[pressgang] Douglas is Cancelled

[Laura Nunn]

I interviewed Kelda once for a PG fanzine (title: Kelda On The Line 😬).

I asked her what changes she would have made to the series if it had continued and she said she would have introduced a storyline where one of the characters was gay - and named Frazz.

Though this interview was retrospective, maybe 1996, so a few years after the series had finished. I think public awareness of gay issues and gay acceptance evolved very quickly from the mid 1990s onwards and PG was perhaps a tiny bit early.

Also kids hated “issues” episodes. Just do a funny bit with a rabbit costume, and let us sniff glue on our own time.

Sent from my iPhone

> On 23 Jun 2024, at 13:52, Dipskit Comedy <dipskitcomedy at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi all
> 
> Thanks for sharing that, Matt! Interesting read.
> 
> I was about the same age as the PG characters when it first screened. No one where I grew up was openly gay back then - and I was in a youth theatre group. 😉 At least 3 of my friends in that group didn’t come out until their 20s and even then (in the 90s in Tasmania) it was a massive thing for them and they were worried about not being accepted.
> 
> So even though Moff didn’t think about it one way or the other, I wouldn’t have expected any gay characters in a teen show back then.
> 
> Funnily enough, the 2 characters I could see coming out on PG are Sarah or Frazz, who were dating in real life.
> 
> Cheers
> Claire
> 
>> On 21 Jun 2024, at 23:19, Matt Saunders <matts at yoyo.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Steven Moffat's newest creation is on ITV in the UK next week:
>> 
>> https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jun/17/douglas-is-cancelled-hugh-bonneville-alex-kingston-steven-moffat-cancel-comedy
>> 
>> I'm looking forward to this (as ever with anything that the Moff
>> writes!) - hoping for typical Moff cleverness and humour.
>> 
>> There's a small mention of PG in the article - Steven's regret about the
>> lack of gay characters.  With hindsight, the imposition of a
>> heteronormative love life on every key character at some point in the
>> show feels clumsy in today's world, but would including some gay
>> representation more than 30 years ago have felt token?  I don't think so
>> but interested in what others think.
>> 
>> 
>> Matt.
>> --
>> Matt Saunders
>> 07506 857125
>> 
>> 
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