When UK soap-drama Footballers' Wives had its first season debut in January 2002, it wasn't hard to see--if you were going by stereotypes--how the series might have a certain appeal for gay men. Based around the antics of the dumb-but-buff star players of Earls Park (a fictional soccer team), and the glamorous and manipulative women married to them, Footballers' Wives was high camp all the way.

From the outrageous plots (son adopts his mother's illicit love-child; lying and cheating baddie is offed by champagne bottle) to the fashions and talons of the Wives (who could give the Dynasty bitch-goddesses a run for their money) Footballers' is a Melrose Place soap through and through. Only with a whole lot more nudity.

Given that the show was created by Shed Productions, the team behind the lesbian-friendly Bad Girls, and the fact that none of Shed's founding members (Maureen Chadwick, Ann McManus, Eileen Gallagher, and Brian Park) are heterosexual themselves, it is perhaps unsurprising that the show should always have manifested a certain queer sensibility.

It has also always had a strong and (more-or-less) sympathetic lesbian presence, in the person of ball-busting sports agent Hazel Bailey (played by Alison Newman). What the show lacked in its first two seasons, however, were any actual gay men.

But in the third season - set to premiere in the US on February 19th, on BBC America - that's all changed with the introduction of not one but two queer male characters: Conrad Gates, a bisexual ‘golden boy' married football captain (who bears a more than a passing resemblance to real-life England captain David Beckham), and Noah Alexander, a nervous, young black footballer who is gay and in the closet.

Over the course of the season, viewers will see Conrad's marriage (to Posh Spice-alike Amber) begin to break down as he pursues not only his attraction to resident bitch-goddess Tanya, but also to Noah. Noah, meanwhile, is struggling with his sexuality--and with the prospect of losing his career if he can ever work up the courage to come out.

The Noah and Conrad storylines are interesting in several ways. While they are not exactly played out in a rigorously realistic manner, they still go beyond the usual fluffy entertainment provided by the show. For one thing, it is rare enough to see one queer male athlete represented (in television or in real life), let alone two.

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