“It was instantly obvious to all of us, to me and to Alice and to Daniel that there was something special in Joe’s performance. “Seeing Joe’s tape was one of those bolts from the blue moments,” Lyn remembers. Joe Locke, who plays Charlie Spring, seemingly caught the production’s attention in mere moments. 10,000 tapes were turned in, all of which were watched before the list was reduced down to just a dozen or so names for each character. Lyn and casting director Daniel Edwards put out an open casting call for the entire cast, inviting potential actors to record a tape of themselves auditioning for a certain character alongside a bit of improvisation. But actors in their teens often don’t have agents because they haven’t been to acting school, they haven’t had jobs that allowed them to do so, which meant we needed a new way of finding them.” So often they’re played by actors who are much older, I think in Grease, Stockard Channing who played Rizzo was in her thirties, playing a teenager, which is hilarious. “It was really important to me and the whole team that we found actors who are genuinely in their teens to play these teenagers. “I was on board from the first moment when we decided how we were going to go about finding them,” Lyn tells me about the casting process. So casting the likes of Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson was always going to be hard, especially in a media landscape where teenagers are so often portrayed by adults who don’t always have the agency to pull off whatever stories or characters they’re expected to inhabit. Young people across the queer spectrum discovering themselves for the first time as they build friendships, romances, and learn lessons about life that all queer individuals will stumble upon when growing up. And yet, beneath it all is this overwhelming sense of hope and joy.” All our characters have obstacles they need to overcome and not everything is utopian and perfect. Nick has to come out and discover that he’s a person who is different to the world around him, and then Darcy and Tara have their own challenges. Even in this show we don’t shy away from the darker side of homophobic bullying in school, and Charlie has his own demons that he’s dealing with alongside problems with self-worth.
It’s just wonderful to have something like as part of our canon of queer stories that is just a positive, wholesome celebration.
Lots of the complicated experiences of being queer are equally valid. “It’s really uplifting to work on a show like this, but that’s not to negate the fact that lots of queer stories have complexity in them and have nuance and are about transgression. “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. 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.