Janet Ellis to Feature in W4 Based Lesbian Drama Series

Former Blue Peter presenter lined up to appear in adaptation of Different for Girls

Television is literally getting away with murder where lesbians are concerned, according to a BAFTA-winning playwright who is planning to redress the balance with a new drama series based in Chiswick.

A number of well-known names lined up to appear in the production is locally based former BBC presenter Janet Ellis.

Janet Ellis

Television producer, writer, director and commissioning editor, Jacquie Lawrence is currently crowdfunding for Different for Girls, an adaptation of Lawrence's fiction novel of the same name - first published as an e-book in 2014, and then as a paperback in 2015.

Jacquie Lawrence

The drama series will feature a group of lesbian and bisexual women based in Chiswick - the 'real lesbian housewives of West London' - women, she said "whose lives and loves revolve around children, marriage, betrayal and divorce. That's not to say that there isn't room for drink, drugs, sex and dancing; there is. Just not in front of their wives and children".

The show is planning to feature actress Janet Ellis in its line-up of stars. They aim to produce the 12 part series (around 3 hours of drama!) for the same cost of an average one-hour UK television documentary and are looking for funding from the public.

Jacquie says that television series repeatedly portray lesbians in a bad light. "There have been 12 lesbians killed off in 2016 so far. That may seem like a small number but given that in 2015, there were only 35 lesbian characters on primetime television in the US and the UK you can understand the fallout.

"What started off as a mild irritation has become an epidemic. The reaction to Kate's death in Last Tango In Halifax was amusing for the press, but the fallout over Lexa's death in The 100 has managed to put the 'syndrome' in perspective: disposing of lesbian characters so regularly has an acute effect on young lesbians and their self-esteem," she said in a recent interview with DIVA magazine.

The cast is slated to feature the likes of Rachel Shelley (The L Word), Sophie Ward (Land Girls, Doctors), Heather Peace (Lip Service), Janet Ellis (Doctor Who), Amy Lamé (RuPaul's Drag Race, Loose Women) and Nimmy March (Wallander, Thin Ice) among others, should it reach its crowdfunded target of £50,000.

She added, "The Trevor Project, which saves the lives of literally thousands of LBGQT teens every year, said that the deaths of popular characters like Lexa in The 100 and Dr. Denise Cloyd in The Walking Dead put their work back years. We are desperate to see lesbian and bi characters that manage to live their dramatic and complicated lives, on screen, without fear of death by car, helicopter crash, house fire or stray bullet."

"We wanted to make the web series this summer and so a crowd funding campaign seemed the most immediate and inclusive. People can invest financially at the level they are comfortable with, receive a perk and feel like they are part something special. We couldn't do it without people's support."

May 6, 2016