Creative Scotland Crowdmatch has provided £1,495 of match funding
Scottish Sapphics TV Show
Kirkcaldy, United Kingdom
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Aim
Raise funds to create a TV pilot for the series: ‘Scottish Sapphics” a show about queer life and cultural diversity in Scotland.
Please note: Creative Scotland will kindly match your donation up to £250.
What our story is about
Logline: 'The L Word' meets 'Grey's Anatomy' in a chaotic Scottish city: a group of queer friends juggle hospital shifts, nightlife, and cultural expectations until a lie inside the group threatens to blow their world apart.
The story is inspired by true experiences and life as a queer woman in Scotland, taking lived experience from cast and crew, queer communities and controversial public headlines.
We will be challenging cultural stigmas as we see the characters navigating their multicultural lives as queer women.
Following the events of the pilot, cracks within the group begin widening as relationships, secrets, and public pressure collide. As Preet Kaur's relationship with Pakistani ER doctor Amara Khan begins and deepens, she is forced to confront the reality of coming out to her traditional Punjabi family while navigating the cultural tension surrounding their taboo relationship. Lisa McGregor falls deeper into her relationship with the magnetic but emotionally volatile Jess Carter; what feels like a tragic love story slowly transforms into something darker and more manipulative, threatening to fracture the friendship circle and Lisa's heart entirely. Newly out trans Dani Torres faces her own troubles and controversies, in a world increasingly against her. Holding everyone together throughout the chaos is bartender Chloe Bennett, whose humour and warmth mask the growing fear that the chosen family she helped build may not survive the year intact.
With future seasons, Scottish Sapphics expands beyond romance and friendship into larger questions surrounding identity, community, visibility, and modern queer life in Scotland.
Why we want to make this show
Queer representation is often queer MALE representation. There has been a limited number of shows about queer women made by queer women, especially in recent years (source: Victoria Bloom, Spotlight). We want to recreate the buzz and representation that came from shows like the L Word as well as creating a fun, entertaining, sexy show for audiences to enjoy.
We want to create a show full of culture, community and compelling characters.
Why this story matters now
Treatment of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK, particularly the trans and non-binary community, has worsened. A decade ago, the UK topped the charts for rights for the LGBTQ+ community; in the years that have followed, we have now plummeted to number 22, our lowest recorded position (source: Rainbowmap, 2026).
Our show comes at an important time; we want to portray our community honestly and positively. Giving an alternate view of queer people to what is spread around in the news and social media. Especially as media plays such a substantial role in forming people’s opinions of the queer community, and as LGBTQ+ people are less likely to find their representation favourable than the wider public, we want to give them representation they can be proud of and see themselves in (source: yougov, 2022).
As Scots, making this show in and about Scotland is also important to us, as only 7% of the UK broadcast industry is based in Scotland (source: Ofcom). We hope this project will show the cultural diversity of Scotland and give Scottish women and LGBTQ+ people the chance to see themselves on screen. As well as allowing them the opportunity to help create that vision on screen by providing jobs for people less represented in the industry both in front of and behind the camera.
We are going in the right direction when it comes to showing diversity on screen, but we need to make sure it continues, the characters and stories are true to life and positive representations of the diversity of the UK. The number of minority ethnic on-screen roles dropped between 2024 and 2025 but is still around 23% (benchmark for the UK population is around 17%). However, ethnic diversity in off-screen roles is slower to improve at only 13%, it is below the UK benchmark and is the same as it was in 2021 (source: The Diamond Report, 2025). Can we tell authentic stories of diversity if the people behind the camera haven’t had any of the lived experience?
What your support will make possible
A TV show is not a cheap endeavour. We aim to raise £10,000 from this Crowdfunder with the help of the Creative Scotland Crowdmatch scheme (they will match up to £250 per person).
We are looking for funding to create a full-length pilot episode, which will include paying for locations, props, costumes, catering, travel, and paying all our cast and crew members.
Making a successful, compelling, professional pilot will help us with our final goal of turning this pilot into a complete television series.
Meet the team
Scottish Sapphics is an STQ Production. STQ (Small Town Queers) is a queer-led Scottish film & TV production company founded by Hâle Denholm and Cate Goodman. More than a production company, a movement. Creating opportunities and supporting LGBTQ+ talent. 🌈
Hello! My name is Hâle Denholm, and I am a Queer Scottish actor and business owner with a drive for storytelling. Since I can remember I have been writing and telling stories, now it’s time to make it real! As an actor, I’m constantly looking for representation in film and TV that looks like the people in my own world and me; Scottish, diverse & LGBTQ+. There is certainly a gap in this market, which upsets me greatly. I have created this production company with my friend Cate Goodman (producer) after recognising the lack of queer stories that reflect the diversity of modern Scotland. Alongside the production company, I have written 3 out of 6 episodes of a TV show inspired by my own experiences and people I know. The series explores identity, love, friendship and family through characters who feel honest, authentic, raw and real. This project is personal to me, and I feel very vulnerable opening myself up to the world like this. I hope you will follow our journey, and that it takes you on the same emotional roller coaster as it took me!
Hello! I am Cate Goodman, a recent film graduate from Edinburgh starting on my journey into the world of creating film and television. Film and television have always been a source of enjoyment and escapism for me. I enjoy stories rooted in humanity and exploring the human condition, especially if it’s a little weird! I have a diverse taste and will consume anything and everything. I originally trained to be a dietitian, but the pandemic interrupted my studies and gave me some time to decide that wasn’t where I saw my future. I graduated from Edinburgh College with a 1st class honours degree this summer, helping me decide that producing is the area I want to pursue. I have spent my life split between small town and big city, allowing me to see the diversity of culture the UK has to offer. I want to make things that are entertaining but can also mean something to people, reflecting the world around them but also how it could be. I have a passion for telling stories about women and showcasing diversity.
This is our first project as a company and we are so excited to get started on bringing this fun, sexy, yet important story to life!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th December 2026 at 10:12am