Potential Characters 1 & 2 : Angela and Wanda

Below is a description of two of the characters who have been short-listed for inclusion in the pilot episode of a series about lesbians living in London. Please leave feedback below concerning whether the character ideas warrant main parts, sub characters or scrapping.

Further short-listed character biogs will be posted throughout the week.

Smart and sassy Angela Carter and her equally sharp fiancé, Wanda Lee, are “love exiles” from America. Because US federal law does not permit same-sex bi-national couples to reside in the states, they have had to move to the UK in order to be together.

Angela, 27, has a doctorate in sociology and enjoys spending her time people-watching and writing her scathing magazine column about post-millennium culture. Her American mother holds an esteemed position at Harvard University and her English father is a house husband who spends his time tinkering around with classic British cars. Her parentage is the root of Angela’s feminist determination not to be held down by gender stereotypes, and this is one of the things that most attracts her to Wanda.

Despite her misleading feminine appearance, Chinese Wanda, 31, has an exceptional mathematical mind. She has always excelled at subjects typically considered to be masculine fields. She double majored in maths and engineering before training as an architect. It was whilst doing the latter at University, that she met Angela and fell in love.

The couple benefit from having a similar perspective on life, they are always challenging the things around them and striving to learn more about the world. However, the fact that they are both very strong, determined people often causes rifts between them.

They are both in agreement that a move to England is the best way for them to be together because Wanda will be able to get a spousal visa and Angela has always fancied tracing her ancestors. However the stresses of relocating strain their relationship. Will they survive it?

Character Short List Announced Today

The time has come for the short list of characters to be announced. Throughout the next week we will be posting character biographies for you to assess, starting with a double bill tonight.

What to do
Read each character biog and leave feedback as a comment below her post. State whether you think each suggestion warrants a main part, a minor character, or should be scrapped altogether. The characters with the most positive feedback will make it into the pilot.

How we came up with the characters
Each character reflects an amalgamation of ideas from a variety of contributers. No one character was entirely created by one writer.

Thank you
Thanks to everybody who submitted a character idea. The response to the competition has been incredible and we have tried to include the best parts of all the character suggestions that we received, however due to the number of submissions, it has not been possible to use every idea. Please don’t feel discouraged if we don't use your suggestions this time - there will be opportunities to make your opinions heard when designing plot lines and more.

Contest #2 - Create a character

Invent a character for the series. She must be female, 20-30, living in London and of the lesbian or bisexual persuasion. Apart from that, the decisions are yours.

You can submit your character ideas in whatever format you like, but you must not use more than 400 words at this stage. There will be a chance to develop characters further in the future.

Think about:
- Where does your character come from?
- How old is she?
- What does you do for a living?
- What motivates her?

Please send your ideas to lesbiansinlondon@gmail.com.