It was nice to see a drama that had Gay main characters & storylines. It's a shame that there aren't more Gay programmes being produced & shown. I thought that the subjects that were broached in the programme were dealt with in a witty & thought provoking way. At the end of the programme I wanted to find out what happened next to all the characters, including the violin lad. Shame that it was only a one off drama as I think that it could be made into a series. Does Channel 4 have plans to release it on dvd? Thank you Channel 4 for having the insight to show this Gay season, unlike the other Cable, Satellite & Terrestrial channels who I don't belive would show a drama such as Clapham Junction. Keep on making thought provoking & ground-breaking programmes Channel 4.
Originally posted by Stuart R: It was nice to see a drama that had Gay main characters & storylines. It's a shame that there aren't more Gay programmes being produced & shown. I thought that the subjects that were broached in the programme were dealt with in a witty & thought provoking way. At the end of the programme I wanted to find out what happened next to all the characters, including the violin lad. Shame that it was only a one off drama as I think that it could be made into a series. Does Channel 4 have plans to release it on dvd? Thank you Channel 4 for having the insight to show this Gay season, unlike the other Cable, Satellite & Terrestrial channels who I don't belive would show a drama such as Clapham Junction. Keep on making thought provoking & ground-breaking programmes Channel 4.
I agree Stuart. I also thought it was a great piece of drama and was left wanting to know what happened next. This was actually one of the things I liked about the film; we weren't handed everything on a plate but allowed to project our own ideas onto the storyline. I think this is possibly why so many of us seem to have had such extreme opposing experiences of it.
When reading the posts on this forum I have often thought "what? I don't remember that happening". For instance, I wasn't aware that the waiter and groom had actually had sex (as has been stated on another thread). I thought the waiter had declined and when I think back to the film, I still think this was the case.
i agree. i emailed my gratitude to C4 as an antidote to all these 'disgusted of Tonbridge Wells' types on here who seem to want only programmes where we live happily ever after. Do you think Shakespeare had this trouble? After all King Lear is a terrible representation of father/daughter relationships, Macbeth makes heterosexuals look awful, Romeo & Juliet kill themselves...how unforgivable... It's time gay men grew up - we're big boys now and surely can take representations of us that don't have to make us look like Mother Theresa/Joan of Arc/St Francis of Assisi!
Originally posted by helsinki: i agree. i emailed my gratitude to C4 as an antidote to all these 'disgusted of Tonbridge Wells' types on here who seem to want only programmes where we live happily ever after. Do you think Shakespeare had this trouble? After all King Lear is a terrible representation of father/daughter relationships, Macbeth makes heterosexuals look awful, Romeo & Juliet kill themselves...how unforgivable... It's time gay men grew up - we're big boys now and surely can take representations of us that don't have to make us look like Mother Theresa/Joan of Arc/St Francis of Assisi!
I dont think Shakespeare had this trouble because Shakespeare's characters and dramatic personea are rounded and three dimensional. King Lear is about the redemptive qualities of the father /daughter relationship - if anything it is about constancy and love over greed and avarice. Macbeth contains characters of all shades of moral standing, Macbeth and Lady B could hardly be said to come from the same moral stock as Duncan for instance and Romeo and Juliet kill themselves in an act of filliation and love for each other - not because they could not grab a quick knee trembler round the back of Clapham cottages.
I have no problem with Kevin Elyot portraying gay man how he wants (my views have slightly softened over the last view days) however, this was still a missed opportunity by channel 4 because it was bad drama that dredged up all manner of dramatic cliches - the middle class dinner table where the diners 'accidentally' said things like "Want a stiff one?" - the awful 'symbol' of the violin at the end, the tub-thumping obviousness of the 14 year old boy being sexually dominant with the 30 year man and so on.
So, no, I dont think Shakespeare has the same trouble.
the middle class dinner table where the diners 'accidentally' said things like "Want a stiff one?"
I was amazed when Elyot used that the first time but when he used it again later in the drama I just fell about laughing. What on earth was he thinking of??
