The long-nng whodunn returns wh much ctomary rose-ttg of the past and a swoon-worthy Tom Brtney – before a surprisg segue to the plight of gay men the 1950s
Contents:
- “GRANTCHTER” GO GAY
- GRANTCHTER’S AL WEAVER REVEALS EMOTNAL TOLL OF FILMG LEONARD’S ARRT FOR BEG GAY: ‘I’VE NEVER FELT THAT SORT OF HATRED AND VRL’
“GRANTCHTER” GO GAY
Throughout s n, the show has addrsed crime while lvg to var social issu, cludg the nascent Black Civil Rights movement and now, season six, the illegal stat of gay people. Grantchter’s curate, Leonard Fch (Al Weaver) is gay. That storyle has veloped over several seasons and has clud Leonard’s breach wh his father over beg gay, his relatnship wh photographer Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale) and his “g out” to Will and the virage’s voutly relig hoekeeper Mrs.
Hell hath no fury like a closeted gay blackmailer srned. What evolv om there is as pellg a story of the recent past of gay liv as we’ve ever seen.
Leonard is nstantly torn by his guilt over beg gay. But this season’s plottg around Leonard and the still-illegal “gross cency” of beg an active homosexual the before Stonewall is extraordary.
GRANTCHTER’S AL WEAVER REVEALS EMOTNAL TOLL OF FILMG LEONARD’S ARRT FOR BEG GAY: ‘I’VE NEVER FELT THAT SORT OF HATRED AND VRL’
The seri of events that transpir once the blackmail is play is stctive for gay viewers: This was not that long ago that gay and lbian people were arrted and charged for the crime of beg themselv. All the show’s regulars (vir, tective, his wife, vout hoekeeper, gay curate and his lover) have mped to what looks like a mash-up of Hi--Hi! Gay curate Leonard Fch beiend Bryan Stanford, the closeted photographer at the mp.
A year after the 1957 Wolfenn Report nclud that the crimalisatn of homosexualy unrmed civil liberty and ne years before the 1967 Sexual Offenc Act followed that report’s remendatns (at least England and Wal), blackmailg a man wh photographic evince of a gay relatnship uld rult the victim beg the creds rolled, any viewer wh a heart empathised wh Leonard, who knows that at any moment Bryan’s photos may be ed agast him and so is doomed to a life yet more furtive and fearful than already was. Al Weaver has opened up about the harst moments of filmg for Grantchter, as his character Leonard Fch was sentenced to prison for beg gay.