Boy Meets Girl (BBC TV series)

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Boy Meets Girl
Three people standing in a pub; an older woman on the left, a younger women in the middle, and a man on the right
Photo released by the BBC from shooting Boy Meets Girl, showing (left-to-right) Welch, Root and Hepple
Genre Sitcom
Created by Elliott Kerrigan
Written by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Elliott Kerrigan
  • Simon Carlyle
  • Andrew Mettam
Directed by Paul Walker
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 6
Production
Executive producer(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Sophie Clarke-Jervoise
  • Kristian Smith
Producer(s) Margot Gavan Duffy
Production location(s) Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England UK
Running time 28 minutes
Production company(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Distributor Endemol UK
Release
Original network BBC Two
Picture format 16:9 1080i
Audio format Stereo
Original release 3 September 2015 (2015-09-03) –
present (present)
External links
Boy Meets Girl on BBC.co.uk

Boy Meets Girl is a 2015 BBC Two six-episode sitcom starring Rebecca Root, Harry Hepple and Denise Welch which aired between 3 September and 8 October 2015. It tells the story of the developing relationship between 26-year-old Leo (Hepple) and 40-year-old Judy (Root).[1] The script, by Elliott Kerrigan, was discovered through the Trans Comedy Award, a 2013 BBC talent search for scripts with positive portrayals of transgender characters.[2][3]

Both Root and her character Judy are transgender, making this the first BBC comedy to feature transgender issues prominently, and the first sitcom to star a transgender actor. Sophie Clarke-Jervoise, the executive producer, stated "we always knew we had to get a trans actress – I don't think we auditioned anyone who wasn't trans for the role. It just didn't feel right."[1]

A second series has been filmed and is expected to be shown in late 2016.[4]

Background and production

In January 2012, All About Trans organized an event, "Trans Camp", involving people from the trans community and media, and aiming to help the media provide accurate depictions of transgender people.[5][6] Off the back of this, the BBC ran a talent search later that year, the Trans Comedy Award, offering comedy writers up to £5000 for scripts with positive portrayals of transgender characters.[2] The BBC received 320 script entries, with the winners being Boy Meets Girl (then titled Love) by Elliott Kerrigan and Nobody's Perfect by Tom Glover.[7][8][9]

A pilot episode was shown at the BBC's Salford Sitcom Showcase in March 2014, and the show was commissioned after that.[10][11] The main series acquired co-writers Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam, and had six 30-minute episodes (including the pilot episode with some re-shot scenes) set and recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne .[3][6][12]

The theme tune was "Meet Me on the Corner" by Lindisfarne.[13]

Reception

After the pilot episode aired, The Independent compared Boy Meets Girl to Gavin & Stacey, an award-winning BBC comedy from 2007–2010, a comparison the BBC had said they were looking to make.[2][10]

On the topic of having a trans woman character played by a trans woman, Paris Lees wrote in The Guardian "About bloody time" and "It's great to see trans folk bringing authenticity to roles ... [Comedy] is at its best when it helps us to understand a complex and often cruel world by laughing at our own, previously unexamined, prejudices. I haven't seen Boy Meets Girl yet, but it has already put a smile on my face."[5]

Jasper Rees in the newspaper The Telegraph was rather less impressed, describing the show as "packaged in a demoralisingly traditional form of comedy".[14] Christopher Stevens in The Daily Mail said that by the final episode, the show had "...given up all pretence at being a sitcom. It’s simply an instruction manual on what to say, think and feel about sex changes. The conversations between lovebirds Leo and Judy and their parents are excruciatingly twee. This episode centred on a father-and-son chat that was so cringeworthy, it could make a plank of wood curl up in embarrassment."[15]

People

Boy Meets Girl is created by Elliott Kerrigan and written by Kerrigan, Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam. It stars Rebecca Root as Judy, Harry Hepple as Leo, Denise Welch as Pam, Leo's mother, as well as Janine Duvitski, Nigel Betts, Lizzie Roper and Jonny Dixon. It is directed by Paul Walker, the producer is Margot Gavan Duffy, and the executive producers are Sophie Clarke-Jervoise for Tiger Aspect and Kristian Smith for the BBC.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-19/bbc-confirms-boy-meets-girl-series-2
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. – Blog entry by the series' creator in the BBC Writers Room blog.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. – Background from one of the organizations involved with the initial script writing competition on the process of getting the show made.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. – Blog entry by one of the show's stars on the creation process.

External links

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