Storylines involving gay characters have been some of the most gripping we’ve seen on TV in recent years.
Who could forget Robron’s ‘will they or won’t they?’ wedding in Emmerdale, or Todd making a pass at Marcus – despite him being in a relationship with Maria – in Corrie?
However, it seems that such scenes aren’t to everyone’s taste, and Holby City fans have taken to Twitter to criticise the show for overdoing the man-on-man action.
The BBC hospital drama has had a number of gay characters in recent months, including Dominic Copeland (played by David Ames) and ‘Lofty’ Chiltern (Lee Mead).
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“I noticed Holby City is back on gay storyline again after last one went on for months on end,” wrote one fan. “Well it is the BBC I suppose. #HolbyCityGayShow”
Another wrote: “Why is Holby so obsessed with gay stories. Someone pushing there agenda… So many gays really. I have only met one in my life.”
A third fan added: “I’ve met lots and love most of them, but the gay count in #holbycity is getting rather ridiculous.”
Comments such as these have forced the BBC’s head of continuing drama, Oliver Kent, to go on the defensive.
“I am involved in Holby City, and we had complaints recently because it was deemed by some viewers that we had too many gay characters,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.
“And that’s because at the time we had two gay love stories. We had four characters out of 17. I don’t think that’s disproportionate.
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“You don’t want the sexuality to be the story, and yet if you hide it too much it’s not part of the story at all.
“That is what we could be better at exploring. I don’t think we have quite got that as right yet as we could.”
Holby City first appeared on our screens in 1999 as a spin-off of long-running BBC hospital series Casualty.
Over the years, it has been nominated for over a hundred awards, winning six of those.