The status tees set to take over London Pride

You'll find the Heartstopper cast and their legions of followers at the Queer Was Always Here pop-up this weekend

- BY JOE BROMLEY

Since the summer of 2022, the most hyped group at the London Pride parade has been the glass-skinned Heartstopper clan — stars of Netflix’s wildly popular LGBTQIA+ high school drama, which has now clocked up more than 150 million total viewing hours across its three acclaimed seasons.

To many of the teens who will make the pilgrimage on Saturday, July 5, taking the train from their corner of the country in order to congregate in our capital and get a taste of the gay fun of it all, the cast of this show are godlike: the characters helped them better understand themselves, making the world feel a little less lonely.

“The first year [the Heartstopper cast marched together] was really unofficial, we were honestly just there as a group of friends,” says Sebastian Croft, 23, who plays the devilishly handsome bully Ben Hope in the series. He was joined by fellow cast members Joe Locke, Kit Connor and Yasmin Finney, who wore their rainbow flags as capes.

“There was a group of people protesting Pride, which they have the right to do, but it was almost comical: these old people waving their signs shouting things that felt so archaic. Everyone just started dancing at them,” Croft recalls. Music blared, the young stars jived, and Locke flipped off the protesters. Of course, video footage of the interaction promptly went viral. “Seeing it have such a reaction and seeing people be so supportive was unbelievable,” he says.