Last week, art critic Brian Sewell wrote in the Daily Mail: “Is it true that the lives of heterosexual Mancunians are haplessly intertwined with transvestites, transsexuals, teenage lesbians and a horde of homosexuals across the age range? Is Manchester now the Sodom of the North?”
Jean Alexander, the actress who played Hilda Ogden until 1987, said in a recent interview: “Every community has people who are gay and they are very nice people. I’m not running the Street down – and let’s not forget its creator Tony Warren is gay – but three couples seems excessive.”
Last week, gay charity Stonewall argued that Coronation Street had a representative number of gay characters.
A spokesman said: “Given that the government estimates that six per cent of the population are lesbian, gay or bisexual it isn’t inconceivable that a number of the 66 current Corrie characters are LGB.
