Where Are We On TV? (October 2008)

MeL's picture

By MeL on Monday, October 27, 2008 - 21:27

As promised, we put together a list of lesbian and bisexual women on European TV.

Where Are We On TV?

The list contains fictional characters as well as actresses, talk show hosts, newscasters and so on, but only from European productions, which means no characters and/or real women from TV programs that were produced outside of Europe. Also, we've only added shows that are currently in production. We plan to update the list from time to time, to see whether lesbian visibility on European TV has made any progress.

In order to put together the list, we had to do a lot of research on our own, so naturally the list is a bit biased towards Germany. We really tried, but I have to admit that even our language skills are limited - when it comes to Italian and Spanish I have to guess most of the time and my French is a little bit rusty to say the least. So if you're missing someone from this list, it's probably because we didn't know about her and we'd appreciate it a lot if you told us (preferably in English or German, for the above mentioned reasons ;-)).

Germany

TV Shows (Fiction):

Lesbian Characters

  • „Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten“ – „Paula Rapf“ (Josephine Schmidt)
  • „KDD“ – „Kristin Bender“ (Saskia Vester)
  • „Lindenstraße“ – „Tanja Schildknecht“ (Sybille Waury), „Suzanne Richter“ (Susanne Evers)
  • „Verbotene Liebe“ – „Carla Gräfin von Lahnstein“ (Claudia Hiersche)

Lesbian Actresses

  • „Lindenstraße“ – Susanne Evers („Suzanne Richter“)
  • „Tatort“ (Ludwigshafen) – Ulrike Folkerts („Lena Odenthal“)

 

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

  • “Anne Will” – Anne Will
  • “Genial Daneben” – Hella von Sinnen
  • „Helfer mit Herz“ – Vera Int-Veen
  • „Kölner Treff“ – Bettina Böttinger
  • „ZDF-Morgenmagazin“, „heute-journal“, „heute“ – Dunja Hayali 


Austria

  • „Starmania“ – Lucy Diakovska

France 

  • „Plus Belle la Vie“ - "Céline Frémont" (Rebecca Hampton), "Virginie Parrot" (Virginie Pauc)

Italy 

  • „Terapia d’urgenza“ - "Marina Ranieri del Colle" (Alessia Barela), "Esther Bruno" (Elisabetta Rocchetti) (cancelled)

Spain 

  • „Hospital Central“ – “Dr. Macarena "Maca" Wilson Fernández” (Patricia Vico), “Esther García” (Fátima Baeza), “Dr. Verónica Solé” (Carolina Cerezuela)
  • „Los Hombres de Paco“ – “Pepa Miranda” (Laura Sánchez), “Silvia Castro” (Marián Aguilera)

United Kingdom

  • “Mistresses” – “Jessica” (Shelley Conn), “Alex” (Anna Torv)
(1 vote)
DutchCJ's picture
Holland
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 27, 2008 - 22:11.

The Netherlands

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

"Goedemorgen Nederland" (Good Morning Netherlands) - Mirella van Markus
"Thank God It's Friday" - Claudia de Breij

 More to come Laughing

 

******

Music is magic and it tickles my heart!

Gemma Hayes makes my heart beat faster faster faster....

http://www.myspace.com/dutchcj
MeL's picture
Thanks :-)
Submitted by MeL on October 27, 2008 - 23:28.

I was actually wondering that there aren't any out lesbian women on Dutch TV. I read about Claudia de Breij, but didn't know that the show is currently in production. And I didn't know about Mirella von Markus. Smile

~ Be who you are, whoever you are. ~
DutchCJ's picture
Hiatus
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 27, 2008 - 23:56.

Thank God it's Friday is not on air currently but was in 2008. But knowing Claudia de Breij, she will either be back with this show or a different show. And I am hoping it is just on hiatus. On the other hand, she and her wife just had a baby, with Claudia doing a radioshow at present and also doing her theatershows........we"ll see..

******

Music is magic and it tickles my heart!

Gemma Hayes makes my heart beat faster faster faster....

http://www.myspace.com/dutchcj
sec's picture
just one thing: "Pepa
Submitted by sec on October 27, 2008 - 23:19.

just one thing: "Pepa Miranda"
MeL's picture
Oops...
Submitted by MeL on October 27, 2008 - 23:24.

Thanks for pointing this out, I changed it. Smile

~ Be who you are, whoever you are. ~
DutchCJ's picture
TV shows
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 28, 2008 - 00:14.

The Netherlands

TV Shows (Fiction):
Lesbian Characters

"Koning van de Maas"  ("King of the Maas") - Nellie Funhoff 

"Van Jonge Leu en Oale Groond" ("Of Young People and Old Land") - Monkie Wildspieker

"Koppels"  ("Couples") - Esther and Sofie
Series 1 was broadcasted in Belgium this year and rerun in Holland recently under a different name (can't remember which)
DutchCJ's picture
And from my neighbour Belgium
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 28, 2008 - 00:16.

 

Belgium

TV Shows (Fiction):
Lesbian Characters

"Thuis" (At Home) - soap opera - dr. Ann(eke) de Decker
Kinderen van Dewindt ("Children of Dewindt") - Lies Dewindt and Ellen


maxime68's picture
cool
Submitted by maxime68 on October 28, 2008 - 06:19.

This is starting to be quite an impressive list ;-)

Hopefully, there'll be a lot more to come. Guess I need to check how to receive Belgian and Dutch TV....

 

http://spoilmyself.blogspot.com/

http://strawberrysaffron.blogspot.com/
Natazzz's picture
I'm such a bad lesbian
Submitted by Natazzz on October 28, 2008 - 10:44.

I honestly could not think of the Dutch lesbians on TV until I saw DutchCJ's list and I thought: Oh yeah.

I'm such a bad lesbian...or more precisely, I'm a little out of touch with what is going on in my country.

But. Writing for eurOut is making me learn all kinds of cool things about LGBT stuff in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.

Look for more on Claudia de Breij soon...only on your favourite website ;-)

- - - - - - - - - -

-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

I blog, therefore, I am


maxime68's picture
even cooler ;-)
Submitted by maxime68 on October 28, 2008 - 11:21.

Looking forward to it :-) Cause I looked up her webpage and though I do understand some dutch when spoken, I quickly reach my limit when reading.

About the other thing: noone can know everything and you brought us already tons of information I didn't know until then. And I consider myself being well informed, but it's still so difficult to get all the "relevant" information in Europe together ;-)

 

 

http://spoilmyself.blogspot.com/

http://strawberrysaffron.blogspot.com/
Sandra Showtime's picture
Thank you MeL and Charly..
Submitted by Sandra Showtime on October 28, 2008 - 11:42.

..for putting this together! It's amazing how you deal with your daytime jobs and eurout. I feel guilty all the time I read something from you, cause I know how hard it is to have two fulltime jobs ;) I was on vacation last week, did anyone notice? No? This is because eurout-editors are so awesome that they actually don't need an chiefeditor. Thanks for keeping me anyway :p
maxime68's picture
France
Submitted by maxime68 on October 28, 2008 - 20:57.

Are those things I read about Muriel Robin (french actress) true? Can we add her to the list?

 

http://spoilmyself.blogspot.com/

http://strawberrysaffron.blogspot.com/
DutchCJ's picture
A few more
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 28, 2008 - 21:52.

 

The Netherlands

Lesbian Actresses

"Flodder" - Nelly Frijda (plays Ma Flodder) - old series but reruns on VT4 (Belgium) - so it is a Dutch actress but the show currently has reruns on a Belgium Tv channel.

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

"Eredivisie Live" (Major League Live) soccer program - Barbara Barend

Belgium

TV Shows (Fiction):
Lesbian Characters

"Spoed" (Emergency) - Femke Vincke (from season 10)  (season 11 just ended, season 12 will air in 2009) - Holland is airing season 8, I think

And how about telenovelle LouisLouise? It is about a heterosexual man trapped in a woman's body? Currently airing on VTM. I never saw it, so I don't know what to think about it.

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

 "De Rode Loper" (The Red Carpet, Belgium 1 show) - Yasmine (is also a famous Belgium singer and tv announcer)
She also presents: "Zo is er maar een" (like this there is only one), but not airing at present, the 2008 shows are finished.
"Ketnet" (This is the children's channel of VRT Belgium - National TV) - Karolien de Becker (tv-presenter)

United Kingdom

TV Shows (Fiction):
Lesbian Characters
 
Casualty (BBC show) - Dixie (paramedic)
Out of the Blue (aired 2008 -  BBC show) - Poppy and Peta
(currently airs in Ireland RTE1 and has been sold to different European countries like Belgium, Holland and France)

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

All BBC horse racing coverage - Clare Balding

Lesbian actresses

"Eastenders" - Pam St. Clement (plays Pat Wicks)

Ireland

TV Shows (Talk/Comedy/News Shows):

"Would you Believe" (RTE Ireland)   - Anna Nolan

 

So I stretched your TV Show part a bit.....

And how about RADIO!

Oh and please all you out there, correct me where I am wrong!

 

******

Music is magic and it tickles my heart!

Gemma Hayes makes my heart beat faster faster faster....

http://www.myspace.com/dutchcj
Pandemonia's picture
It's complicated...
Submitted by Pandemonia on October 30, 2008 - 23:26.

First of all I'm a bit surprised someone from the Netherlands knows LouisLouise, so I have to ask how do you know about it?

I live in Belgium and I watch LouisLouise on daily basis, but it's complicated... Louis was a player, he could have any woman he wanted but sex was all he was interested in so one of his conquests decided to change things for him. She went to a friend and they conjured a spell, not knowing the outcome of it would be successful. Louis went to bed as a man only to wake up as a woman! Although he IS a man trapped in a female body, his feelings are becoming more and more feminin. He/she almost had sex with another woman, but his/her roommate caught them and stopped the whole thing (too bad for us!). But now... Louise is falling in love with a colleague, a male colleague. So what would you call her??? Straight? Bi? Gay? I don't know...

So I'm not sure where we have to put LouisLouise on the list.
Natazzz's picture
Stop, you're scaring me...
Submitted by Natazzz on October 28, 2008 - 21:56.

DutchCJ, how the hell do you know all this stuff?

Is it just gay stuff or would you be the perfect Trivia Pursuit partner? ;-)

- - - - - - - - - -

-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

I blog, therefore, I am


DutchCJ's picture
oh dear....
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 28, 2008 - 22:15.

....Laughing....I am not in the habit of scaring people hahahahaha....and absolutely not you Natazzz, as here on eurOut you are my "partner in crime"

And sorry to disappoint you,  I am so not the perfect Trivia Pursuit partner. Gay stuff and women in music  I know about, so pretty limited and boring really.

******

Music is magic and it tickles my heart!

Gemma Hayes makes my heart beat faster faster faster....

http://www.myspace.com/dutchcj
maxime68's picture
Switch
Submitted by maxime68 on October 29, 2008 - 06:36.

Know what? Switch is the german lesbian version of Trivial Pursuit ;-> So you'd be a real genius with it.

http://spoilmyself.blogspot.com/

http://strawberrysaffron.blogspot.com/
Sandra Showtime's picture
Natazzz and DutchCJ
Submitted by Sandra Showtime on October 29, 2008 - 00:33.

You are so sweet together :p
Natazzz's picture
LOL
Submitted by Natazzz on October 29, 2008 - 12:18.

Just some friendly banter...I would hold off sending the wedding gifts just yet ;-)

- - - - - - - - - -

-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

I blog, therefore, I am


Sandra Showtime's picture
Damn!
Submitted by Sandra Showtime on October 29, 2008 - 13:20.

And I thought we would have a lesbian wedding via livestream on eurOut, soon :O But if you come further than friendly in the future write in to our wonderful Director of Special Projects - Amy.M :p
DutchCJ's picture
Wow....
Submitted by DutchCJ on October 29, 2008 - 14:37.

....the chief editor of eurOut doesn't beat around the bush, now does she? She moves fast Laughing

A lesbian eurOut wedding via livestream would be very cool, but I can assure you it won't be mine.

But to stay on topic Cool

The Netherlands

Lesbian Actresses

"Koning van de Maas" (King of the Maas) - Frederique Spigt (plays Nellie)

I already mentioned NELLIE before, totally forgot to also list Frederique Spigt. Frederique is also a wellknown singer in Holland.

 

*****

Music is magic and it tickles my heart!

Gemma Hayes makes my heart beat faster faster faster....

http://www.myspace.com/dutchcj
Amy.M's picture
There are some good lesbians in here!
Submitted by Amy.M on October 29, 2008 - 20:01.

I'm impressed by how much you know Dutch CJ, I feel even more like a bad lesbian when I read your comments :P And yes Sandra never beats around the bush! :D I'd be happy to organize that wedding by the way :P

But to stay on topic, well, Germany seems pretty good uh? So many lesbians on TV! Is it me or nothern countries are much gayer than southern European countries? :(
MeL's picture
Thanks for all the comments...
Submitted by MeL on November 2, 2008 - 12:54.

...and especially you DutchCJ for all the information on the Netherlands and Belgium. It's going to take some time to sort through all of it, but we will definitely include them in the next edition of "Where Are We on TV". :-)

Amy, yes Germany seems pretty good, even though I have the feeling that a lot of the women on the list came out only in the last few years. Like I said in an earlier edition of "MeL's Point", it doesn't seem to be a big deal anymore, so they have the courage to come out now.

~ Be who you are, whoever you are. ~