“It’s a proud celebration of how wholesome and pure-hearted queer love can be, and how love can be, because love is love across any sexuality,” Lyn says. Heartstopper has been so well received because it isn’t afraid to present itself as a saccharine exploration of LGBTQ+ themes and relationships, making it clear how identities should be valued instead of seen as something to be ashamed of. I had to marry my first response to the script which was to fall in love with these characters and think about what fans might want to see, but also how you find drama in a romantic relationship and bring it to the screen.” “I went through in a page-turner kinda way because they were so captivating and magnetic, and then I read the graphic novel and realised how loved and celebrated and passionate the fans already were about them. “I hadn’t come across the graphic novel and the first thing I read of Heartstopper was the script for episode one,” Lyn admits.
As a gay man and a strong progressive voice he carries the perfect pedigree to bring this show to life on screen for the very first time.
He’s dabbled in Daredevil, Broadchurch, Sherlock, Black Mirror, His Dark Materials, and is now the sole director for Heartstopper. Lyn’s career is an extensive one, having directed portions of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant’s tenures as Doctor Who while also working on its adult spin-off Torchwood alongside Russell T. It’s also getting an amazingly positive response from a wider audience saying that there’s something about this show and its chronicle of falling in love, and the purity and overwhelming loveliness of falling in love for the first time. “Countless stories of people feeling empowered to come out to their parents as a consequence of having seen the show, or older generations of queer people watching the show and feeling slightly overwhelmed by the emotion of what might have been their memories, or what could have been, or what they once had. “It’s so exciting to see the show having an emotional impact on people,” Lyn says. Related: Matt Braly Interview - A Deep Dive Into The Amphibia Finale It struck a nerve in the most wonderful way. It’s almost been two weeks and I’m still unable to scroll through my social media feed without seeing compilations of the show’s cutest moments or excerpts from the graphic novels all designed to worship this story and these characters. Since arriving on Netflix in late April, this adorably wholesome adaptation of Alice Oseman’s webcomic has taken the world by storm, attracting audiences young and old to a story of queer love all about acceptance and rejoicing in the truth of who you are.
“One of the most amazing things about Heartstopper is how excited people are, to the point where they want to go out and stand on the rooftops to cheer about the show,” director Euros Lyn tells me after its debut.