The British gay camp comedy series
Beautiful People premieres May 26 on gay channel Logo.
Beautiful People is the BBC Two
six-part series that stars an effeminate 13-year-old schoolboy
desperate to whitewash his homely – yet offbeat – family and live
with the “beautiful people” of London.
The story is told in a series of
flashbacks from present day New York City, where Barneys
window-dresser Simon Doonan relives stories from his childhood in
1997 Reading, England to his assistant-turned-boyfriend Sacha.
In Reading, he shares his dream of
escape and being fabulous with glam queen Kyle, who Simon calls
Kylie.
Thirteen-year-old Simon is played by
Luke Ward-Wilkinson, and adult Simon by Samuel Barnett in New York
scenes.
In one episode, Simon's father, an
Irish plumber working on becoming an at-home winemaker, attempts to
man up his son by teaching him the fundamentals of football (British
football, that is). Simon at first resists, until he learns that
singing sensation Posh spice is dating a footballer. Being well
choreographed, Simon naturally wins a school football match and is
rewarded with the Posh spice doll he wished for.
In the end, Beautiful People is
about being gay – and not being bound by it – while trapped in a
world a bit hostile to that but managing to find a rainbow-hued
escape hatch that allows you to breathe.
In a 2008 interview, the real Simon
Doonan, whose memoir is the basis for the series, said of the show:
“The message of the show is very Wizard Of Oz – there's no
place like home. Where are the beautiful people? Well, it's
probably your blind auntie that you grew up with.”
Last time the Brits exported a pink-hot
camp comedy it was Absolutely Fabulous, a fact MTV-owned Logo
is counting on.
Gay Entertainment Report is a feature
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