Julie Hesmondhalgh to star in new gay drama ‘Cucumber’
By Sam Rigby
Former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh has joined the cast of new Channel 4 gay drama Cucumber.
The eight-part hour long series – written by Doctor Who and Queer as Folk‘s Russell T Davies – will also star Freddie Fox and The Thick Of It‘s Vincent Franklin.
It will be Hesmondhalgh’s first TV role since departing Coronation Street after 16 years playing Hayley Cropper.
The drama will explore “the passions and pitfalls of 21st century gay life”, following 46-year-old Henry and his boyfriend on a disastrous date night. Franklin will star as Henry, while Hesmondhalgh will play Henry’s sister Cleo.
Filming is underway in Manchester ahead of a projected 2015 transmission.
Cucumber will be accompanied by E4 series Banana, which will follow the lives of the drama’s younger characters. A factual web series, titled Tofu, is also in development.
Explaining the titles last year, Davies said: “I once read about a scientific institute which had studied the male erection. It divided the hard-on into four categories, from soft to hard.
“One, tofu. Two, peeled banana. Three, banana. And four, cucumber. Right there and then I knew I had my drama.”
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