Post by carld2 on Apr 2, 2008 5:42:43 GMT -5
Do any of you watch Emmerdale?
www.itv.com/Soaps/emmerdale/default.html
It's sort of a lower tier soap than Eastenders or Coronation Street, but they've had more gay storylines than you might expect.
Emmerdale originally started out as Emmerdale Farm, a fairly conservative, and depressing, soap about the toil of life on a farm. The Sugden family took center stage, and still have some presence on the show today, albeit greatly reduced.
In 1989 the "Farm" was dropped, and in 1994 the show had a major burst of publicity and ratings when a plane crashed near the village, killing and crippling a slew of characters. The new format also brought more modern storylines.
The Tate family was the typical rich soap family, full of misery and affairs and death. The patriarch Frank cheated on his dying wife with his secretary. The son Chris was miserable, felt unloved, and was left wheelchair-bound in the plane crash (and unlike most soap characters he stayed paralyzed for the 10 years he was on the show). The daughter Zoe was quiet, supportive, and she eventually realized, a lesbian:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Tate
Zoe had various relationships during her time on the show, usually with women who would come and go without much fanfare. She had a commitment ceremony in 1996, but cheated soon after and lost her partner.
In 2002, she developed schizophrenia. She seduced her brother's wife, Charity. She slept with a man named Scott Windsor. They had a baby girl. She agreed to a relationship with him for the sake of their daughter, but she felt nothing for him and was soon sleeping with their female lawyer. When she attempted to leave, Scott tried to force himself on Zoe, and she injected him with horse tranquilizer. She was put on trial for attempted murder and was near a conviction until the chief witness revealed Scott had threatened him with violence the night before his testimony.
Scott took Zoe and her daughter and nephew hostage (by this time Zoe was the last of the Tates and was raising her dead brother's son) but he realized what he was doing and stopped. She left town with her kids. She also left behind a surprise for the King family, the new rich family who'd conned her out of the Tate family mansion. She set enough explosives that the place blew up soon after her departure.
The first major gay male character was Paul Lambert, a drag performance artist who arrived in 2004.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lambert_%28Emmerdale%29
He eventually stopped his drag act. He found out his uncle was his father, he had to repair his shaky relationship with his mother. He had a boyfriend of 9 years he broke up with soon after joining the show. He took up with a garbageman named Ivan Jones. Ivan was bisexual and Paul's wicked half-sister, Nicola, tried and tried to seduce him. She failed, but Paul refused to believe Ivan and decided he didn't want any more drama.
Months later he went to work for Perdita Sinclair and her husband Grayson.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Sinclair
Grayson liked some sex with men on the side, and Paul saved Grayson from a beating when he was in a bad part of town. Perdy befriended him and set him up with one of her horse trainers, Jonny Foster, as she was afraid Grayson might get together with Jonny.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Foster
Jonny and Paul started seeing each other, but Paul couldn't shake his feelings for Grayson. He eventually slept with Grayson, but was upset when Grayson said it meant nothing to him. He told Jonny the truth, and Jonny nearly left town, but he decided to forgive Paul and they got engaged. Last month they had a civil partnership.
Unfortunately, Perdy is involved in a nasty tug-of-war with Grayson over a surrogate child (Grayson is involved with the surrogate now and they don't want Perdy to have contact with the baby when its born). To hurt her, he told her he'd slept with Paul. She lunged at Gray and was arrested. She left town for a few weeks to plot revenge on Grayson.
This story will be winding down later this year, since the actors who play Grayson and Jonny are being written out of the show.
The story didn't work as well as hoped, because the character motivations were so confusing and Grayson and Paul had no chemistry together. I'm not sure what will happen with Paul once both men are gone. The show has had much more GLBT representation recently but that may be changing now.
They also had a brief lesbian fling between two teenage girls (Debbie Dingle and Jasmine Thomas) a few years ago. That ended badly, as Debbie's father seduced and impregnated Jasmine, who went on to have an abortion.
www.itv.com/Soaps/emmerdale/default.html
It's sort of a lower tier soap than Eastenders or Coronation Street, but they've had more gay storylines than you might expect.
Emmerdale originally started out as Emmerdale Farm, a fairly conservative, and depressing, soap about the toil of life on a farm. The Sugden family took center stage, and still have some presence on the show today, albeit greatly reduced.
In 1989 the "Farm" was dropped, and in 1994 the show had a major burst of publicity and ratings when a plane crashed near the village, killing and crippling a slew of characters. The new format also brought more modern storylines.
The Tate family was the typical rich soap family, full of misery and affairs and death. The patriarch Frank cheated on his dying wife with his secretary. The son Chris was miserable, felt unloved, and was left wheelchair-bound in the plane crash (and unlike most soap characters he stayed paralyzed for the 10 years he was on the show). The daughter Zoe was quiet, supportive, and she eventually realized, a lesbian:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Tate
Zoe had various relationships during her time on the show, usually with women who would come and go without much fanfare. She had a commitment ceremony in 1996, but cheated soon after and lost her partner.
In 2002, she developed schizophrenia. She seduced her brother's wife, Charity. She slept with a man named Scott Windsor. They had a baby girl. She agreed to a relationship with him for the sake of their daughter, but she felt nothing for him and was soon sleeping with their female lawyer. When she attempted to leave, Scott tried to force himself on Zoe, and she injected him with horse tranquilizer. She was put on trial for attempted murder and was near a conviction until the chief witness revealed Scott had threatened him with violence the night before his testimony.
Scott took Zoe and her daughter and nephew hostage (by this time Zoe was the last of the Tates and was raising her dead brother's son) but he realized what he was doing and stopped. She left town with her kids. She also left behind a surprise for the King family, the new rich family who'd conned her out of the Tate family mansion. She set enough explosives that the place blew up soon after her departure.
The first major gay male character was Paul Lambert, a drag performance artist who arrived in 2004.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lambert_%28Emmerdale%29
He eventually stopped his drag act. He found out his uncle was his father, he had to repair his shaky relationship with his mother. He had a boyfriend of 9 years he broke up with soon after joining the show. He took up with a garbageman named Ivan Jones. Ivan was bisexual and Paul's wicked half-sister, Nicola, tried and tried to seduce him. She failed, but Paul refused to believe Ivan and decided he didn't want any more drama.
Months later he went to work for Perdita Sinclair and her husband Grayson.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayson_Sinclair
Grayson liked some sex with men on the side, and Paul saved Grayson from a beating when he was in a bad part of town. Perdy befriended him and set him up with one of her horse trainers, Jonny Foster, as she was afraid Grayson might get together with Jonny.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Foster
Jonny and Paul started seeing each other, but Paul couldn't shake his feelings for Grayson. He eventually slept with Grayson, but was upset when Grayson said it meant nothing to him. He told Jonny the truth, and Jonny nearly left town, but he decided to forgive Paul and they got engaged. Last month they had a civil partnership.
Unfortunately, Perdy is involved in a nasty tug-of-war with Grayson over a surrogate child (Grayson is involved with the surrogate now and they don't want Perdy to have contact with the baby when its born). To hurt her, he told her he'd slept with Paul. She lunged at Gray and was arrested. She left town for a few weeks to plot revenge on Grayson.
This story will be winding down later this year, since the actors who play Grayson and Jonny are being written out of the show.
The story didn't work as well as hoped, because the character motivations were so confusing and Grayson and Paul had no chemistry together. I'm not sure what will happen with Paul once both men are gone. The show has had much more GLBT representation recently but that may be changing now.
They also had a brief lesbian fling between two teenage girls (Debbie Dingle and Jasmine Thomas) a few years ago. That ended badly, as Debbie's father seduced and impregnated Jasmine, who went on to have an abortion.
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