Rebecca Root plays Judy, a 40-year-old insurance clerk, and Harry Hepple plays Leo, an unemployed Geordie twenty-six-year-old, in this Newcastle-set rom-com commissioned after Elliott Kerrigan’s script won the BBC’s 2013 Trans Comedy Award. Kerrigan’s pilot, originally titled Love, was picked up from 320 entries and expanded into six 28-minute episodes that began on 3 September 2015, with a second and final run following in July 2016. Root, already a voice coach and stage actor, became the first openly trans performer to headline a British sitcom, while Denise Welch supplies brassy support as Leo’s mum Pam, forever refereeing her family’s barbed affection across the Tyne Bridge skyline.
The show’s humour leans on class collision and generational squabbles rather than transition trauma: Judy’s prim flat, Leo’s chaotic council estate, and both families’ blunt prejudices supply the friction. Writers Kerrigan, Simon Carlyle and Andrew Mettam keep the tone cosy, borrowing the warm-hearted, regional rhythms of Gavin & Stacey, though Daily Telegraph critic Jasper Rees dismissed the result as “demoralisingly traditional”. Critics praised the casting integrity, with Paris Lees in The Guardian simply declaring, “About bloody time”, while viewers awarded the first series a healthy 2.3 million overnight audience.
Twelve episodes later, Judy and Leo’s engagement closed the story; the BBC confirmed no third series after Kerrigan moved on to other projects, leaving the couple’s future to off-screen imagination. The theme tune, Lindisfarne’s 1972 fiddle-driven Meet Me on the Corner, book-ends each instalment with a wistful nod to Northern romantic optimism.
Production Details
BBC Two / 2 Seasons / 12 Episodes / 2015
Created by: Elliott Kerrigan
Writer(s): Elliott Kerrigan Simon Carlyle Andrew Mettam
Producer(s): Margot Gavan Duffy
Main Cast
Harry Hepple as Leo
Rebecca Root as Judy
Nigel Betts as Tony
Jonny Dixon as James
Janine Duvitski as Peggy
Vineeta Rishi as Anji
Lizzie Roper as Jackie
Denise Welch as Pam
Rachel Teate as Cath Fletcher
Will Graham as Meat Guy
