More than 60 people complained to the UK's broadcast watchdog Ofcom when the vicar in the popular television soap Coronation Street kissed another man.

The episode showed the vicar of St Mary's, Billy Mayhew, played by the actor Daniel Brocklebank, kissing Todd Grimshaw, played by Bruno Langley. 

Mayhew had split up with his previous boyfriend, the Rovers Return barman Sean Tully, played by Antony Cotton, who he met on a night out in Manchester's gay village.

Ofcom reports that the first episode containing the kiss last month attracted 26 complaints, with a further 41 complaints from the repeat a few days later. These complaints mainly concerned standards but more people complained also about an offence under the religious belief and discrimination categories.

An Ofcom spokesman  told Pink News:: "We considered a number of complaints objecting to two male characters kissing in this episode, but won't be investigating. Our rules do not discriminate between scenes involving opposite sex and same sex couples. Also the scenes were not in any way sexually explicit. For these reasons they were not scheduled inappropriately and did not exceed generally accepted standards."