Celebrating Trans on British Television

As this is a celebration of trans on British television, the focus is on transgender characters portrayed by transgender actors, however I won’t totally exclude portrayals of transgender characters by cisgender actors.

My feeling is that a trans actor should portray a trans character, as they bring authenticity to the role, and also increase the visibility of trans people.

And as with the previous celebration episodes, film and songs, my research has amassed enough material for more than one episode, although this time the separation will be based on location and not a time period.

And after a recent chat with one of my best friends about the podcast, I will discuss trans in science fiction in a future episode, and again due to the wealth of programmes, these explorations of trans on television will generally exclude a single appearance of a trans character.

Welcome to “Trans Wise Trans Strong”, I am Carolyne O’Reilly.

Episode twenty-seven, “Celebrating Trans on British Television”

And so let’s start with the earliest trans character I could find on British television, which is Hayley Cropper, who was indeed portrayed by a cisgender actress, Julie Hesmondhalgh, on the long running, and still on air, soap, Coronation Street.

Hayley first appeared on the 26th of January 1998, and the last appearance of Hayley was on the 22nd of January 2014, when she took her own life after a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer.

When the character of Hayley was first introduced, realistic was the last word one might have used to describe the character, the then producers Granada TV, were inundated by concerned trans people.

Granada TV, was one of over a dozen independent television franchises that existed, before all were subsumed into either ITV plc or Scotland’s STV Group.

The trans community were quite understandably concerned about the impression of trans people, Hayley’s initial characterisation might give, and to the producers credit, they found a trans woman who was a fan of Coronation Street, who they engaged as a consultant, and as a result the character developed into a realistic representation of a trans woman.

Then just over five-an-half years after Hayley’s first appearance, saw Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ “Little Britain”, a character-based, and so called comedy sketch show, why so called, well it was and is widely criticised for relying on cruel, mocking, and dated stereotypes.

And two of their characters exemplified this, Emily and Florence, which were cruel transphobic caricatures of trans women, and would not have been out of place in the 70’s, but in the twenty-first century?

But that was early in the new century, what about in 2020 when Comic Relief and Children in Need joined forces for the BBC’s The Big Night In, hosted by Lenny Henry, Matt Baker, Zoë Ball and Paddy McGuinness

This broadcast started at 7:00pm on Thursday the 23rd of April, exactly one month after the UKs’ first lockdown, due to Covid-19, had begun.

The three hour programme was billed as a night of comedy, music and live entertainment from the studio, with link ups with a multitude of stars from their houses, that included Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

So where we spared Emily and Florence, that would be a no, yet there was no sign of Desiree DeVere, this character was portrayed by David Walliams in black face and a fat suit, no, seriously, that happened.

And Pink News, has an article about Lucas and Walliams’ appearance on The Big Night In.

Then in June 2020, Little Britain was pulled from iPlayer, the BBC’s streaming service, and when it returned all appearances of Desiree DeVere had been edited out, but what about Emily and Florence, nope, still there!

But back eight years, to November 2012, the BBC Writersroom launched the “Trans Comedy Award” at the “Creative Diversity Network Awards”, with the aim of finding original television comedy sitcoms, and the selected writers who would be able to develop their script with the BBC.

The BBC Writersroom received 320 script entries for the award, and in 2013 two winners were announced; Tom Glover and Elliott Kerrigan.

And the winners of the second “Trans Comedy Award” were…, well there wasn’t any, as the “Trans Comedy Award” was only run once, its as if the BBC had said, “we’ve made a series with a trans character portrayed by a trans actor, tick, move on”.

Tom’s script was titled, “Nobody’s Perfect”, which was centred around a transgender mother, Julia and her complicated life, which although developed through a number of drafts remains unproduced.

Whereas Elliott’s script, “Love”, a comedy drama about two people, 22 year old Leo and Judy, a trans woman in her forties, did go into production and was renamed, “Boy Meets Girl”, and ran for 2 series of six episodes.

Elliott had previously been one of the winners of another competition run by the BBC Writersroom, called “Laughing Stock”, with their script “Northburn”, and as one of the winners, they got to meet in their words, “some incredibly talented new writers, such as David Byrne, Mathilda Gregory and Jo Williams”.

And with their fellow script writers had a Q and A session with Graham Linehan, whose writing credits included creating with Arthur Mathews, “Father Ted” and “Black Books”, and was the sole creator of “The IT Crowd”, that ran from 2006 to 2013.

If you have listened to the previous episode, Pornography and the Trans Community, then you would have heard in its introduction where I considered whether you can separate the creator from their works.

Well, given that Graham Linehan is widely accused of holding transphobic views, none of the series will be seen on my television, ever.

But back to a series that did most definitely grace my screen, “Boy Meets Girl”, Judy was portrayed by Rebecca Root who is a trans woman, with Leo portrayed by Harry Hepple who is cisgender.

The first series ran from September to October in 2015, and the second from July to August 2016, and the series centred on Judy and Leo’s relationship, as well as their families and also explored the attitudes towards transgender people.

However, Judy would not be the first trans character, in a continuing series, portrayed by a trans actor, that honour went to Bethany Black and her character Helen, who first appears in the forth episode of the Russell T. Davis series, “Banana”, titled appropriately enough, “Helen”.

The episode was broadcast on the 12th of February 2015, and was Bethany’s only appearance in the series, however in the companion series, “Cucumber”, she appeared three times, in the forth, seventh and final eighth episode.

And Bethany was also in the documentary series, “Tofu”, about these two series, in episodes; one, two, four, five and the final eighth.

And remember I mentioned that Graham Linehan was widely accused of holding transphobic views, well on the 12th of December 2008, Channel 4 broadcast an episode of “The IT Crowd”, titled “The Speech”.

This episode was rightly criticised for a storyline that relied on harmful transphobic tropes and trivialised violence against transgender women, and was scripted by, you’ve guessed it, Linehan, however in October 2020, Channel 4 removed this episode from their streaming service, All4.

And whilst Russell T. Davis created the series “Banana”, which was the first continuing series with a trans character, portrayed by a trans actor, ten years earlier there was I feel a misstep when Doctor who was relaunched in 2005, with Russell as showrunner.

During the first series, the character of Captain Jack Harkness portrayed by John Barrowman was introduced, in the episode, The Empty Child, which saw the first openly gay character in Doctor Who, which I would say was an example of positive inclusion.

The character of Captain Jack is a fully rounded character, and the episode was written by Steven Moffat, and Steven would become the Doctor Who showrunner after Russell, from the fifth series.

However, with the second episode of the first series, The End of the World, scripted by Russell, which is set five billion years in the future on board a space station in orbit above the Earth, which is soon to be destroyed by the sun, one word totally alters how one perceives one of the characters.

The character is introduced by the Steward, portrayed by Simon Day, “…we call forth the last human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen.”, portrayed by Zoë Wanamaker.

Cassandra is pathologically obsessed with body modification, and is now a brain in a transparent cylindrical jar and her face is a stretched sheet of skin on a metal frame, as a result of 708 operations.

And it is whilst she is talking to Rose, the doctor’s companion portrayed by Billie Piper, whilst viewing the earth through an observation window, that we learn she is virulently xenophobic, and then there is the line, “That’s where I used to live, when I was a little boy. Down there.”

So now we perceive her as trans female, and how that line is phrased is I would suggest transphobic, it is a total misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender, and also due to her plastic surgeries touches on a transphobic trope that trans women are not real women.

When I watched this episode when first broadcast, it was just under fourteen years before I came out as a trans woman, I cannot recall how I felt about it then, but having just watched the episode again on the BBC’s iPlayer, I was left feeling disappointed and also somewhat angry.

How I feel about transphobia, even if not intended, has definitely altered from before, to after when I came out as a trans woman, now it feels like a personal attack on who I am.

The character would reappear in the first episode of the second series, New Earth, where she possesses the body of Rose, and here we have another transphobic trope, the killer trans woman, which I discussed in the episode, Celebrating Trans Films - Part One.

And here’s the thing, would that line work without the word “boy”?

Let’s try it, “That’s where I used to live, when I was little. Down there.”

Works pretty well I would say, and now we have no reason not to perceive her as a cisgender woman, although now possibly it comes across as a bit sexist?

That women are obsessed with their appearance, oh dear.

I just do not know why Russell phrased that line as they did, given how their ground breaking Channel 4 drama, Queer As Folk, did some much for the gay community.

I cannot believe there was any intention of transphobia on Russell’s part, but from today’s perspective, that line is to say the least, problematic, and whilst the first attempt at a trans character left a lot to be desired, Russell would more than make up for this stumble when they returned as the showrunner.

And in case you feel I am having a go at Doctor Who, I’m not, I still watch it and with the series 9 episode, Sleep No More, definitely improved its inclusion score with the casting of Bethany Black, an openly trans woman in the role of a cisgender genetically engineered female clone, known as a "Grunt".

And this is a double positive, with a trans actor portraying, a cisgender character, so why do I feel that it is OK for a trans actor to portray a cisgender character, but not the other way.

Well, whilst colour-conscious casting is to be welcomed, in respect of trans characters, I still feel they should be represented by trans actors.

And in November 2023, with the first of three Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials, the Russell scripted, The Star Beast, saw the introduction of Rose Noble, portrayed by trans actress Yasmin Finney.

This was the first episode of the BBC Disney co-production of the series, which saw Russell resume as its showrunner, and the character of Rose was the daughter of a former companion, Donna Noble, portrayed by Catherine Tate.

Then with the Christmas Special episode, The Church on Ruby Road, broadcast on the 23rd of December 2023, the trans actress Mary Malone was cast as Trudy, a friend of the Doctor Who companion, Ruby Sunday portrayed by Millie Gibson.

And this is the first full length episode to feature Ncuti Gatwa as the fifteenth Doctor, and would be the first black actor in the lead role, although they were not the first black actor to play the Doctor.

In the January 2020 episode the, Fugitive of the Judoon, the actress Jo Martin portrayed the Doctor as the “Fugitive Doctor”.

And before we leave Doctor Who, the episode, Dot and Bubble, would see Pete MacHale in the role of Gothic Paul, the first trans male actor cast in Doctor Who.

And whilst the casting of the first trans character in a soap, from today’s perspective also feels like a misstep, Coronation Street was not alone.

On the 29th of October 2015, Annie Wallace would be the first trans actress to portray a trans character, Sally St. Claire, on Hollyoaks and they would remained with the show until September 2024.

Except that the casting of Annie Wallace followed three stumbles, for authentic trans representation, as there had been three previous trans characters all portrayed by cisgender actors.

From 2010 to 2011 there was Jason Costello, a trans man, portrayed by Victoria Atkins, then in 2014, there was the trans woman Blessing Chamber portrayed by

Modupe Adeyeye and finally Ro Hutchinson, a young trans boy, with Ava Webster cast in the role.

However, as of October 2025, the role of Ro Hutchinson is now portrayed by seventeen year old trans actor Leo Cole.

Eastenders on the other hand got it right first time, with on the 30th of October 2015, the introduction of Kyle Slater, a trans man, portrayed by trans actor Riley Carter Millington, and their character appeared throughout 2016.

Emmerdale is an interesting case, they had a character that transitioned, Hannah Barton who was portrayed by cisgender actress Grace Cassidy, from 2009 to 2012, then when the character returned in June 2018, their name was now Matt Barton, and they were portrayed by trans actor Ash Palmisciano.

And really I can’t fault the producers of Emmerdale, as, when they decided to introduce a trans male character, they brought Ash in as a consultant, to ensure that the character was authentic.

And so impressed where they with Ash, that they decided to invite him to audition for the role, at which of course he was successful.

And the long running medical drama, Casualty, had a trans character, Robert Calvert who was portrayed by trans actor Misia Butler, from the 29th of August 2015 to the 30th of July 2016.

And Casualties’ companion series, “Holby City”, would have their first regular trans male character Louis McGerry, portrayed by Tyler Luke Cunningham from the 31st of March 2020 until their last appearance on the 29th of March 2022.

In the autumn of 2018, ITV broadcast a three part series, ”Butterfly”, which centred on an eleven year old trans girl Maxine, portrayed by Callum Booth-Ford, who comes out as trans just before she is due to attend secondary school, and was shown weekly from the 14th to the 28th of October.

The series deals with her families response, as well as societies, such as her school, to coming out as trans, and in a sense, this series could be considered to follow the maxim of the BBC’s first Director-General, Lord Reith, to, “inform, educate and entertain”.

It was written by Tony Marchant, who was known for scripting socially aware television programmes, such as “Mark of Cain”, “Public Enemies”, “Swallow” and “Kid in the Corner”.

As part of his research he observed meetings organised by Mermaids, which is a charity that supports transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse children and young people, as well as their families and the professionals involved in their care.

And he also consulted with clinical psychologists at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is now merged with the North London NHS Foundation Trust, which was where the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) was located.

GIDS was a specialist NHS clinic for transgender and gender-diverse young people, however as a result of the Cass Review, it officially closed on the 31st of March 2024.

And whilst the reception to “Butterfly”, was generally positive, for in a dramatic context, presenting what it means to be a young trans girl, there was some criticism, that focussed on Maxine’s suicide attempt.

In 2018, GIDS stated, based on their data findings, that for the roughly 5,000 young patients referred to their service between 2016 and 2018, there were three suicides and four attempted suicides, which was less than 1%.

However, in the previous episode, Pornography and the Trans Community, I mentioned Suicide Prevention UK’s findings as detailed in an article by Stonewall, which stated that 48% of trans people in the UK have attempted suicide at least once.

So, quite a discrepancy, so after a brief Google I found an article, published on the 25th of April 2026, by the Good Law Project, that discussed the available data.

And if you click the link, which you can do so on the transcript page for this episode, on the website supporting this podcast at www.twts.co.uk, you can read the article in full, however please be aware that the article discusses; trans suicide, self-harm and death.

The Good Law Project and QueerAF were able to verify that over the last 10 years, 50 trans and nonbinary people have died by suicide or self-inflicted death.

And working with the community project Trans Lives, verified six more trans and nonbinary people who died of preventable or premature deaths other than suicide over this same period.

And of the 56 trans and nonbinary people, nearly half were under 18 years of age,

and also the Good Law Project and QueerAF found from 2019 to 2025, trans and nonbinary people under 18 years of age made up 7% of all child suicides.

Whereas the result of the 2021 Census for England and Wales found 0.54% of people aged 16 years or over had a gender identity that was different from their sex registered at birth, and for Scotland, where the census was held a year later, it was 0.44%, which is to say the least rather sobering.

But back to trans character representation on television, in October 2022, would start the first series of BBC’s Wreck, where trans actress Miya Ocego was cast in the role of Rosie Preston, and there would be a final second series, although for some reason only series one is available on iPlayer.

And lastly, also from 2022, was the first series of the Netflix coming of age romantic comedy drama,

Heartstopper, which ran for three series and concluded with a feature length finale film, released on the 17th of July 2026.

The series had two trans actresses, portraying trans female characters, one we have already met, Yasmin Finney whose character was Elle Argent, and Bel Priestley, whose character was Naomi Russell.

And with that last series we come to the end of this celebration of trans on British television.

This episode was written and presented by me, Carolyne O’Reilly, thank you for listening.

Next time, “Celebrating Trans on US and Canadian Television”