LONDON (AP) — The long-running British TV soap "Coronation Street" is welcoming its first black family in its 59-year history.

The soap opera is set to introduce the Baileys, a family with two sons. It will explore themes of racism and homophobia in sport, with a story line featuring one of the sons, a soccer player, coming out as gay.

The show has charted the goings-on in the fictional northern England community of Weatherfield since 1960. It has cast individual black characters but not brought in a black family together before.

Producer Iain MacLeod said Saturday he didn't really know why it has taken so long, but it "did feel sort of overdue we did this and represented modern Manchester a bit more accurately."