Joe Locke and Kit Connor return as Charlie and Nick in the coming-of-age drama.

What’s in store for this second series?
Kit: You’ve already seen Nick come out to his mum, which was a wonderful, beautiful thing for him. Now he faces this seemingly gargantuan task of slowly coming out to the other people in his life. The audience also starts to get a bit more context for his family set-up as we’re introduced to his dad and older brother. At the heart of it, it’s still about Nick and Charlie. He’s learnt how to express his feelings towards Charlie and accept himself. Now he’s learning to be a good, supportive boyfriend.

Joe: There’s an outward confidence in both himself and his relationship. We see more of a feisty Charlie, who stands up for what he believes in. Charlie and Nick can’t keep their hands off each other! They’re much more comfortable with each other this season and the relationship is more like a proper relationship rather than a schoolboy romance.

There’s a school trip to Paris, which seems to be quite pivotal…
Kit: It was a wild, wild ride! I’m excited for fans to see this side of them. If you don’t know, the show was first written as comics before the graphic novels by Alice Oseman. Isaac [played by Tobie Donovan] storyline is a really important one as it’s about a different side of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s important to explore and shed light for people who might need it.

Joe: It’s an essential part of the plot that Charlie and all the other characters have very integral moments there, too.

Why is it so important to have this drama out there?
Kit: Our main objectives were to have a show where people could see queer people being happy and in love and having friends around them. People were crying at the end of season one, but it was happy crying. Most queer media beforehand had old people becoming happy because someone had died.

Joe: Kit and I were in DC recently and a 56-year-old man told us he’d come out the year before after watching Heartstopper. Reactions like that make you realise this is a series that really matters to people. We were all expecting the show to do well with our age group – the ‘target audience’ – but not necessarily with older queer people who didn’t have Heartstopper when they were growing up.