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Great LezBritain: The Top 10 TV Moments That Built the British Lesbian

This new AfterEllen.com column, “Great LezBritian,” will be a fortnightly stroll through the very best of British lesbo-centric entertainment and culture. Plus there will be some jolly good interviews with the top ladies who are waving the flag for gay UK.

“Great LezBritain” authors Sarah, a Londoner, and Lee, a Glaswegian, met in a gay discotheque one bleak mid winter, eight years ago and have been shacked up together ever since. When not watching Tipping The Velvet, they find time to write, run a PR company, DJ at their own club nights and love a bit of jam on toast.

There are moments throughout a young lesbian-in-waiting’s life when the television set shines a light directly into her dykey heart and chips away yet another little piece of the closet. And it keeps chipping away until one day a fully emerged lesbian gets up off the sofa, struts into the local gay bar, orders a pint and gets ready to meet her very own Kitty Butler.

Here are a few of the signpost TV moments that we met along our own paths to dykehood living in the UK.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, 1990 BBC

Sarah: On a Sunday night in 1990, between bath time and bedtime, most 11-year old girls were listening to their New Kids On the Block tapes. I was watching Jeanette Winterson‘s semi-autobiographical story about a young girl trying to come out in a religious village in the 1980s (and being thankful that in my home we had bananas and apples too, as well as a mum that didn’t hang about with any priests).

While the program was mildly frightening viewing for any little lez, the fact that there was lady love on the BBC certainly lit the first gay light bulbs in mine and many other young heads.

Brookside, 1993 Channel 4

Lee: I always knew there was something about Beth Jordache (played by Anna Friel) that I liked. A lot. With her big jumpers, unkempt barnet and penchant for kissing girls, this was the best soap opera character of my young life.

The first kiss between Beth and Margaret (played by Nicola Stephenson) was little more than a peck on the lips but my God, it was the best peck on the lips I’d ever seen. (It was also the first lesbian kiss on a prime-time UK television series.) I then had to wait a painful four days to see the Sunday repeat and was devastated to discover that Channel 4 had cut it out. To all those protesters who caused that cut, you made a 13-year old girl cry that night – I hope it made you feel big.

Band of Gold, 1996 ITV – Series 2

Lee: This was my mum’s and my favorite program, and it revolved around the lives of a group of women who lived and worked in the red light district. We enjoyed series one for its “dramatic gritty storylines” and “excellent acting” from women like Cathy Tyson, Geraldine James and a young Samantha Morton.

Then Lena Headey appeared in series two as a dominatrix lesbian dressed in leather, and my mum and I began watching two entirely different shows. My mum continued to comment on the “brilliant dialogue,” while I wanted nothing else to be on the screen but Lena with a whip in her hand.

The Investigator, 1997 ITV

Lee: This was by far the biggest shining light moment for me before I came out. Randomly watching ITV one night, I came across a program that, at first, looked quite dull except for the fact that Helen Baxendale was in it and wearing an army uniform. So I thought, “Hello? Let’s see this through.”

The show turned out to be the dramatization of a real story about Sergeant Caroline Meagher, whose job in the army in the 1980s was to root out the lesbians. Along the way she discovers that she herself is a big old gay – what are the chances of that?

I was so gripped by this TV show that by the end, I was not only aware that Helen Baxendale looked super hot in khaki, but I was finally sure that, like Sergeant Meagher, I would definitely have been kicked out of the army.

Incidentally, Caroline’s girlfriend, Louise Marshall, was played by Laura Fraser, who is soon to play gay once again as Cat in the BBC’s new lesbian drama Lip Service.

Coming Out Night – Ellen, “The Puppy Episode,” 1998 Channel 4

Sarah: I am cheating slightly here because Ellen DeGeneres is obviously an American export. However in 1998, Channel 4 showed huge les-pect and held a “Coming Out” night in celebration of the airing of “The Puppy Episode.” Ellen, her then-girlfriend Anne Heche and even Betty DeGeneres, drank champagne and talked about what the episode meant to them and this was followed by C4’s own Guide To Coming Out.

Watching until the small hours of the morning on my rickety old black and white TV, I remember Ellen said she felt moved by the fuss made by Channel 4 when her own network in the U.S. didn’t even send flowers. It was a moment I felt truly proud to be British.

Big Brother 1, 2000 Channel 4

Sarah: Back in the day when Big Brother was genuinely a gripping and fresh social experiment, the UK was blessed with a contestant named Anna Nolan. Anna was a guitar-playing former nun who rocked red lipstick and had wit as sharp as a supermodel’s hipbones. One treasured comedy moment ensued when she jokingly asked fellow housemate Melanie Hill if she would like to shag.

This was the first “real life” lesbian many had ever seen on TV, and not only was she a hugely positive representation, she was also cheered on by the mainstream. When she made it to the final round of the show, my entire workplace (mainly straight) racked up the company phone bill by voting for her on a rota system throughout the day. They even made badges of her face and wore them proudly to a Big Brother party in a local gay bar.

Although she finally lost by 2% to housewives favorite Craig, she at least had the consolation of running into the arms of her beautiful blonde girlfriend Tania upon leaving the house. Sadly, all other lesbians who have appeared on Big Brother since the days of Anna have been embarrassing, frightening or downright bizarre.

Bad Girls, 1999-2001, ITV – Seasons 1-3

Sarah: Never has there been a story of star-crossed lovers shown on primetime television quite like the one between inmate Nikki Wade (Mandana Jones) and Governor Helen Stewart (Simone Lahbib) on G (Spot) Wing.

At the time of its original broadcast, Bad Girls was one of ITV’s most popular, mainstream shows due to the camp storylines and top notch dialogue from characters like Shell “I’ll cut your tits off and make them into curry” Dockley and part-time lover and sidekick Denny “You’re a shi–in’ nutter Schell” Blood, and comedy rivals, Sylvia “Do I look like I was born yesterday?” Hollamby, and Yvonne, “Not unless you age at the speed of light,” Atkins.

However, in living rooms across the country, sitting in between their parents, were young lesbians impatient for the next installment of “Hikki.” When it looked like Helen would end up with a man at the end of season three, I remember feeling duped and a little heartbroken. When Helen finally uttered the words “I want a woman” to Nikki and kissed her in the final episode, there wasn’t a dry lesbian in the UK. (Dry-EYED lesbian, that is.)

I don’t think there has ever been an ending quite so deliciously perfect, and I am still writing weekly letters to Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus begging for a spin-off. Join me.

Tipping the Velvet, 2002 BBC2

Sarah and Lee: If you are ever in the UK and you’re not sure if the girl you fancy across the bar is gay, then you need only call her “an exquisite little tart” to find out. If she is a British dyke, then she WILL have seen Tipping the Velvet and will offer you a cig and a glass of wine. If she is straight, then you do face getting a slap.

Already huge fans of the book by Sarah Waters, we approached the TV show with some trepidation, fearful that it would sully and dilute Nan Astley’s incredible, romp filled journey. In reality, the three-part program by Andrew Davies was a mouth-watering and utterly authentic adaptation.

It not only brought strap-on dildos to BBC primetime and offered us a plethora of truly genius quotes to savor (“But I didn’t want to be her sister… I wanted to be her sweetheart” and “Oh miss, what a thing to do!”) but also gave us new crushes in the form of Keeley Hawes, Rachael Stirling and Jodhi May.

Sugar Rush, 2005 Channel 4

Sarah & Lee: Adapted by Jane English from the Julie Burchill book of the same name, we stumbled across Sugar Rush quite by accident and we were soon addicted to the funny, unique characters and brave storylines – such as pleasure by electric toothbrush.

Unlike most lesbian characters, 15-year old Kim (Olivia Hallinan) by is portrayed as a lone voice of sanity with the kind of inner-confidence about her sexuality that you wish you had felt at that age. The object of her desire (and her best friend), Sugar (Lenora Crichlow), is the kind of unstable, exciting mess that attracts a disproportionate amount of otherwise sensible lesbians.

Kim and Sugar’s relationship was always riddled with melodrama but over two seasons we never stopped willing them to work it out – even when Kim found herself an altogether more suitable lady love in the shape of DJ Saint (Sarah-Jane Potts). It was baffling that Channel 4 canceled the show after just two seasons, especially when the prospect of Sugar, Kim and her girlfriend Saint all living together in season three would have no doubt been comedy gold.

Skins, 2009 Channel 4 – Season 3

Sarah & Lee: We must confess to both feeling a bit out of the target age bracket for Skins and to have only seen a few episodes. But it clearly offers an important and positive representation of a lesbian relationship for the generation watching it.

This generation (we are reliably informed by Sarah’s 16-year old sister and her friends) don’t see the relationship between Emily (Kathryn Prescott) and Naomi (Lily Loveless) as a particular talking point, they are just another couple within the show.

Looking back on the furor caused by Beth Jordache’s kiss in the early 90s on Brookside, Skins represents a giant step forward for lesbian characters on TV and the little lesbians watching at home trying to find something to identify with on their screens.

Joanna Briscoe’s bisexual thriller Sleep With Me was recently aired on ITV, plus The Secret Diary Of Miss Anne Lister is due in Spring, Skins returns this month and Lip Service, a full on lesbian six part drama, will come to BBC3 in April. This suggests that in the UK at least, lesbian relationships are no longer seen as quite so transgressive, and hopefully indicates good things for the future of lesbian visibility on our screens – so hurrah for ‘Tom’ foolery.

What about you lady lovers, what were the important TV moments for you? Tell us and let’s have a right good old discussion about it.

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