Bear in mind this is the same Andrew Davies that described his adaptation of Tipping the Velvet as “absolutely filthy”, in that typical hypocritical-straight-bloke-in-a-dirty-mac kind of way.
Back in March, Andrew Davies told The Stage:
Alan doesn’t like me saying this but it’s a little bit like Brideshead Revisited. It is about a young gay man who in 1983 moves in with this glamorous family, the father of which is an up-and-coming Tory MP in Thatcher’s government.
He goes through the whole thing of great hopes, money-making, drugs, parties, and in the end gets blamed for everything that goes wrong. The other thing is, it’s also a picture of the eighties from the point of view of a young gay man coming out, the euphoria of falling in love, and also the tragedy of Aids.
I’ve not yet decided how we’re going to [include Margaret Thatcher]. In the novel, Thatcher comes to a party at the house, which is a big triumph, and our hero dances with her. But that might just be a bit overwhelming for viewers.
I can bet that that scene will be in — not even Davies is that patronising to the audience (“my dears, I left out one of the most famous scenes in the book because I thought you would just be overwhelmed by it!”). But if the lead character’s sexual encounters are omitted because a pervy old bloke can only stand same-sex scenes if they’re titillating to himself, a lot of character motivation will be discarded too. And that would be unforgivable.
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