How attitudes to gay kisses on screen have changed, according to your dad 25th June 2024 USED to be you’d be up until 1am to see a couple of lasses kissing, now it’s on prime time. And the men. Your retired dad explains how it’s all changed: My Beautiful Launderette (1985) Back in the day, this put me right off my chicken Kievs.
Thought it was a nice little comedy and then it’s blokes kissing with tongues. I realise now that this sort of prejudice is a terrible thing, but I couldn’t use a laundrette for years for fear of being bummed by a punk. Maurice (1987) I was expecting posh totty and World War One, and I got Hugh Grant being gayer than he was in Paddington 2.
Still, once the nausea had passed, I concluded if I had to have sex with a bloke at gunpoint I could do worse than Hugh. So it definitely made me more accepting of them. The Crying Game (1992) I’ll admit I didn’t see it coming, the fit bird being a man.
With hindsight it’s a film with an important message: don’t join the IRA because it’s difficult to leave. Also love can transcend gender and all that, but it’s the IRA bit that drives the plot. Brookside (1994) It was Brookside that most changed my attitudes toward homosexuality on TV.
Who could not be moved to reconsider their views by Anna Friel snogging Nicola Stephenson? Though I was disappointed it didn’t raise zombie Trevor Jordache from the dead to rampage the close. If you think that sounds unlikely you didn’t see 90s Brookside. Que.
