EASTENDERS TO HAVE FIRST GAY WEDDING

Popular British soap EastEnders is set to air its first same-sex wedding following an upcoming scene in which the character of Christian (John Partridge) proposes to Syed (Marc Elliot) on bended knee.

According to the Daily Mirror, the scene, which has been filmed and will be screening next month, is an “emotional wedding proposal”.

Producers are said to be planning to make the wedding the show’s “big event of the summer”. There are even plans afoot to have the couple raise a surrogate child.

The relationship between the two characters began in June 2009, despite Syed having a girlfriend, Amira, whom he later married, and struggling between his feelings for Christian and his Muslim faith.

“He went ahead with his marriage to Amira despite telling his mum about his feelings for Christian – and those feelings have not gone away,” a source said.

Their first kiss between Christian and Syed, which was screened in 2009, was watched by 7.9 million viewers on BBC1.