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Gay news: Show should relate to a younger audience, writers were told
My Family
My Family sitcom's son to come out as gay
My Family, the traditional but highly successful BBC sitcom, is to have one of its longest-standing characters come out as gay.
Michael, the youngest son of Ben and Susan Harper, will tell his family at the start of the tenth series, sources said.
Played by Gabriel Thomson, the character has previously given no indication he might be gay, having been transformed from a geeky schoolboy into something of a womaniser in recent series.
But a show insider told the Daily Mail that a new team of writers came up with the idea after being told to make the show more "edgy and relevant".
He said: "We were given a brief to turn the show into something a younger audience would relate to and watch. This is just one of the storylines we have come up with. It's handled very sensitively."
My Family, which follows the lives of a middle-aged dentist and his family, has been one of the most successful British sitcoms of recent times, with the ninth series regularly attracting more than seven million viewers per episode.
A spokesman for Stonewall said: "It's refreshing that My Family will be reflecting modern Britain in their next series."
Although the tenth series has not been fixed in the schedules yet, a BBC spokesman said it would be shown later this year.
