TV soap to feature first lesbian storyline in a Gaelic drama

Director of An Clò Mòr hopes the plot will be as pivotal for Celtic culture as the same-sex kiss in Brookside was for the UK 30 years ago
Paul English
The Times
Jenny Ryan as Judi and Kathryn MacKay as Cairistiona in An Clò Mòr
Jenny Ryan as Judi and Kathryn MacKay as Cairistiona in An Clò Mòr
BBC SCOTLAND
Paul English
The Times

The director of a Scottish soap featuring the first gay storyline between women in the Western Isles has pledged to “redress the balance” over a lack of same-sex representation on Gaelic television.

The director Tony Kearney said that his drama An Clò Mòr will show islanders that “there’s nothing to be scared of” by acknowledging gay relationships in the Scottish islands.

The second series of the drama, which begins on BBC Alba tonight, will feature a “three-way love affair” between three women working in the Hebridean Harris Tweed industry.

Thirty years ago this month the Channel 4 soap Brookside became the first TV programme to show a lesbian kiss before the 9pm watershed. The kiss between Anna Friel’s character Beth Jordache and Nicola Stephenson’s Margaret