Producer of Holby City and Casualty speaks at FTL

We at FTL were most fortunate to have Simon Harper come and speak to us at our February meeting in Battersea. Simon is the Executive Producer of Holby City and Casualty.

As with most of our invited guests they are very generous in sharing their ‘coming out’ stories and Simon went as far back as his early childhood and even earlier when his parents met and their backgrounds. We got a full picture of his growing up and development into the man he is today. As I said, very honest and open which of course makes our members who were present feel that they too could speak freely.

Of course Simon spoke about his career and his responsibilities with producing such highly regarded programmes on the BBC. He talked about bringing into the storylines LGBT+ characters who are just part of the programme and blend into episodes. Basically ‘normalising’ LGBT+ characters and not making a big issue about their sexuality. The talk went very quickly but we still had time for a Q and A session which once the first question is posed, loads more follow.