TVNZ has bought the rights to screen a popular BBC TV show about a bisexual alien investigator from the far future. ‘Torchwood' is an adult spin off of the Doctor Who series, centering on a team investigating aliens at large in Britain. TVNZ's aquisitions manager, Lisa Clements, says Torchwood is a groundbreaking, action-packed show that would be coming soon to TV2. The mysterious hero of the show, Captain Jack Harkness, is bisexual, and each of the main characters in Torchwood has same-sex encounters at some point in the first season. Episodes feature an alien sex addict and a Cyberwoman. John Barrowman, the actor who plays Captain Jack, is openly gay, and celebrated his civil partnership late last year to his partner of 16 years. The couple also recently revealed that they are hoping to have a child through a surrogate mother. While derived from Doctor Who – ‘Torchwood' being an anagram of the mother programme – it is reported to be much darker and peppered with sex. Series creator Russell T Davies has said that he hopes to defy audience expectations of monosexual characters. "Without making it political or dull, this is going to be a very bisexual programme. I want to knock down the barriers so we can't define which of the characters is gay. We need to start mixing things up, rather than thinking, 'This is a gay character and he'll only ever go off with men.'” Davies has also described Captain Jack as ‘omnisexual', revealing, "he'll shag anything with a hole. Jack doesn't categorise people: if he fancies you, he'll do it with you." Ref: Stuff, Pinknews.co.uk, Wikipedia (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 12th January 2007 - 12:00pm