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Heartstopper begins with two teenage lads at school, Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft), who clearly fancy each other, but the course of true love doesn’t always run smoothly, and at Truham Boys School, and at the start of a new year, Charlie joins the class known as Hamlet House.
The teacher allocates him a seat next to Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), one of the school’s best rugby players, and they immediately fancy each other, although is that just in Charlie’s mind, because Nick’s straight, isn’t he?
Well, you’ll get your answer in due course, but compare this to when I was at school, and if you fancied a girl, the odds were that they had no inclination of returning that affection… but enough about my problems.
Despite being all about inclusivity which is still largely new for mainstream dramas, there’s also the old mainstay of different factions within a school, such as the jocks and the nerds, which also throws a possible spanner in thw works between Charlie and Nick, until the former also considers joining the rugby team.
Watching the first couple of episodes, it feels a bit predictable, right down to seeing Charlie trying to get his books into his locker, but Nick comes along, startles him, and the books go all over the place. There’s also the typical lads at the school who try and make a joke about the fact “He’s gay“.
Also, Charlie also discuss his situation with best, straight friend, Tao (William Gao), and both of whom are missing Elle (Yasmin Finney), a trans girl who’s now moved from there to the All Girls School, Higgs.
When I was in school around the same age, many years ago, such a drama wouldn’t have been made at the time, but we’re in more enlightened times. Even still, Heartstopper is very light in the plot structure, and it’s not trying to be too deep and complex.
Thinking back, I’m reminded of 1996’s brilliant Beautiful Thing. Heartstopper doesn’t seem to do a whole lot different, but on the other hand, it does come across as having largely positive messages, so it’s helpful for anyone who might be in the same position as any of these students.
As an aside regarding Hamlet House, we had ‘houses’ in my school, which was basically four main teams. Just overly competitive nonsense when I think about it, but then I’m not a competitive sort of person. That would be for the show-offs in the school.
Also, why would they have separate boys and girls schools in the same locality? Are those still a thing? Surely, all schools are mixed, now? Okay – plot device; I’ll go with it.
For those whose Shazam is broken, the first episode opens with Want Me by Baby Queen.
UPDATE now the show is live:
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Heartstopper is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Friday April 22nd.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 25-30 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: April 22nd 2022
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Director: Euros Lyn
Producer: Zorana Piggott
Novel: Alice Oseman
Writer/Creator: Alice Oseman
Music: Adiescar Chase
Cast:
Charlie Spring: Joe Locke
Nick Nelson: Kit Connor
Ben Hope: Sebastian Croft
Elle Argent: Yasmin Finney
Tao Xu: William Gao
Yan Xu: Momo Yeung
Julio Spring: Joseph Balderrama
Tori Spring: Jenny Walser
Mr. Ajayi: Fisayo Akinade
Imogen: Rhea Norwood
Harry Greene: Cormac Hyde-Corrin
Coach Singh: Chetna Pandya
Tara Jones: Corinna Brown
Darcy Olsson: Kizzy Edgell
Mr. Lange: Alan Turkington
Isaac: Tobie Donovan
Noah: Andrew Malik
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.