Nathan Filer: The Shock Of The Voice

Nathan Filer was interviewed by Mark Lawson on Front Row last night.
He sounds like a cross between Marc Almond and Neil Tennant.
Just sayin'...

Gore Vidal: There Is No Proof

The celebrated fight between the American writer Gore Vidal and the conservative author and intellectual William Buckley began in a television debate in 1968 and degenerated into an inconclusive legal dispute that cost Vidal $1 million he did not have.

A new biography of Vidal, who died last year, suggests a possible motive for the confrontation: Vidal was seeking to keep secret evidence that he was a paedophile. Vidal had called his adversary a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley called him a “queer”. Suit and counter-suit followed. According to In Bed With Gore Vidal: Hustlers, Hollywood and the Private World of an American Master, by Tim Teeman, the celebrated man of letters may have feared that Buckley possessed material showing past relations with under-age partners.

It quotes Vidal’s half-sister, Nina Straight, who claimed he was “terrified” that “material Buckley had on him would come out”. Asked if she knew the details of the material, she replied: “I can guess what they are. Jerry Sandusky acts” — a reference to a former university football coach convicted last year of sexually abusing young boys.

Though Ms Straight said she was talking hypothetically and did not elaborate, she indicated that she believed Buckley had evidence that Vidal had sex with under-age males.

Ms Straight lent Vidal the money to finance the legal battle by paying his lawyer’s fees. He never repaid her and she is now challenging his will, which left out family, friends and a devoted housekeeper and bequeathed his entire estate to Harvard University.

Teeman remains wary. “There is no conclusive proof at this point either way,” he said yesterday. “Homosexuality and paedophilia have been conflated in people’s minds and in the media for far too long. As a gay man I’m extremely cautious about this in the book.”

The Times.

Tim Teeman works for The Times, one might add, so it's nice he got a pointless plug in The Times.

He also has a book to sell about Gore Vidal.
Though one might ask if he works for The Times how he has the time to write a book.
Odd how Gore's a hero for all the posh patrician gays, like Timothy Teacakes - as he was called at the Pink Paper, on account of his insufferable Enid Blyton poshness.

That line again; "There is no conclusive proof at this point either way."

So what is point?
And isn't "young boys" a sinister oxymoron?
And maybe you should look up "paedophile" in the dictionary.
Maybe you meant ebophile?
I'm so bored with all your ex-public school boys' obsession with buggering boys.
And Gore Vidal.
You big posh twits.

Anyway, Bill vs Gore, here we go...

PS More balls about Gore in the Daily Mail, 'A monstrous secret', apparently.

Update: Mark Lawson in the Guardian; If the rumours about Gore Vidal are true, what does this mean for his work? Includes references to Nabokov, Polanski, Wagner, and Jimmy Savile...

TV Viewing: Anything But Jeremy Clarkson

"Here's a funny one, dear, they've only gone and given us another series..."

How attractive is Jeremy Clarkson to lesbian, gay and bisexual TV viewers? This question was indirectly raised by a just-published BBC survey, which set out to find the favourite shows of 1,000 members of the Corporation's audience research who identified themselves as (in a definition of the target group that is the BBC's, not the Guardian's) "LGB".

The discoveries included the revelation that 36.6% of the 16-34-year-old males who watched Vicious, the ITV sitcom about two ageing gay men, identified themselves as gay. This was well ahead of interest in the show among the general population, but may be about as surprising as the revelation that the Pope had been caught watching tapes of Songs Of Praise. Other LGB favourites were The Great British Bake-Off and Splash!, although the overall winners exactly matched those among the overall audience: soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street.

My blog, my choice of photos.

The subject of sexuality-specific broadcasting is – in common with the related issue of racially targeted shows – sensitive and treacherous, and one which, as a heterosexual white male, I feel some trepidation in entering. But the announcement that gay viewers (or, at least, a section of those who were asked) most enjoy [sic] watching a comedy about two outrageously camp showbiz figures, a series about cake-making and a competition in which Tom Daley and the contestants appear in swimwear risks being counter-productive by perpetuating stereotypes of gay taste, especially as Vicious itself cheerfully trades in cliches of homosexuality.

Admittedly, the fact that the BBC's LGB viewers were disproportionately keen on two of the most widely disliked series among the critical community – both Vicious and Splash! were trashed – does suggest a possible gap between mainstream taste and one section of the audience. But the whole project raises the troubling question of to what extent audiences, performers and programmes should be defined by sexual preference...

Mark Lawson writing for Guardian TV & Radio Blog.

Note this now includes a correction at the end; "The original stated that "36.6% of the sample had watched Vicious". In fact 36.6% of the 16-34-year-old males who watched the show identify themselves as gay."

Fagburn is used to the gay media getting things hilariously and tragically wong - as indeed did both Gay Star News and Pink News with this one - but when I read the earlier version of this Guardian article where the mighty Mark Lawson implied the survey was about gay men's favourite and best-loved TV shows I had to check with the author of the original BBC blog, Adrian Ruth.
Maybe I'd finally flipped or there was some other secret survey I hadn't seen...

Just to check with you before writing about this again - and making a fool of myself if I've got this hopelessly wrong - your survey only showed what share of any programme's audience identified as gay/bisexual, yes, and did not ask about people's favourite programmes or how how much they enjoyed them?
Also was the list of programmes in any chart an actual rundown of shows with the highest LGB audience shares?

"You've understood correctly (unlike many of the journalists until we corrected them!) It was based on an analysis of actual consumption.
"It was indeed a rundown of the highest LGB shares. Note that the shares could also be high because a particular programme was a "turn-off" for straight audiences - by default the LGB share would then get higher.
"We also separately asked our sample a one-off question to get examples of good and bad portrayal. We haven't published this as it's a lot more subjective, and not as comprehensive. 

" Nevertheless it's interesting that several titles (including Vicious) were cited as both a positive and a negative example by different people in our sample."

PS The rest of Lawson's article makes some interesting points about TV viewers and sexuality and that, from the perspective of a very liberal member of the so-called heterosexual community who works in medialand. 

I may return to this later, but the laundrette beckons...

Sex On TV: More People Up For It

Ofcom’s annual survey of consumer attitudes towards broadcasting charts the changing public opinion towards media issues.
The latest survey also shows that the proportion of adults saying there is ‘too much’ sex, violence or swearing on TV has fallen by about a third since 2005.
In 2011, one in four (25%) adults felt there was ‘too much’ sex on TV, and just over one in three felt there was ‘too much’ violence (36%) and swearing (37%). This compares to 36% of adults saying there was too ‘too much’ sex on TV in 2005, with 56% for violence and 55% for swearing. 
Last year, 19% of adults said they had been offended by something they had seen on TV in the past twelve months. In 2005, 32% said they had ever been offended by something on TV.

Ofcom. 

This not very revealing survey prompts Mark Lawson to ponder why people seem less offended, even though there is more sexual content on TV.
"Much of the outrage of [Mary] Whitehouse and her attendant press was based on the idea that television arrived uninvited in people's houses and so was under obligation to behave well. Through a combination of "health warnings" (as they are known in broadcasting jargon) and targeted networks and time-slots, it is now much harder to claim to have "stumbled on" something you find unsavoury."
Yeah, whatever!

Frontrow: Alan Bennett

Predictably wonderful interview with Alan Bennett by Mark Lawson for Frontrow.
Surely a dream team for this sort of thing, with much revealing stuff on Big Gay Alan's gaiety. 
Tis here on BBC iPlayer.
This is the one Radio Times filleted last week and got picked up by most of the broadsheets cause said he wasn't that bothered that someone felt his leg when he a boy. 

• Untold Stories: Hymn & Cocktail Sticks - two short autobiographical pieces - opens at the Duchess Theatre, London on Friday.

PS Congrats to the BBC publicity photographer who took their photo in... a front row. Inspired!

Dame Edna Everage: Farewell Possums?

A fine tribute by Mark Lawson in The Guardian to Dame Edna Everage, who has announced her farewell tour - though Mark suspects it may not be.
In a sidebar, Leo Benedictus suggests her most transcendental musical moment may have been the 1979 single, Disco Matilda.
I have absolutely no recollection of this record, and was surprised to find that, although it didn't chart, it got the dame on Top Of The Pops.
Genius - but then would you expect anything else? 
Enjoy!

Strictly Come Dancing: Sod's Law

"When Len Goodman called fellow hoofing judge Craig Revel Horwood "a silly little sod", he used a word that has made the reverse journey from dark to light. In its probably 19th-century origins, the insult imputed sodomy until, along with "bugger", becoming a mild and even semi-affectionate rebuke. In online discussions some objecting viewers suspected an anti-camp or homophobic subtext in the TV exchange. I doubt that Goodman intended this, but such judgments are subtle; if he had called the professedly bisexual Revel Horwood a "silly bugger", he would almost certainly have his next few Saturday evenings free because that word retains more of its pejorative power..."

The great Mark Lawson writing in The Guardian on the Strictly Come Dancing Sod debate, and on the acceptability of swearing.
Fagburn has to confess this one completely passed me by - but here's the Daily Mail's outraged account;
'Strictly Out Of Order: Swearing Len Goodman prompts 600 complaints - Judge's 'silly sod' comment attracts hundreds of complaints'
Some people just like complaining, don't they?
Maybe in the future the word "gay" will also drift free of its homosexual meaning and become "a mild and even semi-affectionate rebuke"?
Just like "cunt" has.

Comedy Double Acts: Strange Bedfellows

"Double acts have almost always had two performers of the same gender, usually male, with the most famous female one, French and Saunders, still following the model of chums with a big/little, small/tall contrast. One reason could be that audiences seem to prefer double acts to be friends or enemies (bickering is part of the shtick), without any sexual tension. Morecambe and Wise famously shared a bed in their domestic sketches, as Laurel and Hardy had before them, with the joke depending on the asexuality of this arrangement, although biographies have revealed that Morecambe expressed concerns at being thought homosexual.
"This tension has been interestingly explored in recent duos where one of the performers is gay. Stephen Fry told me that he had never felt any flicker of sexual interest in Hugh Laurie, and was relieved by this, because he felt their partnership might otherwise have collapsed. For a while, Walliams's status seemed ambiguous, meaning it was conceivable that he and Lucas could become an item. Walliams now has a wife, though – so again we have a contrast, a difference, helping to give the double act its power."

Marl Lawson explores the dynamics of comedy double acts in his Guardian column.
If Mr Lawson wasn't so tragically fugly Fagburn would ask him to marry me.

Stephen Sondheim: "Stunning" Is Embarrasing

Sorry if I seem like a PR agent for BBC Radio 4 today, but Stephen Sondheim being interviewed by Mark Lawson is just plain wonderful.
The gay sensibility, perfect phrasing, Pet Shop Boys, hating Noel Coward's snobbery and Mamma Mia...
He's the octogenerian Stephin Merritt.
Great stuff!