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Noah does indeed pretty much disappear from the show after episode 4:5. Possibly the producers realized they had taken on something that was too real and painful to fit in with the rest of the show, and edited accordingly. But the unfortunate result is that Noah gets no on-screen resolution at all. Those who are watching Season Four on BBC America, and who want to know how Noah's storyline would have concluded in scenes that were cut from the program, can go here (but be warned of spoilers for all of episode 4:9).

McCalla asks, “What happened to this young guy, what happened to him? There are so many young guys out there that are gay, find out they're gay, go through some serious issues, where they inflict pain on themselves and try to deny their sexuality. That's not a light matter. No matter what the program is--and I know it's Footballers' Wives, and it's this candy-floss world of money and glitz and glamour and sex. But that's quite a serious issue there, it's not something to be glazed over. That's my only issue with [the way the program's makers handled Noah's storyline].”

McCalla also cites the show's frothy, campy nature as the reason why he is wary of making comparisons between Noah and real-life black gay footballer Justin Fashanu. Fashanu--the only openly gay professional British footballer to date--came out in 1990 and tragically killed himself in 1998.

McCalla says, “I didn't base Noah on him. I was aware of [the similarities], but I didn't base Noah on him. Because I think that the program in a sense, yeah, showed a serious side of it, but then mocked it as well in a certain way, and I don't think that that guy's life, you know, and his tragic end--I don't think there's anything funny about that.

“I mean, you know, what's ironic is that this certain newspaper really bigged Justin Fashanu up as being the first million pound black player. That he was gonna be sold for a million pounds. And then, when they found out that he was gay, they torched him, you know. They really took him apart. So things like that are quite disturbing. And, no, I didn't base anything on him--no, not at all, I wouldn't. I respect him in that way, I wouldn't want to do that.”

Despite his reservations, McCalla--who is straight--recognizes that the show did perform a valuable function for some young gay male viewers in providing them with a character to identify with.

“Obviously it's blown up and magnified on a TV show, but there are guys going through a similar thing: they're coming out, finding out about their sexuality, and they're confused and they're scared. I had some letters from guys saying ‘I'm scared of coming out, and I don't know what to do, but seeing your character helped me.' Because Noah was brave at some points, you know, he was brave.”

Indeed, McCalla says that his favorite Noah scene was one at the end of the third season where, attacked by his agent and his manager, Noah does briefly stand up for himself and his sexuality. “‘So I'm gay, so what? So what?'”

In the absence of a satisfactory resolution for Noah on screen, McCalla is free to offer up his own ideas for a hopeful ending for his character. “I think Noah went to some sort of island somewhere and opened up a sanctuary for gay men who had been through the church thing, and wanted to live their lives again. I think he did that, you know. Or maybe he went to play in Japan, in the J. League [the top professional soccer league in Japan]. Something like that.”

To find out more about Footballers' Wives, visit the BBC America site

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