Linda Gray: Dallas started daring drama on TV

Linda Gray: Dallas started daring drama on TV
Linda Gray: Dallas started daring drama on TV (Image credit: PA)

Linda Gray says Dallas forged the way for daring drama on TV, and has left a legacy of similar shows. The 71-year-old actress returns as matriarch Sue Ellen Ewing alongside original cast members Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy, in the revival of the hit show, premiering on Channel 5 on September 5, and introducing a new generation of Ewings. Linda said: "Dallas started a lot of those shows. It was a night-time family drama with very dysfunctional people. "Dynasty came out, all kinds of wonderful things, we were the forerunners, we also brought out many plotlines which weren't very popular at the time, Miss Ellie had a mastectomy, Sue Ellen was a female alcoholic, and lots of things which weren't on television before, a lot of people were taken aback, they'd not seen it portrayed in a drama before." Linda says fans should expect more gripping storylines in the new series. She said: "I think it's more of the same, but there's a quality about this new show. It's different in a nice way." Jordana Brewster, Josh Henderson and Desperate Housewives hunk Jesse Metcalfe are among the new younger members of the cast. Jordana revealed the drinking may have been toned down, but the show was even more raunchy. She said: "It's much more wholesome, I noticed that. Before it was, 'Good morning' would you like your cocktail? There's less of that. It's a bit outdated, it's like smoking. "There's a lot of sleeping around; in the second season we're going to push the envelop even further." Josh added: "There's definitely the scandal and the skin."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.