The B.B.C., the public service broadcaster of the UK and in fact the world’s oldest national broadcasting organisation, has an unimpeachable record for not just being one of the most reliable source for news, but also one that is always at the forefront of chronicling the major changes in our society and culture. It’s announcement today of a new 6 part sitcom called ‘Boy Meets Girl’ is the latest in a long line of groundbreaking TV that it has produced over the decades.
The series tells the story of a developing relationship between 26 year-old Leo and 40 year-old Judy . It is however not the age-gap that is the focus of this new comedy but the fact that Judy, and Rebecca Root the actress playing her, are both transgender. It will be a first for the BBC, but full credit to Sophie Clarke-Jervoise the series Executive Director who didn’t even think about auditioning anyone who wasn’t a trans actress for the part.
The seed for this new program was planted back in 2012 when ‘All About Trans’ organized an event ‘Trans Camp’ involving both people from the trans community and from the media with the aiming of nurturing a better understanding of each other. As a result the BBC ran a talent search called ‘Trans Comedy Award’ which offered comedy writers up to £5000 for scripts with positive portrayals of transgender characters.
The BBC received 320 entries with one of the winners being Boy Meets Girl (then titled Love) by Elliot Kerrigan. They made a pilot which was showcased last year and it was such a success that the series was commissioned. Kerrigan was kept on board to write the scripts but was joined by two-co-writers Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam.
BBC Commissioning Editor Kristian Smith said: ‘Boy Meets Girl is a heart-warming romantic comedy that draws on the glorious differences that shape all of us.’
The buzz from the critics who saw the pilot episode is that it is as good as ‘Gavin and Stacey’ the award-winning BBC comedy from 2007- 2010 that, amongst other things, helped launch one of it’s stars and co-writers James Corden into international stardom.
The series will be aired in BBC TV this autumn : watch this space for further details and if it gets world-wide distribution.
P.S. This should not be confused with Eric Sheaffer’s excellent movie of the same name released earlier this year and starring trans actress Michelle Hendley which is now out on DVD/VOD http://www.queertiques.com/2014/10/boy-meets-girl.html
