Drama featuring TV's first lesbian kiss released to mark Pride festival

Updated

The first televised lesbian kiss will be available to view for the first time since 1974.

The BBC Store is releasing Girl, starring Alison Steadman, which featured the first lesbian kiss to air on British television.

Girl is part of the Prejudice And Pride collection, released to celebrate LGBTQ festival Pride in London. It has not been available since first broadcast on BBC Two.

Steadman said: "When I was offered the part I felt quite nervous. A completely new adventure. Never been offered anything like it before.

"The director, Peter Gill, was great because he didn't fuss about the fact they were two women or that they had to kiss; he said it was just a love story.

"I was worried about my parents watching it, only because I thought my mum would be a bit embarrassed by comments from neighbours, but they took it well. My mum said she thought it was great and was very moved by it."

The half-hour drama tells the story of two female army officers at the end of an affair, with Steadman starring alongside Myra Frances.

Girl was very controversial at the time. According to the British Film Institute, the transmission was preceded by a special announcement by the controller of BBC Two.

Other landmark programmes in the collection include adaptations of Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (1989) and Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha Of Suburbia (1993).

Coming Out, from 1979, features the first ever gay kiss on BBC One and is also in the collection.

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