EastEnders may bring transgender character to Albert Square to challenge 'traditional' viewers

Groundbreaking move will see trans actor in the role

(BBC)

EastEnders had the nation gripped with the whodunnit surrounding Lucy Beale's murder.

And now the long-running BBC soap opera is set to get people talking again as the programme is in talks to introduce a transgender character to Albert Square.

Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins told a gathering at National Student Pride on Saturday that "we are looking at a trans storyline". He added that EastEnders has the power to influence "bigoted" viewers.

"I would want to cast a trans actor," Treadwell-Collins said. "You have to cast a trans actor, but you also don't want to mess up the story because it reaches so many people and a lot of our audience are quite traditional."

"The power of EastEnders is that we can change the world a little. You can change it gently and influence people who may be quite bigoted."

Cucumber star Bethany Black, who is transgender, recently told The Independent of how poorly represented trans people are in the mainstream media.

EastEnders has often challenged social norms. In 1986 the soap introduced its first gay character, Colin Russell, and aired the UK's first gay soap kiss, which caused a tabloid furore.