As the most frivolous TV format, sitcoms often have a unique license to explore the most serious matters. How they use that opportunity is up for grabs, but the levity of the quickfire comedy form allows for a surprising amount of light and shade. Consider, for example, the evolution of UK race relations as expressed in the gap between the attitudes and perspectives seen in Love Thy Neighbour (1972) and Desmond’s (1989). In the 17 years between these two shows, Britain changed, the TV commissioning process changed – and notions of representation changed along with them.
Transaction has been at least five years in the making, and even in that time, its context has become much more contested. A version of the show first saw the light of day in 2020 as a series of five-minute shorts on Comedy Central. Its creator, Jordan Gray, (a transgender woman), has now expanded the idea into a six-part sitcom for ITV, and credit is due to the broadcaster for what shouldn’t be a brave move but, in the current cultural and political climate, somehow is. Placing a trans character at the heart of their own sitcom – and indeed, placing their gender identity at the heart of the comedy – feels admirably bold and gutsy.
