In the latest Don’t Filter Feelings podcast episode, Radio and TV presenter Yinka Bokinni (Capital Xtra, Damilola: The Boy Next Door, C4), Andrea Ali (who plays Celeste Faroe) and Bobby Gordon (who plays Toby Faroe) discuss Black History month, Black Icons and what the Black Lives Matter movement means to them.

This is the final Podcast in a series of special episodes in which Hollyoaks cast members and guests discuss racism and their personal experiences.

In the episode, Andrea discusses her inspirations “We didn’t have that many Black actresses on TV in the UK that we could look up to or aspire to be like because we tended to look over to the US.

Now as an adult and being in this industry, a lot of the Black people that inspire me are my friends and are my peers…

It blows my mind everyday that I wake up feeling like I now know the people that inspire me and keep me going. And that [they] are doing amazing things every single day, despite being told no or despite being told that we have a glass ceiling, and then you have a double glass ceiling if you’re Black and you’re a woman and then you have three glass ceilings if you are Black, a woman and you identify as LGBTQ+.

We are constantly being told that it’s hard for us to break these barriers but yet every single day our peers are doing it.”

Bobby on his icons growing up “I’ve always wanted to be the English Will Smith, that was me in a nutshell….and then I really had two icons and it’s crazy that I’m even saying this because it’s Will Smith and Richard Blackwood.”

Yinka Bokinni on Black Lives Matter “For me personally I think that the Black Lives Matter movement is about being human. For so long I feel like you have to be exceptional in order to get somewhere being Black and I say this both loving the fact that the people at the top of their field are the best to ever do it but also knowing how exhausting that must be, in order to get something you have to be the best and then some.

I think humanising the Black experience, it’s not just about being the best at sport, the best on camera, the best singer…..it’s about being a human being and living that I think is super important…..I think that is more visible in 2020 than before.”

The episode is available now across all well-known Podcast platforms, including Spotify, Podfollow, Apple Podcasts, and Acast.