''Lip Service'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television

serial drama In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of ...

portraying the lives of a group of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

women living in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland. Production on the show, which stars

Laura Fraser Laura Fraser (born 24 July 1975) is a Scottish actress. She has played Door in the urban fantasy series ''Neverwhere'', Kate in the film ''A Knight's Tale'', Cat MacKenzie in the BBC Three drama series ''Lip Service'' and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle i ...

Ruta Gedmintas Ruta Gedmintas ( lt, Rūta Gedmintas; ) is a British actress known for her work on television, primarily in ''The Strain'', '' Spooks: Code 9'', '' The Borgias'', ''The Tudors'', ''Lip Service'' and ''His Dark Materials''. Early life Gedmintas ...

and

Fiona Button Fiona Button is an English actress. She is best known for playing Rose Defoe in ''The Split (TV series), The Split''. Early years and education Button was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. She grew up in Newbury, Berkshire where she attended Park ...

, began in summer 2009 in Glasgow. The show debuted on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

on 12 October 2010. Filming on a second series was confirmed in late 2010, with filming beginning on 30 May 2011. The second series aired on BBC Three from 20 April 2012. In January 2013, the show's creator, Harriet Braun, announced that BBC Three had cancelled the series without explanation.

Cast

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Production

Braun was asked by the BBC to create a UK-based lesbian drama; she stated that the first scene that came to mind when she began writing was "a woman crying in an inappropriate place after finding out her ex is seeing someone else" followed by "someone returning from New York and throwing her ex into a state of panic". Those two scenes resulted in the creation of the three lead characters: Cat and Frankie, and Tess. Braun gave each of the actors an outline of their character, and then let them develop the full characterisation. For Gedmintas, this included cutting her previously long blond hair to a close cut bob. A rumor arose that the director gave each cast member a manual on

lesbian sex Lesbian sexual practices are sexual activities involving women who have sex with women, regardless of their sexual orientation. A woman who has sex with another woman may identify as a lesbian if she is sexually attracted to women, or bisexual ...

, which they were expected to read before shooting began, but Braun confirmed i
an interview with Australia's Star Observer
that this was only a myth. The first series was shot in its entirety in Glasgow in winter 2009/10.

Reception

Ratings

The first episode debuted with 580,000 viewers, picking up an additional 8,000 viewers on the

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

channel. It had an audience share of 4.4%.

Critical response

The opening episode received mixed reviews from critics. Claudia Cahalane of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote that it was "hugely significant" for a drama to normalise lesbian and bisexual relationships, citing a study of BBC output which found that lesbians contributed to just two minutes of programming from a randomly selected 39 hours of broadcasts. While Cahalane expressed disappointment that the episode did not represent

butch lesbians Butch is most often a term used to describe a lesbian, or sometimes a bisexual woman, who exhibits a masculine identity. Since the lesbian subculture of 1940s America, "butch" has been present as a way for lesbians to circumvent traditional ...

, she deemed it "important to recognise ''Lip Service'' for the great service it's doing to British lesbians." Keith Watson of the ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'' attacked the series'

tokenism Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality wit ...

, suggesting that it included

lipstick lesbian "Lipstick lesbian" is slang for a lesbian who exhibits a greater amount of feminine gender attributes, such as wearing make-up, dresses or skirts, and having other characteristics associated with feminine women. In popular usage, the term is also ...

clichés to meet the BBC's diversity quota, and commenting that, "It was trying so hard to be modern and liberated but it felt tired and lazy". ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

Amol Rajan Amol Rajan (born 4 July 1983) is an Indian-born British journalist and broadcaster who has been the BBC's Media Editor since December 2016 and a presenter on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021. Rajan was editor of ''The Indepen ...

criticized the episode's "pathetically vacuous plot", calling the series "spirit-cripplingly tedious". He expressed sympathy for the "clearly talented" cast, opining: "In trying to make a point about the importance of engaging with lesbian issues, this show ends up trivialising them. The lesbians are presented to us not as interesting people, or characters who warrant sympathy; rather, they matter purely because of their sexual preferences. That is immature, patronising, and unrealistic." Evangelical pressure group the

Christian Institute The Christian Institute (CI) is a pressure group operating in the United Kingdom, promoting a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, founded on a belief in Biblical inerrancy. The CI is a registered charity. The group does not report numbers of sta ...

reported that the episode had prompted complaints from viewers over its sexual content.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lip Service (Tv Series) 2010 Scottish television series debuts BBC Scotland television shows 2012 Scottish television series endings 2010s British LGBT-related drama television series Lesbian-related television shows Television shows set in Glasgow BBC television dramas 2010s Scottish television series