0:00:02 > 0:00:03We're making this programme
0:00:03 > 0:00:05about queer artists since decriminalisation.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07We're grouping people together from all across the arts.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09What do you think about that idea?
0:00:09 > 0:00:12This programme contains some strong language
0:00:12 > 0:00:15I think the idea of grouping people together is really...
0:00:15 > 0:00:16shit.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19- INTERVIEWER GIGGLES - I think it's really shit.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24I don't think that people should be put into the women art lot,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27or the queer art lot, or the straight art lot.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30You know, art is art. Regardless.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36This programme contains some scenes of a sexual nature
0:00:36 > 0:00:39The arts have long provided a refuge for gay people in Britain.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43A place they could express themselves.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47And push back against the conventional society they'd fled.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50He's sexy.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52To celebrate the 50th anniversary
0:00:52 > 0:00:55of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality,
0:00:55 > 0:00:5923 leading figures from across the arts in Britain
0:00:59 > 0:01:02have agreed to talk about how their sexuality
0:01:02 > 0:01:04might have shaped their work...
0:01:04 > 0:01:06SANDI LAUGHS
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Absolute filth. I can't...
0:01:08 > 0:01:10believe I wrote this stuff.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15You know, if there's one thing worse than homosexual art,
0:01:15 > 0:01:17it's heterosexual art.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21It did feel important to write with relish about sex,
0:01:21 > 0:01:23because that had been my experience.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24The way I came to being gay
0:01:24 > 0:01:27was through falling in love with another girl.
0:01:27 > 0:01:28It was absolutely lovely.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32..and how the work of queer artists has changed Britain.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33When Bowie came out,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36every young person in England was dressing like Bowie.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38It was quite extraordinary.
0:01:38 > 0:01:39For human sympathy,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43we all need to have stood on the outside at some point in our lives.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47And once that has happened to you, it's very difficult to be so rigid,
0:01:47 > 0:01:49so prejudiced, so judgemental again,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52and that's how we change as human beings.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55There was always "lesbian Sandi Toksvig",
0:01:55 > 0:01:57and now I'm honestly mostly just Sandi.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59I don't know what's happened to my life!
0:02:07 > 0:02:10DRUMS AND BRASS BAND PLAY
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Britain in 1967 was a conservative place.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Divorce was still considered morally wrong.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22And a woman's place was generally in the home.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Homosexuality had been partially decriminalised,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28but many gay people were still forced
0:02:28 > 0:02:32to live their lives in secret, in fear of judgement by society.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36For many of us, this is revolting. Men dancing with men.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41There were, however, three careers rumoured to offer
0:02:41 > 0:02:43a relatively safe haven...
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Hairdressing,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48the civil service, and...
0:02:48 > 0:02:51MUSIC DROWNS OUT LYRICS
0:02:54 > 0:02:57# Singing and dancing and something for all... #
0:02:57 > 0:03:01The stage was a sanctuary in an otherwise hostile world.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03APPLAUSE
0:03:06 > 0:03:07I was 19.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I was the smallest boy ever to have got in the Royal Ballet.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13You could either dance or you couldn't,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and it didn't matter if you were gay, straight, or whatever.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19You got the part if you were any good.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22In 1969,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25a young Wayne Sleep was offered a scholarship and ditched industrial
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Hartlepool for the more liberal world of the ballet.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33It was a wonderful freedom to be a part of that -
0:03:33 > 0:03:34and I only felt sorry for men
0:03:34 > 0:03:39who were becoming engineers, or draftsmen, or architects.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41They all had to hide it completely,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44whereas we could just, you know, let our wrist drop occasionally.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46WAYNE LAUGHS
0:03:49 > 0:03:54Actor Sir Antony Sher first trod the boards in Britain in 1968 -
0:03:54 > 0:03:57a year after decriminalisation.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And it was in the theatre he would meet his partner,
0:04:00 > 0:04:01Gregory Doran.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05I was kind of half aware that theatre
0:04:05 > 0:04:09had a reputation of having gay people in it,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13but it was... It was very discreet.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Everybody loves you and respects you,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17but, dear uncle, you ought to be silent.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19You ought to hold your tongue.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Even though Gielgud had been arrested for cottaging,
0:04:24 > 0:04:32it still didn't hang over his reputation in a significant way.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34As long as you didn't shout about it...
0:04:34 > 0:04:36Well, Roger. Come in!
0:04:36 > 0:04:37..behind the scenes,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41gay actors enjoyed a level of acceptance unimaginable elsewhere.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46I think the theatre is one of the professions that -
0:04:46 > 0:04:51and has been for the longest - the most easy to be queer in.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53If you can't come out in the theatre,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55then, God, it's the end, you know, really.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59And although the characters on stage were predominantly straight,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03a young gay audience would somehow sense a private language
0:05:03 > 0:05:04that spoke directly to them.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Very early on, before I was sexually aware,
0:05:10 > 0:05:12a little gay boy was in evidence.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20Theatre was, for me, my first point of contact with a wider world
0:05:20 > 0:05:22tantalizingly beyond reach.
0:05:22 > 0:05:23What's mine is yours.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28And what is yours...
0:05:28 > 0:05:29is mine.
0:05:29 > 0:05:34It kind of switched on circuits within me, which kind of picked up
0:05:34 > 0:05:36gay data being transmitted,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38sometimes obviously,
0:05:38 > 0:05:40sometimes covertly.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44But the acting didn't stop when you quit the stage.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Outside this cloistered world,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50open discussion of your sexuality was still taboo.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56In the visual arts, a group of maverick artists was emerging,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00who paid no heed to the rules of conservative society.
0:06:00 > 0:06:06I remember being asked, what was it like to come out in the '60s?
0:06:06 > 0:06:09I said, "What do you mean come out? I've never been in!"
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Maggi Hambling
0:06:12 > 0:06:16has been an unstoppable force in the art world for over 50 years.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18Does anyone tell you off about it?
0:06:20 > 0:06:22If people want me, they provide ashtrays.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29And this little self-portrait is, er, called Hangover,
0:06:29 > 0:06:34and I'm trying to paint how it feels to have a really blinding hangover.
0:06:40 > 0:06:41In 1964,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Hambling was offered a place at Camberwell College of Art -
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and swapped rural Sussex for swinging London.
0:06:47 > 0:06:55I had a sort of list - younger man, older man, black man, woman,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and I decided...
0:06:58 > 0:06:59..the woman won.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Hambling quickly became part of a scene
0:07:06 > 0:07:09whose liberal views about sexuality were far ahead
0:07:09 > 0:07:12of the rest of the country.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15We were rather fascinated by the word "gay" in the '60s,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18so we had a gay table in the canteen and we wouldn't let anyone sit down
0:07:18 > 0:07:23at it if they weren't gay or extra glamorous.
0:07:26 > 0:07:27We had parties.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33Francis Bacon came, David Hockney came.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Since the early '60s, David Hockney had been gaining recognition
0:07:42 > 0:07:45for his exploration of a subject matter barely touched
0:07:45 > 0:07:49by a major artist since the classical period -
0:07:49 > 0:07:51erotic depictions of gay life and love.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59I never hid anything.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02I mean, that's what I didn't want to do.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05I didn't want to hide anything.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08I mean, I was an artist.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14With his increasing success, Hockney had begun to have
0:08:14 > 0:08:16a liberalising effect on London's network
0:08:16 > 0:08:19of galleries and dealers.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22If you wanted his work, you left your homophobia at the door.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28I was painting for homosexual propaganda.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33I didn't care whether it was illegal or not.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37I'd begun to sell pictures,
0:08:37 > 0:08:41so I bought cigarettes in packets of 20,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44not tens any more.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Most people bought them in tens.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49It was an exciting time.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59But stifled by Britain's unfriendly attitude towards gay people,
0:08:59 > 0:09:04in 1964 Hockney fled to the more progressive California.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09I did feel very, very free here.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10It was amazing.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12I mean, absolutely amazing.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17There was a real gay life here.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18That's why I came.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21I came for the space and sex.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25And it was in California that Hockney produced
0:09:25 > 0:09:28what would become his most celebrated works.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43And he used his fame to bring an openness about sexuality
0:09:43 > 0:09:45to the wider public.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47When I was a teenager,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51A Bigger Splash came out, the film of the painting, as it were,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54and I remember going with a friend to see it.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55I was about 14, maybe,
0:09:55 > 0:09:58going to see it in London.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00How could I describe Joe? He's...
0:10:01 > 0:10:05..tall, he's about my size.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09He's handsome.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15Seeing David Hockney talking about the kind of men he fancied.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18"Oh, I love Italians. Always so handsome, they've got lovely eyes."
0:10:18 > 0:10:21He's...sexy.
0:10:24 > 0:10:25And...
0:10:27 > 0:10:29..what else?
0:10:29 > 0:10:30He's artistic.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33I've decided you're artistic, Joe.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Just the idea that someone could talk like that about
0:10:35 > 0:10:38his desires for other man was extraordinary.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42- INTERVIEWER:- Did you sense that you were somehow maybe even
0:10:42 > 0:10:45privileged to be able to live the life that you wanted to live?
0:10:45 > 0:10:47I've always been privileged.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52I know that because I have this talent.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58It was one thing for David Hockney to be open.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01A huge star in the bohemian world of the visual arts.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Pop music was aimed at a mass audience
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and so gay people within it had to play a more careful game.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17MUSIC: I Can't Explain by The Who
0:11:19 > 0:11:22In the mid-'60s, we'd seen an explosion of swaggering,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24hyper-masculine rock bands.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33They looked like the height of heterosexuality,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35but behind the scenes there was a secret to many
0:11:35 > 0:11:36of the bands' success.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41In the music industry in the '60s, there was tremendous openness.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Most of the managers were gay.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47Nobody is going to look at a teenage boy with a closer similarity
0:11:47 > 0:11:51to how a teenage girl would look at him than a gay manager.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Kit Lambert managed The Who and I managed The Yardbirds.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Brain Epstein managed The Beatles.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Anyone who knew gay life
0:12:00 > 0:12:03knew that The Beatles looked like four boys
0:12:03 > 0:12:07who'd found a sugar daddy and got set up at an apartment in Belgravia.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Robert Stigwood, who managed Cream, and Andrew Oldham,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15who managed the Rolling Stones, was very straight.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17They loved the gay culture and acted very camp.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Mick, like all great artists, is a great absorber,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26he looks around at what's happening.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29A lot of Mick's campness onstage came from what Andrew did
0:12:29 > 0:12:30in the office and in the car.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36Gay managers, they were very independent
0:12:36 > 0:12:38and were very anti-establishment.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43- INTERVIEWER:- Why would gay managers be anti-establishment?
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Well, when you wake up in the morning and look at your hard-on
0:12:45 > 0:12:47and know that's leading you to jail,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49you tend to be anti-establishment, don't you?
0:12:49 > 0:12:51SCREAMING
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Gay culture spread by gay managers.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56It is as influential in all British pop music
0:12:56 > 0:12:58as black culture has been to American pop music.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Whilst many gay men in music wielded power behind the scenes,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10for a gay woman pop could be a lonely place.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18# When I said I needed you
0:13:18 > 0:13:24# You said you would always stay. #
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Paradox with Dusty is that she appeared to wear her heart
0:13:27 > 0:13:33on her sleeve, but of course she couldn't be open about who she was.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36# You don't have to say you love me
0:13:36 > 0:13:40# Just be close at hand. #
0:13:40 > 0:13:43You felt that Dusty's life was reflected in the records.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45You know, I'm In The Middle Of Nowhere,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49It seems as though there's a bit of autobiography going on.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52# Believe me, believe me
0:13:52 > 0:13:55# I can't help but love you. #
0:13:55 > 0:13:56But for many young lesbians,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00it was that very struggle between concealment and self-expression
0:14:00 > 0:14:03that gave Dusty's music its power.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07My first crush was probably Dusty Springfield.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I used to get a magazine called Girl and I had a picture
0:14:11 > 0:14:14of Dusty Springfield taped to the side of my wardrobe.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Dusty was the last thing I saw at night and the first thing
0:14:16 > 0:14:19I saw in the morning. She was so glamorous.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24She had some fake eyelashes about a foot long, they were just amazing.
0:14:24 > 0:14:30# I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
0:14:30 > 0:14:31# Oh!
0:14:31 > 0:14:36# Only one day away from your arms. #
0:14:36 > 0:14:40She had a combination of strength and vulnerability that was
0:14:40 > 0:14:41very attractive.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44She wasn't clinging onto the arm of some boyfriend.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47She wasn't relying on the guys in the band to support her.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49She was just there, she was Dusty.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Ladies and gentlemen, the very exciting Marc Bolan.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04# I'm gonna change Mad Donna
0:15:04 > 0:15:07# I'm gonna change Mad Donna. #
0:15:07 > 0:15:11At the turn of the '70s, a new breed of musicians emerged.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Taking their cue from the flamboyance of the art world,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19they moved the gay aesthetic from the shadows to centre stage.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24# Like the gods of old, I'm gonna get my teeth in you. #
0:15:24 > 0:15:26I loved the glam rock period,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29where people were being feminine, androgynous,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31ambiguity is sexier.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34I think it's a great place to be as an artist
0:15:34 > 0:15:36because you're keeping people guessing.
0:15:38 > 0:15:43But in 1972, for one radical artist, the guessing came to an end.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47MUSIC: Queen Bitch by David Bowie
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Bowie's coming out was incredibly radical.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56It was quite extraordinary.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Yes, the law had been changed in 1967,
0:15:58 > 0:16:00but not a single person in the music industry
0:16:00 > 0:16:03had ever admitted they were gay.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08That had a huge impact on me and creative people
0:16:08 > 0:16:09of my generation, really.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17Gay or bisexuality became fashionable.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Every young person in England was dressing like Bowie.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24- What's your name? - Ziggy Zoe.- What was it before?
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Well, my real name is Mandy, but that's a bit boring.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Why do you think they want to look like him?
0:16:29 > 0:16:30Wouldn't you?
0:16:31 > 0:16:34I loved watching friends Bowie-izing themselves,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37and not dragging up, but giving that sort of glam rock
0:16:37 > 0:16:39tinge to themselves.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41They all played with the idea that their masculinity
0:16:41 > 0:16:44could be refined and could be feminized without any loss
0:16:44 > 0:16:46of dignity, control, charisma and so on.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And that's a good thing.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50When you saw him do Ziggy onstage, what made you decide
0:16:50 > 0:16:51to look like that?
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Just brilliant.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Just everything you could imagine.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Just a dream, isn't it, really?
0:16:59 > 0:17:02They all went into school dressed like Bowie every day
0:17:02 > 0:17:05and then suddenly Bowie says "I'm gay" and then these people
0:17:05 > 0:17:07are confronted with, "My God, everyone is going to
0:17:07 > 0:17:10"think I'm gay, too." I would say that was a huge influence
0:17:10 > 0:17:15on perfectly normally straight kids to just not care about gay.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19- Why are you so upset? - He's smashing!
0:17:19 > 0:17:21- I kissed him! - I kissed his hand!
0:17:21 > 0:17:24- I kissed his hand! - I kissed hand, I kissed him!
0:17:24 > 0:17:26I went, "Oh!" Oh, he's lovely!
0:17:26 > 0:17:30# When you're a boy, you can buy a home of your own
0:17:30 > 0:17:32# When you're a boy
0:17:32 > 0:17:34# Learn to drive and everything. #
0:17:34 > 0:17:37For artists like Bowie, homosexuality wasn't so much
0:17:37 > 0:17:39a way of life.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43It was a splash of shocking colour in a drab, grey Britain.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45- INTERVIEWER:- Why do you think he did it?
0:17:45 > 0:17:46He was sensational.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49He had to do something new every day.
0:17:49 > 0:17:50# Boys keep swinging
0:17:50 > 0:17:53# Boys always work it out. #
0:17:53 > 0:17:55He's a huge star, but the bigger you get,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57the bigger the publicity has to be.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01He was permanently in the public eye. He was very clever.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03Whether or not he was fully gay didn't matter.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05That's what pop's all about.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09It's a place where you can play with identity, play with gender.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13So that was much more about gender and the possibilities of
0:18:13 > 0:18:17who you could be than it was about being gay.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23For pop's teenage audience lurking in suburban bedrooms,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26the gay aesthetic had a unique appeal.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29More often than not, your parents hated it.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Oh, and she had such beautiful hair before she started dying it.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38But TV was broadcasting to the whole family,
0:18:38 > 0:18:43so any expression of a gay sensibility had to operate in code.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46MUSIC: Coronation Street Theme
0:18:48 > 0:18:51One gay man's sensibility was beaming its way into the
0:18:51 > 0:18:55nation's living rooms without the public even suspecting it.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Off to what you laughingly call work, are you, love?
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Yes, love, but we'll be finished by the time
0:19:01 > 0:19:03- you've emptied the slops. Ta-ta. - Oh!
0:19:03 > 0:19:06- Common as muck. - I don't know why we talk to them.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I've got a feeling that only a gay man
0:19:09 > 0:19:12could have created something like Coronation Street.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Coronation Street was the creation of the late Tony Warren,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25a young script writer at Granada,
0:19:25 > 0:19:30who'd been open about being gay since long before decriminalisation.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32He was just a barrel of fun.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35He had a tremendous liking for strong women.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Warren spent much of his childhood with his mother
0:19:41 > 0:19:44and grandmother while the men were away at war,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48but there were other strong women he was influenced by, too.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51MUSIC: Rain On My Parade by Barbara Streisand
0:19:51 > 0:19:54He would go out on the burgeoning Manchester gay scene
0:19:54 > 0:19:57and turn the drag queens he met into ever more
0:19:57 > 0:19:58heightened female characters.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Betty, have you sold that sideboard to Hilda Ogden?
0:20:03 > 0:20:05- No.- Right.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08I'll soon sort Hilda Ogden out.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Bet was a combination...
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Come on, then, there might be a fight.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14..all of the things that Tony loved.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17The strength, the vulnerability, the comedy.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20That was Bet.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22You never was able to talk the Queen's English, was you, Hilda?
0:20:22 > 0:20:25No, she just shouts it top of her flaming voice.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27She were an air-raid siren in t'war.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Right, Bet Lynch, that does it!
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Coronation Street's flamboyant women didn't just appeal
0:20:34 > 0:20:37to millions of mostly straight British viewers,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40they struck a very special chord with a generation
0:20:40 > 0:20:41of young gay men.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Not on your nelly!
0:20:43 > 0:20:46In visual material, especially, television and film,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49there's a streak of camp that resonates with gay men
0:20:49 > 0:20:53on a completely silent and unconscious level
0:20:53 > 0:20:55that is not received from society.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58You can grow up on a farm in the middle of Norfolk,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00having no social contact,
0:21:00 > 0:21:0313 years old, you could be sitting there being thrilled by Bet Lynch
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and thrilled by Joan Collins.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07I was sitting in a house in Swansea.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I had no idea that the Wizard Of Oz was a camp classic.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Those words didn't exist, but I watched it and loved it.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16I loved her, I loved those strong women in the soaps.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18What is it? One day we will understand.
0:21:18 > 0:21:24# Somewhere over the rainbow
0:21:24 > 0:21:27# Way up high. #
0:21:29 > 0:21:32- INTERVIEWER:- Bet Lynch was a straight woman
0:21:32 > 0:21:35played by a straight woman. Why do you think she was such a gay icon?
0:21:35 > 0:21:37I haven't got the slightest idea.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40If you're writing Coronation Street,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44literally, you'll be on your best when you're writing Bet Lynch.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46Len Fairclough could have come in, rattling the dialogue off.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49You've kind of got to raise your game when you come to Bet.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52So, actually, in some ways, when we're admiring camp,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54we're admiring the best.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Stuff that's more work put into it, more thought put into it.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00Camp isn't a superficial thing.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02It's really, really profound.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04It's a profound connection between men and women.
0:22:07 > 0:22:13I remember doing the Street Of Dreams at Manchester Arena.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Singing a song called There's Nowt A Bit Of Lippy Wouldn't Solve.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25But the one thing that hit me when I walked on stage,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29there were thousands - and I mean thousands - of drag queens.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33All with beehives, all in leopard.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38That is the ultimate accolade.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46I'll tell you what really pissed me off a bit, though.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48Most of them looked better than I bloody did.
0:22:48 > 0:22:49However...
0:22:52 > 0:22:56But it wasn't just in Coronation Street where a camp sensibility
0:22:56 > 0:22:59was already with us in our living rooms.
0:22:59 > 0:23:00Shut that door.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08In light entertainment, a new generation of outrageously camp
0:23:08 > 0:23:10comedians was bursting onto our screens.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15The Generation Game, presented by Larry Grayson,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19attracted audiences of 25 million viewers,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22becoming the most watched game show ever on TV.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Well, I'm cock-a-hoop.
0:23:25 > 0:23:26LAUGHTER
0:23:26 > 0:23:31I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be here on the game...
0:23:31 > 0:23:34- because... Listen. - LAUGHTER
0:23:34 > 0:23:35Riff-raff!
0:23:36 > 0:23:40There were camp comics on the telly.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43I felt slightly resentful of them...
0:23:43 > 0:23:45because actually they just fuelled the language
0:23:45 > 0:23:50in which I was abused kind of homophobically at school.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52He seems a nice boy, as well.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56There's a lot of gay men would talk about watching
0:23:56 > 0:23:58those camp entertainments with shame.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59I didn't feel any of that.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01I used to love them, I used to think they were funny,
0:24:01 > 0:24:06and they were immensely strong and powerful and important.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08You used to be a member of a stunt team
0:24:08 > 0:24:11- which entailed being blown up in a coffin?- Yes.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14LAUGHTER
0:24:14 > 0:24:17One of the reasons why I think camp is so fascinating
0:24:17 > 0:24:21is cos it both expresses a vulnerability -
0:24:21 > 0:24:22this is who I really am -
0:24:22 > 0:24:25but also is extremely well defended, too.
0:24:25 > 0:24:26"This is who I am and fuck you."
0:24:30 > 0:24:33The screaming queens of Saturday night entertainment were performing
0:24:33 > 0:24:37a delicate tightrope act between what everyone could see
0:24:37 > 0:24:40and what no-one could openly say.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42# Good hard work is all that it takes
0:24:42 > 0:24:44# That's why I'm a self-made man. #
0:24:44 > 0:24:45There were people like Danny La Rue,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50magnificently got up with wig and boobs and everything,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53but no-one politely drew attention to the fact
0:24:53 > 0:24:55that this man was a screaming queen.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58A grown man walking around in a wig and a gown.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02- Listen who's talking!- Oh!
0:25:02 > 0:25:04- INTERVIEWER:- And did you know those people were gay?
0:25:04 > 0:25:09People lived in a strange filter of thinking they knew no-one
0:25:09 > 0:25:11who was gay when they did.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17# Besides all that, he's as gay as can be
0:25:17 > 0:25:18# Just watch him. #
0:25:18 > 0:25:21I remember my mother very early on sort of saying,
0:25:21 > 0:25:22"I don't know any homosexuals."
0:25:22 > 0:25:26And about 20 years later, I kind of thought, "Yes, you did!"
0:25:26 > 0:25:28There was, like, old Uncle Doug.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30You knew he was never going to marry.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Doomed to never marry.
0:25:32 > 0:25:33And you knew he was gay.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36There were those two women who lived on the corner.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40There are going to be one of these in each department for Christmas.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45Ho-ho-ho, little boy, have I got a surprise for you!
0:25:45 > 0:25:47LAUGHTER
0:25:51 > 0:25:53You look at Are You Being Served? now,
0:25:53 > 0:25:58and John Inman is so outrageously, obviously, screamingly gay.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01But you got away with it at prime time, midweek on BBC One.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04You kind of wonder, "Did they talk that through at all?
0:26:04 > 0:26:07"Were there discussions at editorial level?"
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Oh, look what's just come on, isn't he handsome?
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Yes, that's Noblakov.
0:26:12 > 0:26:13He's very big in Russia.
0:26:16 > 0:26:17He's pretty big here, too.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21Are You Being Served? is that classic British thing
0:26:21 > 0:26:25of a sitcom full of unhappy people trapped in one place.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28But he's the one happy character and he literally walks into some
0:26:28 > 0:26:31episodes saying he was out with sailors last night,
0:26:31 > 0:26:33or he was out with a priest or he was out with a body-builder.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37What he's saying is, "I had sex with all of those people last night,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41"and everyone else in our show is sexually frustrated."
0:26:41 > 0:26:45They've created a sexually liberated and sexually active
0:26:45 > 0:26:46gay man on screen. It's a miracle.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Although we may not have acknowledged it,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55in the '70s gay characters were staring right at us.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00But they shared one thing in common.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04All of them were men.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06When I was young, there was nothing.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07Nobody talked about it.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12I felt like there was just me, and every single thing that I looked at,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16every film, every advert, every poster,
0:27:16 > 0:27:21every piece of art seemed to suggest that I was this oddity.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24That I was entirely alone.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Ron and his girlfriend Linda have been house-hunting
0:27:28 > 0:27:30for over a year.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Lesbianism, although it had never been illegal,
0:27:34 > 0:27:36was still considered an absolute taboo -
0:27:36 > 0:27:39both in public and everyday life.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41In Fife in the 1960s,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44you were about as likely to come up against a unicorn as you
0:27:44 > 0:27:47were to come up against an out lesbian.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50The feeling of growing up on the outside of society
0:27:50 > 0:27:54infused the writing of soon-to-be novelist Jeanette Winterson.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57I had parents who were both deeply religious,
0:27:57 > 0:27:59and in Mrs Winterson's case,
0:27:59 > 0:28:04hyper-aware of sexual deviance, as she would have understood it.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Winterson drew heavily on her childhood
0:28:08 > 0:28:12in an evangelical Pentecostal family when she wrote her first book,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,
0:28:14 > 0:28:19published in 1985 and later adapted for TV.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22I can't hear very well.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27It'll be the Lord blocking your ears to all but the words of the spirit.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30There's quite a lot of the world that she would rather keep out,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and gayness was certainly part of it.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36The signs of those possessed
0:28:36 > 0:28:41is that they will engage themselves in depraved sexual practises.
0:28:41 > 0:28:42THEY GASP
0:28:42 > 0:28:45Winterson's novel mirrors her own life.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49The central character incurs the wrath of her family and community
0:28:49 > 0:28:52when she falls in love with another girl.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54I was just living in the strange Winterson world,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57which was prescribed and narrow,
0:28:57 > 0:29:00but in my imagination I wanted something different.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13First of all, I didn't know how to hide it or that I needed to hide it,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15because I had no experience of it being wrong,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17because nobody ever talked about it.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20You have to discover that something is wrong, don't you?
0:29:32 > 0:29:34I didn't know that it was a problem, so I just went out there and said,
0:29:34 > 0:29:36you know, "I'm really in love with Helen.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39"This is so great. All I want to do is be with her."
0:29:39 > 0:29:40In Winterson's novel,
0:29:40 > 0:29:44the gay child's perspective did something entirely new -
0:29:44 > 0:29:47it showed up the madness not of being gay,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50but of those who had a problem with it.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52This volcano erupted on my head.
0:29:52 > 0:29:53There was an exorcism
0:29:53 > 0:29:55because it was assumed that I was demon-possessed.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58You know, very scary stuff.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01I want you to think about Jesus.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Think about his goodness and his loving kindness.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06There's no kindness here!
0:30:06 > 0:30:08I hate you all!
0:30:08 > 0:30:11Oh, Lord, come down among us.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13End this girl's suffering.
0:30:13 > 0:30:17Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit quickly garnered critical acclaim.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22And at 25, Jeanette Winterson became a literary world celebrity.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25I remember picking it up in a university book shop.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Suddenly here was a lesbian novel with the Penguin stamp of approval
0:30:28 > 0:30:31on it. And it was really, really exciting.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33You know, that for me was very enabling.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Suddenly, to think, "Well, if people are taking lesbian and gay stories
0:30:36 > 0:30:40"seriously like this, then why shouldn't I write about them, too?"
0:30:45 > 0:30:47In the early '80s, in pop music,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50the children of Bowie were coming of age.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54A new generation of artists was emerging,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59and some were ready to go one step further than their heroes,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02and talk openly about gay sex.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07I had a bit of a vision for what Frankie Goes To Hollywood would be.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12To create a group where the effect was not just lock up your daughters,
0:31:12 > 0:31:14but lock up your sons, as well.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16# Relax Don't do it
0:31:16 > 0:31:18# When you want to go to it
0:31:18 > 0:31:19# Relax... #
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Frankie Goes To Hollywood's debut single took the frisson of the
0:31:23 > 0:31:26gay leather scene and put it out there for all to see.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30# Relax Don't do it
0:31:30 > 0:31:35# When you wanna come
0:31:35 > 0:31:38# When you wanna come
0:31:39 > 0:31:40# Relax... #
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Relax...
0:31:43 > 0:31:50Yes, it was quite a... orgasmic ejaculatory moment.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56I think the first time we had heard a male orgasm on record.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01Relax was met by a frenzy of moral outrage,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04and the BBC promptly refused to play the song
0:32:04 > 0:32:07on any of its TV or radio stations.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16I found the lyrics objectionable and I felt that the record could offend
0:32:16 > 0:32:18the majority of our listening audience.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20So I made the decision not to play it.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23They are buying it out there and you're not letting them hear it.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26I was very passionate about the work.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30I felt slightly robbed by the BBC,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34because your desires to be a pop star,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38the fantasy includes multiple performances on Top Of The Pops,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41which did not happen.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45I am quite outraged by the way I've kind of almost been slandered,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48and said, you know, "I think disgusting lyrics."
0:32:48 > 0:32:53Which only someone with the mind of a sewer could see them as obscene.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55HE CHUCKLES
0:32:55 > 0:32:57That was my line at the time.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59Well, I don't think there's any other interpretation
0:32:59 > 0:33:01you can possibly put on those lyrics.
0:33:01 > 0:33:02It is a description of a sexual act.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Come on, explain further.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09But the BBC's stance had unintended consequences.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Relax has now been in the British charts for a staggering 28 weeks,
0:33:12 > 0:33:14and has sold 1.2 million copies in the UK alone...
0:33:14 > 0:33:16IMPRESSED WHISTLE
0:33:16 > 0:33:18..where it was number one for five weeks.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And Holly Johnson and his band mates weren't alone.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25The new crop of musicians took a more overtly political stance
0:33:25 > 0:33:28on what it meant to be a gay artist in Britain,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32and many felt it was crucial to talk honestly about their sexuality.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36So put your hands together and please welcome The Communards.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:33:40 > 0:33:42One of the reasons why I was in a pop band,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Jimmy and I, was precisely for activists reasons.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48It was never a question in our minds that we would be anything other than
0:33:48 > 0:33:49completely open about being gay.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52# Oh, baby
0:33:52 > 0:33:56# My heart is full of love and desire for you... #
0:33:56 > 0:33:58We, in our rather vain, glorious way,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01thought that popular culture might be a sort of entryist force
0:34:01 > 0:34:06through which you could kind of achieve some sort of revolution
0:34:06 > 0:34:08in the way people thought and felt about things.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13For the first time in Britain, there were multiple artists at the
0:34:13 > 0:34:15top of the charts who identified as gay.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Jimmy was like a huge, massive influence on me.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24I don't know if I would have been brave enough to have made that step
0:34:24 > 0:34:27if it wasn't for him.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31I don't think I realised how...
0:34:31 > 0:34:33brave it was.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36You just sense that there were pressures beginning to break up
0:34:36 > 0:34:39ideas about what it was to be a man, what it was to be a woman,
0:34:39 > 0:34:41how people related.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48- INTERVIEWER:- The Queen video, I Want To Break Free...
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Fantastic!
0:34:50 > 0:34:51Wasn't it?
0:34:52 > 0:34:55# I want to break free... #
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Did you know, though, that the character that Freddy plays
0:34:59 > 0:35:03is based on some of the women from Coronation Street - possibly you?
0:35:03 > 0:35:04Really?
0:35:04 > 0:35:06# You're so self-satisfied
0:35:06 > 0:35:09# I don't need you. #
0:35:09 > 0:35:13But it wasn't always as simple as just coming out.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Artists faced a sometimes impossible balancing act between
0:35:16 > 0:35:19self-expression and selling to a mass audience,
0:35:19 > 0:35:2360% of whom still thought gay sex was morally wrong.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25# Hey, everybody Take a look at me
0:35:25 > 0:35:26# I've got street credibility
0:35:26 > 0:35:28# I may not have a job but I have a good time
0:35:28 > 0:35:31# With the boys that I meet down on the line. #
0:35:31 > 0:35:34I knew George was gay the first day I met Wham!.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36Probably one of the reasons he signed with me is because he knew I
0:35:36 > 0:35:40was gay. But if he chose not to talk about it, that's his business.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44# Slam, bam I am a man. #
0:35:44 > 0:35:46George was very practical about his career,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49and very definite that it would be the wrong thing for Wham!
0:35:49 > 0:35:50if he came out.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52# Not me You can't hold me down
0:35:52 > 0:35:54# Not me I'm gonna fool around. #
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Wham! was a totally heterosexual image.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00It was two lads about town, out on the razzle, having fun,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03finding girls, going home with them.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10Jimmy and I, we were quite pissed off when we were out on our own,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14and we were sort of like thinking, like, "Oh, come on...
0:36:14 > 0:36:16"you lot."
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Sometimes, I kind of look at other people and look at their success,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24and think maybe we might have had more commercial success -
0:36:24 > 0:36:27especially in places like North America,
0:36:27 > 0:36:30but I'm glad that I did it the way that I did it.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33For me, it was just like you had to do something with your
0:36:33 > 0:36:35music, there had to be a reason.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40Regardless of when they came out, the explosion of gay sexuality
0:36:40 > 0:36:45in music began to change social attitudes in Britain.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47My dad always loved Elton John,
0:36:47 > 0:36:49and always loved George Michael,
0:36:49 > 0:36:51and my dad always loved Boy George.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54He was a big Boy George, Culture Club fan.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58I think that's why I can't remember it ever being, like, I'm gay
0:36:58 > 0:37:01as an issue or I'm gay as to, like, having to come out.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Cos I never remember being encouraged to be in.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Being out in the public world of pop music
0:37:09 > 0:37:14meant broadcasting your own sexuality to the nation.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18The private realm of literature had long been creating
0:37:18 > 0:37:23queer characters that each one of us read on our own.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28But often their power was in the imagining of what was going unsaid.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Gay writers pre-1967, sort of canonical writers
0:37:33 > 0:37:36like EM Forster, hadn't been able to write openly about
0:37:36 > 0:37:38their sexuality.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41You can often trace little sort of gay sub texts.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46In the mid-'80s, novelist Alan Hollinghurst
0:37:46 > 0:37:50was growing increasingly frustrated at the continued failure
0:37:50 > 0:37:53of literature to reflect the reality of gay life,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56nearly two decades after decriminalisation.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00You have things which are either sort of medical, scientific,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04at one pole, and at the other were pornography.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08I think I did have a sense that here was this amazing area of human
0:38:08 > 0:38:11interest which no-one really had explored.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17In his debut novel, Hollinghurst goes one step further than his
0:38:17 > 0:38:20predecessors and talks explicitly about gay sex.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24The Swimming Pool Library follows the friendship
0:38:24 > 0:38:28between an elderly aristocrat and the handsome young narrator.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32The characters' exploits take them from private members' clubs
0:38:32 > 0:38:35to cruising in parks and public lavatories.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38I think it was always important to me from the start
0:38:38 > 0:38:41to write completely unapologetically about gay men
0:38:41 > 0:38:43getting on with their lives.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47And I thought it would be very interesting, and indeed fun,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51to write very explicitly about gay sex in the book.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53Reading The Swimming Pool Library,
0:38:53 > 0:38:58I was filled with admiration, but also startled at the boldness of it.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01- INTERVIEWER:- I was wondering, actually, if we could read a bit.
0:39:01 > 0:39:02I can't read this!
0:39:04 > 0:39:07It's all very well reading it on the page,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11it's rather different reading it to the nation.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12Erm...
0:39:14 > 0:39:15Hmm.
0:39:19 > 0:39:20Absolute filth!
0:39:20 > 0:39:22I can't...
0:39:22 > 0:39:23believe I wrote this stuff.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27In February 1988,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31a small first pressing hit the shops with little fanfare.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34There was no expectation that it was going to do well.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Deep down, I mean, I believed in it.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38I thought it was a good idea.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41And I think, perhaps, a lot of people had not actually
0:39:41 > 0:39:45had to imagine before what two gay men might get up to together.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51"I had wanted to kiss him for such a long time that I clung on,
0:39:51 > 0:39:55"forcing my long pointed tongue to the back of his throat,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57"pulling out and biting his lips,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00"till I tasted the blood on my tongue.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02"He was powerless and amazed."
0:40:05 > 0:40:08In the months after the novel's publication,
0:40:08 > 0:40:10something incredible began to happen -
0:40:10 > 0:40:14what Hollinghurst had feared would be a minority obsession
0:40:14 > 0:40:16became a bestseller.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18I got masses of letters from people who'd read it and said,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21"I thought you might like to hear about a very similar experience
0:40:21 > 0:40:22"I had last week..."
0:40:22 > 0:40:28at Notting Hill Gate gents, or whatever it might have been.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30Some of them actually quite interesting,
0:40:30 > 0:40:33some of them things I really didn't need to know about.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37I got a lot of letters from married women,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40who seemed often much more sympathetic to it.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43And I think some actually sort of found it quite sexy.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49It was rather pleasing, actually, that sense that it struck
0:40:49 > 0:40:50a chord with people.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52And people had seen something described,
0:40:52 > 0:40:54which they hadn't seen described before.
0:40:56 > 0:41:0021 years after gay sex was decriminalised,
0:41:00 > 0:41:04it seemed that Britain might finally be ready to embrace not just a coded
0:41:04 > 0:41:09expression of a queer sensibility, but the open depiction of gay love.
0:41:09 > 0:41:10MUSIC: Starlings by Elbow
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Your feet are more...
0:41:13 > 0:41:15back.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19But all that was coming under threat.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22The very moment gay people were becoming more confident,
0:41:22 > 0:41:26and shamelessly libertine in their propensities,
0:41:26 > 0:41:28that's when, bang, this thing came.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41I was suddenly visiting people in hospital
0:41:41 > 0:41:44with this mysterious illness.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52It was a very horrific period with so many people dying.
0:41:56 > 0:42:02Being openly HIV-positive was an extremely lonely place
0:42:02 > 0:42:04within the music industry.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09The phone didn't ring, literally, for many years.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16The press in this country was really,
0:42:16 > 0:42:22really atrocious and abominable in terms of how it treated gay people,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25in a sense trying to criminalise gay people.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29Quiet everywhere.
0:42:29 > 0:42:30And action.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34In the face of what they saw as a threat to their very existence,
0:42:34 > 0:42:38many gay artists now use their work to fight back at the way their
0:42:38 > 0:42:41community was being represented.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Visual artist and film-maker Derek Jarman
0:42:44 > 0:42:48had been an uncompromising figure in the arts for over a decade.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51He'd stoked controversy in the late-'70s
0:42:51 > 0:42:56with a low-budget graphic film about the life of a gay saint.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58None of us quite knew what we were up to.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01I think if we'd known anything about film-making, seriously,
0:43:01 > 0:43:03the films would never have been made.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08In 1986, aged 46, he was diagnosed as HIV-positive.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11And he spent the last years of his life
0:43:11 > 0:43:14battling the blame being levelled to gay people for Aids.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17If you don't necessarily feel that someone who's HIV-positive
0:43:17 > 0:43:19should tell the person that they sleep with?
0:43:19 > 0:43:20Why should they? How do they know?
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Lots of people are HIV-positive that have not been tested.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27Have you been tested?
0:43:27 > 0:43:30I haven't been tested, no. I'm sure a lot of people haven't been.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32Well, there you are. So, why and how
0:43:32 > 0:43:33do we know that you're not HIV-positive?
0:43:33 > 0:43:39I was very inspired by Derek Jarman. The way he didn't hesitate,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41but tell people about his condition.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49And, in fact, it seemed to give him extra wind to his creative sails.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51And action!
0:43:51 > 0:43:54- ALL:- Fairy! Fairy! Fairy!
0:43:54 > 0:43:58His film-making and his painting certainly blossomed.
0:43:58 > 0:43:59Cut!
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Blue was Jarman's last major film before he died.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11It chronicles his declining health,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15a blue screen echoing his failing eyesight.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20I remember sort of sitting in the cinema and Derek put the film on,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23and I have to say - it was such an amazing experience.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26This sort of immersion in blue...
0:44:27 > 0:44:29This meditative quality.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31It's really quite sublime.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33WAVES LAPPING
0:44:33 > 0:44:37In the roaring waters, I hear the voices of dead friends.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42Love is life that lasts for ever.
0:44:51 > 0:44:56The paradox of Aids was that it made male gay sexuality inescapable to
0:44:56 > 0:44:58the public at large.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05There isn't much of the city wall of London left,
0:45:05 > 0:45:08and what there is, frankly, could do with some serious re-pointing.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Gay women had remained largely invisible.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16I didn't know of a single out, public, woman.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20By 1994, Sandi Toksvig had come through the stand-up circuit
0:45:20 > 0:45:25to television and was becoming an increasingly popular household name.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27- Sandi, tell me...- Yeah.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30- ..what is there in place of the cabbage?- I was going latex...
0:45:30 > 0:45:32LAUGHTER
0:45:35 > 0:45:37..in a bouncy-castle sort of way.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44One of the tabloid papers threatened to out me and I wasn't having it.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50So I outed myself in an article in the Sunday Times.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55I made the front page of the Daily Mail, something like,
0:45:55 > 0:45:56"If God had meant lesbians to have children,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59"he would have made it possible." And I thought,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02"Well I've got three children. So, weirdly, it is possible."
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Sandi, would you walk this way, please?
0:46:04 > 0:46:06You've got a minute starting now.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08First word...
0:46:08 > 0:46:09- Cold.- Cold!
0:46:09 > 0:46:10Love. Embrace.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12- Kiss.- Ooh, warmer!- Sex!
0:46:12 > 0:46:15Everybody I spoke to said my career was over.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18So, it's a point for Oz. Retirement for Sandi.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21And how many points for Sandi's performance, please?
0:46:21 > 0:46:23- AUDIENCE:- Three!
0:46:23 > 0:46:25People were afraid to hire me.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29We got death threats and had to go into hiding.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32It was pretty hellish, actually.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36I would quite often feel like I was the lone lesbian,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38waving a rainbow flag.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41The world wasn't quite ready.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48If Britain in the mid-'90s was still uncomfortable about a woman being
0:46:48 > 0:46:50openly gay in public life...
0:46:52 > 0:46:56..there was something about a rosy past that would make lesbian love
0:46:56 > 0:46:58more palatable.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00Domestic servants. I mean...
0:47:00 > 0:47:02This is kind of brilliant for me.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04At the time Sandi Toksvig came out,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08a young academic called Sarah Waters was becoming fascinated by an
0:47:08 > 0:47:11area so far little-explored in literature.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14They look like they're having a nice time, don't they?
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Do you know what I mean? It feels like there's something a bit extra
0:47:16 > 0:47:17going on there.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19What would the lives of gay women
0:47:19 > 0:47:21have been like in a time when history
0:47:21 > 0:47:23failed to record them?
0:47:23 > 0:47:27I became very interested in pictures of male impersonators.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30These would have been musical artistes.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33At the time, in late Victorian, Edwardian era,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36they were part of mainstream family entertainment.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40Incredibly popular, but here you've got Deb St Welma.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Miss Metford, male impersonator.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Miss Louie Tracy. Miss Phyllis Fletcher. To us, of course, they
0:47:46 > 0:47:49look like drag kings. They look queer, these images.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52I began to... We took in a vow that, you know,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55to imagine a male impersonator with a lesbian biography.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59And now, ladies and gentlemen, a very special treat -
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Miss Kitty Butler!
0:48:03 > 0:48:08Sarah Waters' first novel, Tipping The Velvet, published in 1998,
0:48:08 > 0:48:10tells the story of a working-class girl from Whitstable
0:48:10 > 0:48:13who falls in love with a male impersonator.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15What do you think? Pretty smart?
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Not half bad, I should say.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22It's the combination of sexuality and history that really excites me.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25What happened to a genre that traditionally
0:48:25 > 0:48:28was rather heterosexual, and the idea of taking that -
0:48:28 > 0:48:32in a slightly cheeky way, really - and making it lesbian.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35I do wish you'd tell me what it is you like so much.
0:48:35 > 0:48:36I'm very vain, you see.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38I do love to hear nice things about myself.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42I like everything. Your costumes and your songs,
0:48:42 > 0:48:43and the way you sing them,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46and the way you move, and the way you smile, and your voice.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49You seem so very gay and bold.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53There is something kind of achingly sweet about our first
0:48:53 > 0:48:54good sexual encounters.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57And particularly if it's a gay thing, and you're...you know,
0:48:57 > 0:49:00it's all a bit exciting and strange.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03May I really...touch you?
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Nan...
0:49:08 > 0:49:10..I think I shall die if you don't.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14When you're a teenager, the journey from a collar bone to a shoulder can
0:49:14 > 0:49:16be very long and delicious.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19It's nice to be reminded of that sometimes, I think.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21THEY PANT
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Tipping The Velvet quickly became a bestseller.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30I do love you, Nan. Oh, so very much!
0:49:30 > 0:49:34And the TV series was watched by over five million people.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Historical fiction, I think, and period drama.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46It's kind of a safe way for talking about sexual transgression.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48It makes it kind of sepia-coloured.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56A year later, gay sex would go from sepia to glorious Technicolor.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04When I wrote Queer As Folk, in 1998,
0:50:04 > 0:50:06there's a 15-year-old gay school boy at the heart of that.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08I did it the first time I went out.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11I'm quite proud of that. I'm dead proud of that -
0:50:11 > 0:50:13my first time out.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Stuart Alan Jones.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18And, if I say so myself, that was extraordinary!
0:50:18 > 0:50:24That was like writing a comet or a peacock or finding gold.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27- Got somewhere to go?- No.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Want to come back to mine?
0:50:32 > 0:50:33Straight women were watching it.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36A lot of straight women were getting off on it, actually.
0:50:36 > 0:50:38What do you like doing in bed?
0:50:38 > 0:50:40This is fine.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48Rimming.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49Yeah.
0:50:49 > 0:50:50Excellent!
0:50:50 > 0:50:52Rimming was important. Rimming was vital!
0:50:52 > 0:50:56And I know, again... It sounds like I was having a laugh.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01But it had to be a sexual experience that Nathan hadn't even imagined.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03I mean, that scene has to be a mind-fuck for him.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Most dramas actually cut away from sex scenes because, actually,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11you know what's going to happen.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13And dramas are working when new stuff is happening
0:51:13 > 0:51:15to the characters on screen.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17HE GASPS AND PANTS
0:51:19 > 0:51:22I was like, "Oh, my God!"
0:51:22 > 0:51:24You know, I just couldn't believe it.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28I was like, "How did they get away with that?!" You know.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30HE PANTS
0:51:30 > 0:51:33No-one told you about THAT, did they?
0:51:33 > 0:51:35And he comes out of that a different boy in the morning.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38So it was genuinely important to show.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41I can't believe we did it.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Queer As Folk was a huge breakthrough.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Gay people could feel that they were the centre,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52that our world was no more on the edges.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59In a new millennium, when it came to attitudes towards gay people,
0:51:59 > 0:52:04the British public showed themselves to have fundamentally changed.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06A special Top Of The Pops treat for you now -
0:52:06 > 0:52:09it's the man you voted for, Mr Pop Idol.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12Here's the mighty Will Young!
0:52:12 > 0:52:13CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:52:13 > 0:52:17# I'm gonna take this moment... #
0:52:17 > 0:52:20A TV talent show had propelled a 23-year-old gay man
0:52:20 > 0:52:23to pop stardom.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25And just like in the '80s,
0:52:25 > 0:52:30music industry producers were worried about the impact on sales.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34There was a lot of pressure to not talk about my sexuality -
0:52:34 > 0:52:37quite continuously, as well.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40And the thing was, I had come out and I'd been at university,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43and I just remember saying to someone, "I'm not doing that again.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46"I'm not going back into the closet."
0:52:46 > 0:52:49It was like, "How dare you?" You know?
0:52:49 > 0:52:52A tabloid wanted to out me,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55so we decided, me and my litigation lawyer -
0:52:55 > 0:52:57I mean, it was this serious -
0:52:57 > 0:53:00to go with another tabloid the day before.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02And, kind of, for me,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05I just remember thinking the whole thing's so unnecessary.
0:53:05 > 0:53:06It just bored me.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09It kind of like... It ruined my weekend.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11So I was like, "I just want to go to the pub."
0:53:11 > 0:53:13I don't think anybody minds, actually.
0:53:13 > 0:53:14Well, I think that's not true.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17I think that genuinely people like Will. You don't think that's
0:53:17 > 0:53:18- true?- I don't think that's true all.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21- You think that everyone's going to turn against him?- No, not at all.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23But I think the market is susceptible.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25I think because singles are bought by, you know, ten-,
0:53:25 > 0:53:2811- or 12-year-old girls. You know, I think once they're out,
0:53:28 > 0:53:30and they realise he's not available at all,
0:53:30 > 0:53:31I think the appeal will lessen.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34- INTERVIEWER:- Were you scared at that point for your career?
0:53:34 > 0:53:36No.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38Because I honestly didn't care.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Because I thought, "If you're not going listen to my music because I'm
0:53:41 > 0:53:44"gay, then I don't want you listening to my music anyway."
0:53:44 > 0:53:48Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he's here, he's live.
0:53:48 > 0:53:49He is Top Of The Pops.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51He's Will Young!
0:53:51 > 0:53:56The public proved Will Young right not to be worried.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00We brought over 1.7 million copies of his debut single,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04making it the 11th bestselling song in UK chart history.
0:54:04 > 0:54:10# I never thought I could be feeling this way... #
0:54:10 > 0:54:15He definitely made my generation sit up and come out.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18You know, so many gay boys came out because of Will Young.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22In fact, I think people loved him more for being gay.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25# Reaching the impossible... #
0:54:25 > 0:54:27In a new era, the commercial pressures
0:54:27 > 0:54:30that had kept George Michael and others in the closet
0:54:30 > 0:54:31were now behind us.
0:54:31 > 0:54:37# Oh, won't you stay with me?
0:54:37 > 0:54:42# Cos you're all I need. #
0:54:42 > 0:54:47And the last ten years have seen a proliferation of LGBT artists
0:54:47 > 0:54:48in the mainstream.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50# I'm holding it all tonight
0:54:50 > 0:54:52# I'm folding it all tonight
0:54:52 > 0:54:54# You know that you make it shine
0:54:54 > 0:54:57# It's you that I've been waiting to find. #
0:54:57 > 0:55:00I think there's been such a change in the last few years.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03You know, people like, say, Cara Delevingne,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05I don't think I'd ever read a paper on it to be like,
0:55:05 > 0:55:08"Lesbian Cara Delevingne."
0:55:08 > 0:55:1315, 20 years ago, that would have been what defined her character.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16- INTERVIEWER:- I wonder if, as the world becomes more accepting,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20- and it becomes less of a big deal... - Yeah.- ..whether...
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Gay people become really boring...
0:55:25 > 0:55:29MUSIC: Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
0:55:29 > 0:55:34Gay acts in the '80s or '70s that were so outrageous,
0:55:34 > 0:55:38and so over-the-top and exciting and revolutionary, you know,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40their sexuality was kind of their creative drive,
0:55:40 > 0:55:42or inspiration behind what they were doing.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44And you don't have that any more.
0:55:44 > 0:55:49Everything sort of has been middle-of-the-roaded a bit.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51Oh, shit. I can't say that. I'll get fired.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54FiFi, can I say everything's been a bit middle-of-the-roaded
0:55:54 > 0:55:55- in pop music since the '80s? - "Roaded"?
0:55:55 > 0:55:58Like, everything's gone a bit, like...bland.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03- INTERVIEWER:- There's so many queer artists now, aren't there?
0:56:03 > 0:56:04At the present moment,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07it seems to be so bloody fashionable to be queer
0:56:07 > 0:56:11that, frankly, I'm thinking of going straight.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16The fact that queer now risks being boring is itself a triumph.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18How do you do?
0:56:18 > 0:56:22In Britain, in 2017, 50 years after decriminalisation,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26gay artists have the freedom not to be outsiders...
0:56:28 > 0:56:30Oh, it's not so bad in the mornings, is it?
0:56:30 > 0:56:32LAUGHTER
0:56:32 > 0:56:36..and to be open in their work and in their lives.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41It's unimaginable to my younger self that we could live in this world.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45We now have better food, better understanding, we are kinder,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49and we allow men to love each other without interference.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54It's the idea that I could get married has been the single most
0:56:54 > 0:56:55significant thing for me.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57To be allowed to say,
0:56:57 > 0:57:03"This is my most significant other," publicly is amazing.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08But in a world of greater acceptance in the mainstream,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11is sexuality still important to talk about?
0:57:11 > 0:57:14And is it of any relevance to an artist's work?
0:57:15 > 0:57:17I'm so bored of it.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21I'm so bored of people asking about it nowadays.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23The public don't care as much as we...
0:57:26 > 0:57:28..in the media think they do.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30And actually, we should all shut up.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35Of course, I've said that point by talking about it on television.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37But this is the last time.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41- INTERVIEWER:- Do you think we still need to talk about it?
0:57:41 > 0:57:44We're now in a world where fundamentalism is on the rise.
0:57:44 > 0:57:46And in most of the world, if you're gay,
0:57:46 > 0:57:48you cannot live a decent life. You're always hiding.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50You're always in fear.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53There's some deep prejudice still about homosexuality.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56So we do need to keep talking about it,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59and not to assume that everybody now feels that it's actually fine.
0:58:04 > 0:58:05What people don't realise is that
0:58:05 > 0:58:07we're sitting on this very thin layer.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09Here's 2017 - lovely, marvellous!
0:58:09 > 0:58:13That's such a thin layer on top of a mountain range of history.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16Go through Dickens, you won't find gay people.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19Go through 99% of cinema, you won't find gay people.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22We sit on this bed of literature and culture,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26that's at the heart of our society, that's straight.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28That's why we've barely begun.
0:58:29 > 0:58:30Bah!