Coronation Street has been blasted for killing off too many lesbian characters.
Sue Perkins said there was still a problem when it came to storylines for gay women in soap, in a session at the Edinburgh TV Festival
“There is an extraordinary history on Coronation Street of young women being killed. It’s slightly out of control and needs monitoring,” she said.
“If it’s lesbians, it’s death. Something dreadful will always happen. It’s just the way it is.”
TV writer Russell T Davies, who started out scripting Corrie, said soaps were “fantastic engines” for driving forward LGBT storylines, with Antony Cotton introduced as a response to his Channel 4 series Queer as Folk.
In 2014, Corrie character Maddie Heath – girlfriend of Sophie Webster – was killed off in an explosion at a builder’s yard.
This year another young lesbian couple were separated by death, when Rana Habeeb perished in the factory roof collapse on her wedding day, denying Kate Connor the chance to become her wife.
Davies said that in the US they were slowly moving with the times, having announced a bisexual Batwoman which they claimed was the first queer superhero.
He pointed out that his Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood had blazed that trail long ago.
“I get a bit p****d off sometimes. John Barrowman as Captain Jack was so bisexual – and that was 2006! But it gets forgotten. You have to do it again and again.”
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