‘They should have cheated on each other!’ … Heartstopper Forever’s Joe Locke and Kit Connor. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix View image in fullscreen ‘They should have cheated on each other!’ … Heartstopper Forever’s Joe Locke and Kit Connor. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix Film ‘It would be weird not to show the sex’: Kit Connor and Joe Locke on Heartstopper’s queer teen curtain call As Netflix’s quietly radical coming-of-age drama wraps up with a feature-length film, its stars discuss queer escapism, awkward love scenes and letting go of the characters that made them
Michael Cragg Fri 10 Jul 2026 06.00 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I n a house near Maidenhead in Berkshire, a group of sweaty teenagers are throwing a party. Vodka bottles line the staircase, snogs are shared on lumpy sofas and gossip is exchanged. The windows are covered with multicoloured fabrics to ward off prying eyes. Suddenly, as the vibes start to flag, the music cuts out and a voice bellows: “You’re having the time of your lives, remember!”
The voice belongs to the director Wash Westmoreland ; the very real house – situated next to the noisy A308 – stands on the grounds of Bray Studios in Berkshire. As for the partygoers, well … they’re some of the most famous young faces on the planet.
Read more It’s week six of a seven-week shoot on Heartstopper Forever, the final chapter of Netflix’s quietly revolutionary queer, coming-of-age teen drama. Adapted from Alice Oseman’s hugely successful graphic novels, the series focuses on Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke), whose burgeoning romance is played out with a pastel-hued idealism against a backdrop of homophobia, eating disorders and anxiety.
Released in 2022, the show was an instant success (season one clocked nearly 24m viewing hours a week at its height), turning its two leads into Hollywood superstars and doing similar things to a supporting cast including Yasmin Finney , whose breakout role as the transgender artist Elle Argent led to her being cast in Doctor Who.
View image in fullscreen Goodbye to adolescence … Kit Connor as Nick Nelson and Joe Locke as Charlie Spring, in Heartstopper Forever. Photograph: Netflix Nearly two years since season three, the Heartstopper story is ending with a feature-length film, focusing on the now 17- and 18-year-old Charlie and Nick as they navigate university, gap years and impending adulthood. For the more stoic Nick, the thought of leaving the occasionally fragile Charlie leads to alcohol dependency, while Charlie is haunted by jealousy. The stakes feel higher, the takes longer. Hence the slightly tense feeling undercutting the sweltering house party. As everyone is positioned into place for take seven (or is it eight?), someone’s phone goes off. There’s a chilly silence before Westmoreland delivers a teacherly: “That must have been my imagination!”
Upstairs, next to a room full of empty bottles, some of the cast are brought in for brief interviews. The room is empty save for a clothes rail and some jackets. If this were a real house party, this would be where you’d come for a little lie down. Connor and Locke settle into place, before being promptly called back on set to rehearse another scene. When they return, they seem slightly frazzled by the multiple takes – later, we’ll have to step over Connor, collapsed on the staircase after being called to yet another rehearsal.
“There have been moments where I’ve had flutters of emotion,” Connor says about t…