What’s it about?

Transaction takes place in a supermarket which has recently had a bit of a PR disaster. Pellocks boss Simon launched a marketing campaign that ended up offending the LGBTQIA+ community. Enter Liv, a transgender woman hired to make the company look a bit more inclusive. The only problem is that she’s an egomaniac, and probably not the type of person you should make impossible to sack.

She soon realises the position she’s in, and mercilessly exploits it to wreak havoc on her colleagues. The show takes place during the night shift to give it a slightly spooky, psychedelic feel.

Who’s in it?

As well as Gray starring as Liv, Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) appears as Simon.

“This show was always pitched as Spaced in a supermarket, and then miraculously after the web series was made, Nick Frost of Spaced said ‘if this ever gets made for TV, can I play the boss?’” Gray told the RTS. “That’s how it’s come about. Nick is the reason it’s moved from a web series to a big grown-up show.”

Simon is desperate for Liv’s approval, or rather, the inclusivity points for which he thinks he can use her. He’s not the most natural of allies, asking about her genitals in a Sean Connery accent, but he’s trying. To improve the store’s reputation.

Look out as well for Doon Mackichan (Smack the Pony), Thomas Gray (A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder), Kayla Meikle (Mickey 17) and Francesca Mills (The Witcher).

Who is Jordan Gray?

Before comedy, Jordan Gray was performing music. As a teenager, she was part of a death metal group called Silent Feedback (best known for performing in her mum’s pub; her dad, meanwhile, moonlighted as an Elvis impersonator). A few years on, she was gigging professionally under the moniker Tall Dark Friend.

You might remember her from series five of The Voice UK, where she was mentored by Paloma Faith. It was there – telling jokes in-between songs – that she realised she preferred doing comedy. One of her most notable moments as a stand-up came in 2022, when she stripped naked on Friday Night Live.

How did it get developed?

Jordan Gray wrote and starred in a comedy short released on YouTube called Tall Dark Friend, which featured her and fellow comic Steven Trumble talking after a gig.

“I took that to a network and I said ‘can we do that?’ and they said ‘no, we don’t care about that, can you set it somewhere more relatable?’” Gray told the RTS.

It was reworked into a series of comedy shorts – now set in a supermarket – released on the Comedy Central UK YouTube channel in 2020. Five years on, Transaction has finally arrived on the silver screen.

How does the show portray trans people?

“It was very important to me to have an example of a transgender person that didn’t fall into the box of either being a suffering saint or an oversexualised villain,” Gray said.

“We should be allowed to be idiots and slip on banana skins and fall out of ceilings, and it not be some representation of our entire species of people. Species isn’t the right word, but I’m sticking with it.”

When’s it on?

Tuesdays on ITV2 at 10.00pm. You can also watch every episode now on ITVX, and the ITV YouTube channel.