‘Disgusting’: Kym Marsh defends Corrie co-star over homophobic abuse

"No-one should have to put up with that."

Kym Marsh has stood up for one of her colleagues after he admitted was on the receiving end of some homophobic abuse. In her column in OK Magazine, the Coronation Street star shared her disgust at the fact that actor Daniel Brocklebank, who plays gay vicar Billy in the soap, has had a backlash over his character kissing another man on the show

"No-one should have to put up with that – I think it's ridiculous and disgusting. It's terrible that people still have to put up with homophobia in 2017," she wrote, reports Digital Spy.

"We're in an age when it shouldn't be the case any more but unfortunately you're always going to get bigoted, small-minded people.

Kym, who has played Michelle for 11 years, said the soap must play a part in promoting acceptance of "real life".

"I think it's so important for shows such as Corrie to have storylines that reflect real life, like Billy raising a child with boyfriend Todd Grimshaw.

"Hopefully the more exposure people have to something totally normal, the more acceptance there'll be of it."

Speaking on a Royal Television Society panel last month, Daniel Brocklebank said he was stunned by some of the response to a scene from last autumn where his character Billy and Todd, played by Bruno Langley, kissed on a bed.

"That scene with Todd and Billy on the bed, we had a huge outpouring of homophobic response to that. That scene went out at 8.50pm, so we were almost at the watershed," he said.

"We almost shot it with our tops off, but we decided to keep them on! We decided it wasn't necessary to shoot it in that way, but when that episode aired, I was stunned by the level of vitriol."