TVNZ in trouble over Shortland Street sex scene

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has for the first time upheld a complaint against TV2 soap Shortland Street. The complaint was made by a Balclutha man over a homosexual romantic encounter.

The scene involved core character Gerald Tippet with old friend Lindsay in the bedroom attempting a sexual encounter before it ended in disaster.

The BSA describes the scene as: "The two characters were shown lying in bed talking, covered up to their bare chests by blankets. Lindsay went under the blankets and Gerald nervously asked him 'where are you going?'. Lindsay popped his head back up and replied 'it’s a surprise' before descending back under but came back up when a ticklish Gerald began giggling. After Lindsay went back under the blankets, Gerald moved suddenly and accidentally hit Lindsay in the face with his knee, giving him a bloody nose."

The complainant said that he would "have had enough of a problem explaining to younger kids what might just be happening under the bed clothes if that had been a heterosexual couple".

The BSA stated that any sexual content in children's viewing time should be discreet and able to go over the heads of children, but decided that this particular scene did not consider the interests of children by making the sexual nature so ambiguous.

They said that the fact it involved a homosexual encounter did not affect the ruling and that a similar scene involving a heterosexual couple would have been as equally inappropriate.

However, I can think of many Shortland Street heterosexual sex scenes that were equally as unambiguous. One example is a scene with Sarah Potts and Craig Valentine which I am pretty sure also saw one of the characters move their head down the others body. The problem is that scenes of a homosexual nature probably tend to upset more close minded people - the kind who are likely to complain.

TVNZ drew criticism in April this year for trying to get South Pacific Pictures to drop the homosexual storyline and asked for this particular scene to be re-edited.

However, TVNZ now supported Shortland Street and argued to the BSA that the nightly soap regularly dealt with adult themes, and they also contended the same scene with a heterosexual couple would not have breached broadcasting standards.

The BSA did not impose an order. It said that the decision clarified its expectations surrounding the broadcast of sexual content of this nature during the PGR time-band at 7pm.