The now famous Channel 4 lesbian kiss became a symbol of LGBTQ+ progress that resonates to this day

As my Brookside co-star Anna Friel and I prepared to film our on-screen kiss 30 years ago, I could never have anticipated the cultural significance this simple act would have.

It was 1994, when section 28 was in full force, prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, when Channel 4 aired the now famous lesbian kiss between my character, Margaret Clemence, and Friel’s, Beth Jordache, on the popular soap opera; the first time a kiss between two women had aired pre-watershed. It would for ever change the British media landscape and society’s perception of LGBTQ+ relationships.

Nicola Stephenson is a TV, film and theatre actor