John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean

John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean are fictional characters and a supercouple from the long-running British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.John Paul is portrayed by James Sutton, and Craig is portrayed by Guy Burnet. John-Paul was the son of Ricky Bowen and Myra McQueen, while Craig is a son of Johnno Dean and Frankie Osborne. On Internet forums, the couple is referred to by the portmanteau "McDean" (for McQueen and Dean). Supporters of "McDean" are often referred to as "McDeaners". The love story has been cited as "one of the biggest and most successful that Hollyoaks has told".

The love story between characters Craig Dean and John Paul McQueen began when Craig, originally detailed as heterosexual, kissed best friend John Paul. This one event empowered the United Kingdom soap opera Hollyoaks to embark on one of daytime television's most successful romances, which gained a prominent following amongst fans and praise from LGBT rights groups. At first, actor Guy Burnet (Craig) was stressed about portraying a gay character. "I'll always be completely honest," he said. "I'll always be real. The truth is that it was difficult to play. It was talked about for a long while and I felt uncomfortable with the idea because I didn't think it was justifiable. I thought 'how can you make a straight guy who's a bit of a cheeky chappy, loves the girls and has a sort of camp sense of humour, gay?'" Burnet cited talking with the show's producers for having eased his reluctance about the change in his character. "It was sitting with Bryan and the other producers, discussing it and saying 'right, if we're going to do this, it's not a story about a character being gay, it's a story where we have to justify the guy's sexual confusion — why is he like this? And the most important thing is that he still has the love for the woman in his life.'" Burnet revealed that he did not necessarily see his character as gay or being romantically/sexually attracted to men, but rather solely romantically/sexually attracted to John Paul, and that he wanted the audience to be confused as to Craig's sexual orientation. Craig would still be "after" women.

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