The cast of Netflix’s hit show Heartstopper celebrated London Pride this weekend, and hit back at anti-LGBT+ protests, by dancing to Whitney Houston.
In scenes filmed on Saturday, the show’s stars were seen taking part in the annual Pride march through the centre of the capital.
When a young bystander attempted to pull away a placard from an anti-LGBT+ protester at the edge of the march, the cast backed them up, dancing to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) in the middle of the street and flashing their Pride flags.
Front and centre were stars Joe Locke (who plays Charlie Spring) and Sebastian Croft (who plays Ben Hope).
However, Kit Connor (Nick Nelson), Tobie Donovan (Isaac Henderson), Corinna Brown (Tara Jones), Kizzy Edgell (Darcy Olsson) and Jenny Walser (Tori Spring) were also visible, some of whom gave the middle finger to the protesters.
After the incident, Connor also shared the clip on Twitter: "I was videoing and screaming at them but please don’t be mistaken, it wasn’t ‘Kit Connor and the rest of the cast’,” he wrote.
“It was @joelocke03 and @SebastianCroft front and centre. Please give them the credit for doing something so powerful."
“It was all of us,” Locke tweeted back, before joking that he had “to do my job properly”.
Heartstopper’s official Instagram page also got in on the action, sharing photos of the cast with the rainbow flag draped over their shoulders.
During the parade, the Heartstopper cast also helped to carry a large rainbow banner down some of London’s streets.
The weekend saw more than a million Brits take to the city centre to celebrate – in what has been called the largest-ever Pride celebration in the UK.
Marking 50 years since the first protest was held in London, in 1972, more than 600 groups attended and took part in Saturday’s march, as well as celebrities such as Philip Schofield, Alison Hammond, and Kelly Holmes, who recently came out as gay.
Speaking during the parade, Locke said that it was an honour to celebrate “being queer when the world might not be so accepting”.
Heartstopper, which follows the story of Charlie (Locke) and Nick Nelson (Connor) as they fall in love at high school, gained a rare 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes when it aired in April.
Since then, Netflix confirmed that it has renewed the show up to season three.
