Doctor Who star Pearl Mackie picks up PinkNews Award for show’s ‘groundbreaking’ LGBT storylines

Sci-fi series Doctor Who won an Ally Award at tonight’s PinkNews Awards for its long-standing LGBT inclusiveness.

Pearl Mackie, who starred as Peter Capaldi’s companion Bill Potts in the most recent series of the show, picked up the award, accompanied by exec producer Brian Minchin.

Mackie’s character Bill was the first main companion on the sci-fi series to be openly gay, with the show featuring her romance with doomed pilot Heather (Stephanie Hyam).

Doctor Who has featured a string of one-off and recurring LGBT characters since its return to TV in 2005, under successive showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat.

Pearl Mackie

In 2005 it introduced the fan-favourite omnisexual character Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, who recurred across several seasons of the show and starred in spin-off Torchwood.

The show also featured a married interspecies lesbian couple – lizard woman Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart), who were a same-sex couple living in Victorian England.

But Mackie’s character was the first fully-fledged companion on the show who is gay.

Speaking to PinkNews, she said: “It’s lovely to be able to accept this Award on behalf of Doctor Who.

“Last year I never fathomed coming to any Awards ceremony, so I feel quite honoured to even have been invited, let alone for Doctor Who and the character of Bill. It’s testament to how well she was received and how well people responded to having an out lesbian on a mainstream TV show.