LGBT TV - The Fabulous Work Of Russell T Davies
As you may or may not know, February is LGBTQ+ History Month in the UK. If you were following my blogs and videos around this time last year, when I started, you might have seen one of my very early videos talking about LGBTQ+ History Month and also learning how difficult it is to use a teleprompter. We’ve got over those now, way more trouble than they’re worth, but never mind. I might see if we can arrange another share of the video to save you going through my grand archive.
So, What’s LGBTQ+ History Month all about? Well, it’s about remembering the past and those who’ve come before us, commemorating the struggles of those who’ve come before us and celebrating our culture and history. Each year a theme is adopted, with the 2021 theme being ‘Body, Mind, Spirit’.
So, In the spirit of LGBTQ+ History Month, I’m going to bring you a little look back at some fabulous LGBTQ+ TV shows that you may or may not remember. With so many of us still in lockdown, there’s no excuse not to do some film binging and a little reading. Obviously on TV at the moment, we’ve got the latest drama from one of my writing heroes, Russell T Davies in the shape of ‘It’s A Sin’ – which I’m ashamed to say I haven’t found the time to watch yet, but if you’re familiar with his work, you’ll know what an absolutely tremendous writer he is.
Swansea-born Davies is probably best known to many as the mastermind behind the revival of the classic sci-fi series Doctor Who back in 2005, which seems like only yesterday and at the same time also feels like an age ago. His smart writing, ability to tell compelling stories full of relatability and emotion but still keeping humour and a feel-good aspect made it a roaring success. Many Whovians, myself included, hail the Russell T Davies era of New Who, featuring Christoper Eccleston and David Tennant as the Ninth and Tenth incarnations of the lead Time Lord, as the ‘Golden Age’ of the show. With good reason. This was the era where things just worked. He even brought longtime collaborator Murray Gold on board to make the show’s music, which added to the whole feel of the show. With Davies in charge as showrunner, we also got the spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (featuring the late Elisabeth Sladen) charting the adventures of Third and Fourth Doctor companion and investigative journalist Sarah-Jane Smith. It truly was a treat for Who fans!
Russell already had a pretty impressive catalogue of work under his belt before he came to Doctor Who. He’d started off working for BBC Wales’s children’s entertainment department eventually submitting three scripts for ‘Chucklevision’ and working as a script editor on ‘Children’s Ward’ and eventually moved on to adult television, writing scripts for the series ‘Cluedo’ based on the popular board game and even working on ‘Coronation Street’ and also creating shows ‘The Second Coming’, ‘Bob and Rose’ and ‘Casanova’. Needless to say, he’s got some pretty big achievements on his CV.
The first one I really want to talk about here though is the utterly brilliant ‘Queer As Folk’. Such a legendary piece of television it spawned an American remake, but there’s just no beating the original (even if the American version did have ‘Cagney and Lacey’ star Sharon Gless!)
‘Queer As Folk’ was Huge. There, let’s get that fact right out of the way first. I vividly remember this 1999 series premiering on Channel 4 and pretending to be in bed asleep when in reality, I was standing right up with my ear to the old TV in my teenage bedroom, listening to it on the lowest volume setting with all the lights off so that no-one would know I was watching it. Strangely, I’ve actually heard similar stories from so many young queerlings of my age group (we’re still saying that’s 21, just to be clear – and I will fight you)
I remember the next morning going into school and my best friend and I discussing it really excitedly. We’d never seen anything like it! Apparently, half of the people watching hadn’t either, as the first episode drew a load of complaints, mostly about the rimming scene. You’d think nobody knew what rimming was back then! So, there we go, we can credit ‘Queer As Folk’ for bringing rimming to the masses. Cheers, Russell!
The show entered around the lives of a group of gay men in Manchester coming up to the turn of the millennium. Jesus, that sounds like a long time ago. It begins with fifteen year old schoolboy Nathan, played by a then eighteen year old Charlie Hunnam, making his first nervous visit to Canal Street, Manchester’s Gay Village (if you didn’t know). God, I had such a crush on him. Just this first part of the show was powerful in itself, as the writing really managed to capture that nervous excitement one feels when they discover gay nightlife. As a previously shy boy entering my tiny local scene for the first time, awkwardly smoking a cigarette outside, not even knowing how to hold it properly, probably wearing very similar late-90s clothes, this was like watching myself on TV! We all related to him watching that scene! It was absolutely uncanny!
So, long story short, Nathan goes out, pulls Stuart the bike (no slut shaming intended, I say this affectionately) of the featured group of friends, goes home with him and sexytime ensues. In the words of one of the characters in one of the opening monologues, he becomes ‘the one-night-stand that never went away’. The opening episode was rather chock full of action actually, with a couple of fabulously gratuitous sex scenes between the ‘sexually successful’ Stuart and super-twink Nathan, their trip to the hospital when Stuart is contacted by ‘those lesbians’ who contact him to notify him of the birth of his baby, a little recreational drug use, a failed pull with a fake muscle man, a spot of vehicular vandalism, some clubbing, declarations of love and finally delivering someone to school. Needless to say, the Daily Mail were not happy.
I just have such vivid memories of this show exploding onto the air and the ensuing media whirlwind of complaints it generated. Don’t forget, this was a different era. Up til now, LGBTQ+ roles on TV had mostly been small or stereotypical and to see such a raw, honest depiction where we were the main characters was enormous! Ask anyone of my generation growing up in the UK around that time and most of them will remember the start of Queer As Folk and its impact.
There were some absolutely hilarious moments in its run intertwined with some amazingly real depictions of the dramas so many of us faced (and still do face) growing up. This was raw, but accessible. We cold see ourselves in this show. Many of us identified with Nathan, the young gay lad experiencing his adventures on the scene for the first time. But I could also see some Stuarts around our local scene. And definitely a few versions of Vince. Look carefully, you can even see a Donna or two and if you’re really really lucky, you might meet a Hazel. We were blessed to have one or two of those.
Hazel was the mother of a grown-up gay son who had fully embraced gay culture and was loud and proud and spent more time on Canal Street than her son. Played by the amazing Denise Black, you might recognise her from Coronation Street and Emmerdale, but here, her character couldn’t be more different. She’s high volume, high energy, no-nonsense and absolutely shameless but with an absolute heart of gold. The polar opposite to Nathan’s family when they find out he’s gay (which is a major plot line). Poor Nathan’s mum. She did her best, even though it was a rough ride for her, but she came out of it pretty well. She’s reminiscent of most of our mums in a way, which makes her character’s journey, assisted by Hazel, all the more lovable, as it gave a certain kind of hope. Nathan’s father never really accepted his son’s coming out though, which is also a reality for many of us too. This is what made, and continues to make, Russell T Davies’ work so compelling though! We know these characters. They’re all there, depicted in a realistic way. Some may be constructed as archetypes of contemporary gay culture, but they’re all fleshed out and fully realised. Even Alexander, played by Corrie’s Anthony Cotton, was not just there as the camp comic relief. He’s a familiar archetype of gay culture and was portrayed not in a tokenistic way, but with deep hitting plot lines like his family relationship and even a tragic overdose borne of the misery associated with his family situation. None of these characters were shoehorned in, they were all represented as real, multidimensional people. This is why I think Davies’ work is so successful. His finger is so on the pulse that it captures a snapshot of gay life in the era he’s writing. He also depicts us as normal people going about our day to day lives without presenting any any moral condescension or judgement. Strangely, for a drama focussing on a group of gays, it didn’t present anyone as simply ‘gay’ but as ‘human’ first. ‘Gay’ just happened to be a facet rather than a cornerstone. To put it succinctly, it was much less patronising than how we’d seen ourselves portrayed before. Plus the hope it gave to every small town gay boy sat watching it alone in their room. To be given the hope of this magical village in Manchester, full of people just like us was a revelation. The curtain o contemporary gay culture had been lifted. And it showed us something not only fabulous, but hopeful too.
All this and I haven’t even mentioned the fantastic foreshadowing Queer as Folk gave us! The Character of Vince, played by Craig Kelly, was a huge Doctor Who fan, just like Davies. There were scenes and references all over the show and just six years later, Davies would be bringing Doctor Who back to become one of the BBC’s flagship shows. Queer As Folk even had future Doctor Who’s composer Murray Gold making the music for the series.
Years later, in 2015, Davies created another series about gay life in the early 21st Century. This one was entitled ‘Cucumber’ and had a companion anthology series called ‘Banana’ along with a documentary series called ‘Tofu’. Neither a continuation nor a spin-off, ‘Cucumber’ also followed modern day gays in Manchester and, in true Russell T Davies style, portrayed very real and very realistic lives and relationships. Apart from the setting of Manchester, the show had no connection to its predecessor, apart from a cameo from Hazel on Canal Street. Well, sort of Hazel, but not exactly. You’ll see.
There was a much sadder tone to ‘Cucumber’ compared to ‘Queer As Folk’, but it’s still completely compelling. It could be that we’re a little older, along with the core group of characters and with that comes less time for fun and frivolity, along with it simply being a different time again. A good fifteen years had passed since the debut of ‘Queer As Folk’ and, not only are we older and supposedly wiser, the world has moved on too. There’s much more LGBTQ+ entertainment of all kinds to consume and there’s also a sense that the world too isn’t in as carefree and fun mood. Or at least that’s what TV seems to show more and more with endless dark, gritty dramas. The truth is, ‘Cucumber’ was still a brilliant watch, with all the hallmarks of Davies’ writing skills. This time though, the added punch of a sudden and gut-wrenching death scene that was both expected and unexpected. Watch it, that’ll make sense if it seems a little cryptic. Needless to say, it was a scene that certainly hit home.
Of course, now, being the massive fan of Russell T Davies’ work that I am, I’m going to have to dive into ‘It’s A Sin’ as soon as I can. For me though, ‘Queer As Folk’ will always be that one that I’ll remember for being so impactful and profoundly influential. I was holding out hope that we might get a one-off twenty years later episode catching up with them all, but there’s always the twenty-fifth anniversary, right? I’m nothing if not hopeful.
So, did you watch it when it first came out? Did it have as big an impact on you as it did on me and so many others? Let’s have a good chat about it in the comments and share your thoughts. What were your favourite bits or was there even something you didn’t like or think they could have done better?
Maybe now you’re tempted to watch it for the first time or rewatch it. I know I am. So, til next time stay safe, stay sane and stay…. Vidalicious!
