Died: March 30, 2021 MYRA Frances, who has died of cancer aged 78, was an actress who became a taboo-busting pioneer when she shared British television’s first romantic kiss between women. That was in Girl (1974), James Robson’s play for BBC Birmingham’s Second City Firsts series of short standalone dramas by relatively new writers. Frances played Christine Harvey, the seemingly stern army corporal who appears opposite Alison Steadman’s discharged pregnant squaddie, Jackie. As Jackie prepares to leave, the pair’s illicit tryst is revealed in a serious study of the effects their brief relationship has had on both of them amid the double lives they each lead. As the two women are left alone together, the scene builds towards a bittersweet reckoning, played out to the strains of Dusty Springfield’s hit version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s song, This Girl’s in Love With You. “Top of the gay girls’ hit parade”, as Frances’s character puts it.