dalliance in a funeral parlour. Viewers saw the couple make out next to an old lady’s body, before later getting dressed.
Ofcom has now dismissed the complaints and will not be launch a formal investigation, Metro reports.
“Ofcom assessed a number of complaints about a storyline in these episodes and concluded they didn’t raise issues warranting further investigation,” said a spokesperson for the broadcasting regulator.
“We found the scenes were justified in the context of a long-running plotline and sexual contact between the characters was implied rather than overt. Our rules don’t discriminate between scenes involving opposite-sex and same-sex couples.”
A BBC spokeswoman previously defended the scene in questions, saying: “The millions of regular EastEnders fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines.
“We are always mindful of our time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.”
Excellent. With all that controversy out the way, can we get back to ogling Ben’s new love interest then? Thanks.
More stories:
Zayn Malik lashes out at ‘d**khead’ Calvin Harris
Watch: Straight guy tries to tell the difference between a man and a woman’s kiss