Keiron Richardson's feeling the pressure to get Hollyoaks' HIV storyline right (VIDEO)

Hollyoaks star Kieron Richardson says he's honoured to be at the centre of an HIV storyline, but is feeling the pressure to play it convincingly.

Kieron, who plays Ste Hay in the C4 soap, told What's on TV at the National TV Awards: "To go into my ninth year on the show and to go into a storyline like this I feel massively honoured, I feel proud, but I also feel the pressure, knowing that HIV does exist massively, especially within the gay community, so I have to get this right; the show, the writers, we all have to come together. You don't want to offend anybody, you just want to be the voice.

"The episode aired last night and we got so many messages last night going we didn't know easy it was to go and get a sample done. It takes 60 seconds and if 1-2 people go and get themselves tested because of this it can only be a good thing."

Watch an interview with Hollyoaks' Kieron Richardson and Stephanie Davis, above.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.