Roger moore gay12/30/2023 ![]() ![]() I would also like to mention John Bury, beautifully played by Joseph O’Conor in the remarkable play Only Connect (1979), written by Gay Sweatshop’s Noel Greig and Drew Griffiths. Defiant, with a tremendous belief in himself, Lola is a champion of gay individuality and confidence in an era when we, as a community, were still misunderstood, despised and spat upon by society. However, Lola is determined to prove his innocence. Brilliantly portrayed by Philip Sayer, Lola is falsely accused of importuning an undercover, plain-clothes police officer in a gay club. There are several gay characters in television dramas that have made an impression on me but two that are memorable and have stayed with me are Lola, the gay transvestite in Crown Court (1976). If you had to pick a favourite, which character from the Golden Age is the most important to you and why? Some of them no longer exist, but quite a number have survived in the archives. Fortunately, I have managed to locate and view most of the television programmes cited in Playing Gay. Apart from anthology and technology, there are no words ending in ‘ology’ in Playing Gay! I write from the heart, with careful attention to detail and the sources I use whether they be books, newspaper reviews, interviews or the actual programmes. I avoid using academic theory and jargon. Fortunately, I do not write from a detached, ‘academic’ perspective. I found it very difficult to be objective. The book is peppered with anecdotes from your own life – did you find that as the subject was so much a part of your childhood and adolescence it was hard to separate your memories from your research? As I have stated in Playing Gay, in 1975 this was the first television drama to portray the life of a gay man which was acceptable to the majority of its viewers. The main reason for this is John Hurt’s unforgettable portrayal of Quentin Crisp. It never fails to entertain, shock, raise a smile, move the viewer to tears. Everything about it is outstanding, including the script, acting, direction, sets, costumes, music. Undoubtedly The Naked Civil Servant, first shown in 1975, has had the biggest impact on society. Which programme do you think has had the biggest impact on society? In Playing Gay I quote from an interview with Tony Warren in which he acknowledges that some of the lines he scripted for Elsie Tanner in early episodes came straight from the mouths of gay men he befriended in Manchester in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ![]() It intrigued me that a gay man had created what was then Britain’s most popular television show and some of its most iconic women characters came from him. ![]() The book didn’t state that Warren was gay, but it was clear from the interview with him that he was. In 1970, when I was twelve, I bought a paperback book about the series and from this I read about the writer Tony Warren who created Coronation Street and Ena and Elsie. These would include Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street. I cannot think of a specific programme that made me realise I was gay, but when I was growing up I was drawn to strong working class women in TV dramas. What was the first television programme that made you think the same way? Mark Gatiss talks about the actor Peter Wyngarde in Jason King ‘popping his cherry’ – that is, making him realise he was gay. And through this window, we’ve learnt that, perhaps, we’re not so different after all. Acclaimed social historian Stephen Bourne looks at gay male representation on and off the small screen, telling the story of the innovation, experimentation, back-tracking and bravery that led British television to help change society for the better. It gives us a window into the lives of people who are different from us: different classes, different races, different sexualities. The television set – the humble box in the corner of almost every British household – has brought about some of the biggest social changes in modern times. ![]()
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