July 20, 2011 | Arts / Entertainment

Starz more daring than dowdy BBC

Torchwood fans in America needn't have worried about Starz taking over the popular sci-fi series and watering down the homosexual content. In fact, Starz has proven itself more accepting of explicit gay sex than the obviously more prudish BBC.

A scene between Captain Jack, played by openly gay actor John Barrowman, and a barman has already been shown in the US. But the BBC has decided to cut the scene out of fear of offending anyone.

A source said: “It wasn’t that it was a gay scene that worried people, but just the fact it was such an explicit sex scene, full stop. You can get away with scenes like that on American cable channels, but you can’t on primetime BBC1.”

A second scene, deemed too violent, was also cut.

A BBC spokeswoman admitted to the changes, saying, “The UK and US versions of ‘Torchwood’ are slightly different. However, these differences do not change the story in any way and the strong storylines are first and foremost to the series.”

Maybe Torchwood's move to the US really wasn't such a bad thing after all!

BBC cuts Torchwood gay sex scene [Pink News]