Jordan Gray is back and bolder than ever, starring in ITV's groundbreaking new comedy Transaction - a sharp, hilarious series following a trans woman navigating life, love, and chaos with unapologetic flair. Fresh off her critcally acclaimed run on stage, Jordan also returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with her provoactivelty titled show Is That A Cock In Your Pocket or Are You Here To Kill Me?, blending razor-sharp wit, surreal storytelling, and the kind of fearless comedy that's made her one of the UK's most electricfying performers. Whether on screen or stage, Gray isn't just pushing boundaries - she's rewriting the whole script.

Thank you, Jordan, for taking the time and coming out to talk to me today. And thank you again for a wonderful photo shoot. It was fun.  You were great to photograph. So, thank you again; you've made my job so much easier.

Thank you! If you've got a lovely energy, if you're walking into a room and someone's got nice energy, it's just very easy for me to relax. Yeah, I was happy happily work together again at your nearest convenience. 

Transaction brings a translated character into a classic sitcom setting. How did you set out to subvert traditional British sitcom tropes while still keeping it familiar and funny? 

I think what happens when you're transgender is you can sort of play with like a hundred-year-old jokes, you know, old sexism. It's so outdated, there's no room for it, but when you swap the gender, when you're a transgender person, jokes like my husband always leaves the toilet seat up, which is quite helpful for me. So playing around with gender in the modern age allows you into like a treasure trove of common do that's already been used,  and you can you can give it a fresh coat of paint, I think that's part of it. Also, it's just nice to see a transgender person playing a kind of cookie idiot without having to always represent a perfect saintly transgender character. Most people's experience of transgender people, originally, would have been on Jerry Springer, as a guest, where they had some,  like a wild cartoony character, or it's a very like a suffering saintly type of character. I'm just sort of somewhere in the middle, and I just play like a bit of an idiot, a bit of a lovable idiot. Yeah, I love that. The show dives into the issue.  

The show has tokenism in a workplace diversity with sharp humour. Was there ever a moment when you worried about pushing it too far or not far enough? 

That's a great question. I do think I would happily push things a little bit further, but just for this first show, for this first series of the show, I want to hold people's hands a little bit. So I'm happy with the line that we've drawn. It's a show filled with people of all different kinds of protected characteristics. We all take ownership of those in the show. We've got trans women, little women, black women. There are not that many women in the show, there are only five people in the main cast and then a couple of guys doing their best. I think that we do a great job of just sitting right on the line, and in the future, I'd like us to push it a little bit further if that's what people's appetites sort of have.  If that's what people want in the future.

What was the biggest challenge in bringing in Transaction from concept to screen, especially as a writer and lead performer? 

Everything takes so long. It's such a long process when you start the TV show. It starts quickly, you get the idea, someone gives you some money, great, let's do it. Then it's years of development, backwards and forwards, up and down the chain, and then right at the end, it's fast to get in. You can make it, make it, make it, and then it comes out. 

The show is on a polygraphically bold and surreal at times. Were there any moments or jokes that ITV pushed back on,  or did they give you free rein? 

I would say, for the most part, free rein. The funny thing about being transgender is that not everybody knows enough about it. it. So if I had said one day, "every transgender woman needs a cake delivered to their dressing room on Monday morning". No one would question it; they would have just said, "I'll get this woman a cake." So when it comes to content, they just trusted me to do it properly. The only pushback is on the budget. Sometimes I ask for something ridiculous and they say, "We're not spending thousands of pounds on prosthetic silicone testicles, Jordan; you need to rewrite it and do something different from the budget. 

So, we're going to talk about your show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Is That A Cock In Your Pocket or Are You Here To Kill Me?  So, your new Fringe show has a title that's impossible to ignore. What does that title say about the kind of experience you want audiences to have?

The title is a play on the old Hollywood line, "Is That A Gun In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me? It's hopefully explains that I am transgender, subtly. It also explains that we're gonna be dealing with some quite tricky material. I received lots of death threats in my short time on television, but we're gonna deal with it in a very funny way because the title is very stupid and silly.

With some stuff that perhaps isn't usually talked about, but I'm doing it in a way that a comedian would do it, which is to poke fun at this ridiculous situation. I found myself in a very strange place in life, being transgender and on TV at this time in history, and my job is to try and deconstruct that for people and make it palatable and enjoyable, and so you know, I'm one of the trans people. And it's a show for everyone, it's a show for people inside and outside the LGBTQIA+  community. 

The show reportedly takes on everything from public backlash to personal fears. How do you decide what parts of your life to turn into comedy and what to keep sacred? 

I think everything's ok with my jokes about the kind of things that I don't have any of; there's nothing left inside that isn't being dealt with. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's like a whole bit of me I don't know about. I think everything is fair game for comedy when you're doing it yourself. I am very slowly learning that people want you to be specific about your own life, or audiences love it when you get specific about your own experiences. So it's a win-win, then you've become known for mixing music, stand-up, and sit here, sit there. 

How has your style evolved between your last show and this one?

I read a review that said it was a bit more mature, and I'll take that. I think that's fair. It goes into personal feelings a little bit more than the last show did, while still being wacky, silly and funny. I think the music has been upgraded in this show. I'm a musical comedian, but the quality of the compositions, like the actual music itself, I think, is a little bit more sophisticated this time around, so I'm proud of that. It's got a higher level of production to it,  and there are some special effects that the other show didn't have any special effects so that makes me happy. 

The last question is, what does a successful run at the fringe look like to you now? Awards, reviews, something else entirely?

Yeah, first time around it was so wild that it would be impossible to live up to that. I would I'd love to see the show up for the same award for the Edinburgh Fringe comedy award this year, but what I like this time is to come out of it and be proud of a second show because it's so hard when the first show took off so quickly. Yes, if I can leave proud of myself, then I would have had a great fringe. I love it when people enjoy it. I love people telling me that a good time, but I've got to do some of this for myself as well. 

Transaction is now streaming on ITVX, and you can grab your tickets here to see Jordan Gray at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.