1. Cucumber
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Life for 46-year-old Henry (Vincent Franklin) and his boyfriend Lance is comfortable and settled. But after the most disastrous date night in history, involving a threesome, two police cars, and Boney M, Henry's old life shatters, and his new life begins. While Lance gets to know the mysterious Daniel, Henry soon finds himself with unexpected companions. 24-year-old Freddie and 19-year-old Dean have only been passing strangers, until now. But when they all find themselves under the same roof, they need to work out; are they friends or enemies? Can men from such different generations ever get on?
Henry's sister Cleo can only stand and watch as Henry's life spins off in wild new directions, helped by his nephew Adam. But Cleo's hiding secrets of her own. And with his dangerous old friend Cliff prowling around, Henry has to think fast, and forge a whole new life, while facing truths about himself which challenge his entire identity.
Starring: Vincent Franklin, Cyril Nri, Fisayo Akinade, Peter Caulfield, Freddie Fox
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Hits: [1882]
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| 2. An Englishman in New York [2009] [DVD]
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John Hurt stars as Quentin Crisp (a role he originally played in 1975's 'The Naked Civil Servant') in this biographical drama based on the last 20 years of Crisp's life. The literary figure and gay iconoclast emigrated to New York in 1981 and lived there until his death in 1999. The film observes Crisp in both his public and private lives, from his seemingly cavalier response to the outbreak of AIDS to his tender relationship with his dying friend Patrick Angus (Jonathan Tucker) and his own response to growing old. Denis O'Hare, Swoosie Kurtz and Cynthia Nixon co-star. Starring: John Hurt, Denis O'Hare, Jonathan Tucker, Cynthia Nixon, Swoosie Kurtz
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Hits: [2231]
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| 3. Beautiful People - Series 1 [DVD + Blu Ray]
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Beautiful People is not your average family sitcom because the Doonans are not your average family.
The show is the story of a dream, the dream that one day Simon would leave suburban Reading and move to London to be with the beautiful people. In fact he moved to New York to become the creative director of Barneys, an uber-chic fashion store, and to write the memoir on which this hugely exuberant comedy is based. It has song, dance, jokes, bitch-fighting, drunken hairdressers, black posh spice dolls, exploding baked bean cans causing death and a soundtrack featuring Dannii and Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Pet Shop Boys, Sam Wood and Dan Gillespie Sells of The Feeling.
Mum and Dad drink homemade wine, Simon hangs out with his best friend Kyle, better known as Kylie, working on dance moves to 90s floor fillers; his sister Ashlene wants to look like Heather Small and "hang with the hood", whilst his aunty Hayley is blind, feisty and eating nuts. Gran meanwhile used to be the nicest woman in the world and has now turned very nasty.
Starring: Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Samuel Barnett, Layton Williams, Meera Syal and Olivia Colman Also available on Blu Ray
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Hits: [1871]
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| 4. Beautiful People - Series 2 [DVD + Blu Ray]
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Simon's life growing up in 90s Reading is as crazy as ever as he continues to endure the barmy fantasies of his mum, Debbie, the Greenham Common nostalgia of blind Aunty Hayley, school bullies and the jibes of his sister, Shaznay/Ashlene. Luckily for Simon, his best friend Kylie shares his mission to escape suburbia and live amongst the glitz & glamour of 'the beautiful people'. Starring Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Olivia Colman, Meera Syal, Aidan McArdle, Sophie Ash, Layton Williams, Sarah Niles, Tameka Empson and Samuel Barnett, this gloriously camp, award-winning comedy returns with more fabulous adventures from a "glass-half-full teenage mincing machine with his hands well and truly in the air".
With a colourful cocktail of flashbacks, musical numbers and fantasy sequences, each episode turns back time to explain how Simon became "the Crown Prince, well Queen, of International Window Dressing". The 1998 Eurovision Song Contest is reborn; a water feature becomes the talk of the town and Simon's parents are involved in four weddings and a crime reconstruction. Along the way there are "Gaybours", an Enya impersonator, Elaine Paige, new uses for the Eiffel tower, a psychotic Brit Artist, Dana International, a dead hairdresser reborn, a faux French shopkeeper, Dannii Minogue and Simon’s first real love interest. Maybe 'the beautiful people' were closer to home than he thought?
Starring: Samuel Barnett, Luke Ward-Wilkinson, Layton Williams, Aidan McArdle
Also available on Blu Ray
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Hits: [1571]
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| 5. Looking - Season 1 [DVD] [2014]:
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Currently just finished showing on Sky Atlantic, 'Looking' follows the experiences of three close friends living and loving in modern-day San Francisco. Can't really make my mind up over this one. Lacking something and not a patch on Queer As Folk (UK or US versions), yet hopefully will be given a second series and they will tighen up the script and make the characters slightly more interesting.
Starring: Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett, Russel Tovey
DVD release date TBA shortly.
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Hits: [1664]
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| 6. The Line of Beauty [DVD]
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BBC miniseries, adaptated by Andrew Davies from the Booker Prize-winning novel, exploring the underbelly of 1980s excess through the eyes of a young gay man. Nick Guest (Dan Stevens) moves to London in 1983, and finds himself caught up in a circle of the rich and powerful, including his Oxford friend Toby's (Oliver Coleman) father Gerald (Tim McInnerny), a new Conservative MP in Margaret Thatcher's triumphant post-Falklands administration. As the decade unfolds, Nick finds himself in two very different love affairs, which make him start to question the ruthlessness behind the glamour of 1980s wealth and excess.
Starring: Dan Stevens, Tim McInnerney, Alice Krige, Hayley Atwell, Alex Wyndham
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Hits: [1554]
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| 7. The Naked Civil Servant [1975] [DVD]
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Classic TV drama which traces the life of the flamboyant British eccentric Quentin Crisp as he grows up in a society not prepared to accept his openly homosexual lifestyle. A landmark of British television, this adaptation of Crisp's autobiography earned BAFTAs for both its star, John Hurt, and director, Jack Gold. Starring: John Rhys-Davies, John Hurt, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Stanley Lebor, Katharine Schofield
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Hits: [1870]
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| 8. UK Queer As Folk - Definitive Collector's Edition
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Definitive extended edition of Channel 4's controversial drama series. Stuart Jones (Aidan Gillen) and Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly) are gay friends living in Manchester. Both 29 years of age, they are beginning to question the direction their lives are taking when they meet wild 15-year-old Nathan Maloney (Charlie Hunnam) who shakes up their world with his arrival on the scene.
It's hard to believe that 15 years have pasted since this was first shown on Channel 4 and yet remains so vivid in the mind.
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Hits: [1438]
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| 9. US Queer As Folk - Complete Boxset
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Gay has rarely been so glamorous as in the American version of Queer as Folk. But the show's success rests on more than hard bodies and glossy, picture-perfect sex (though there's an abundance of that); this series gave its characters a multidimensional richness that rivals more high-profile programs like Six Feet Under or The Sopranos, while tackling an impressive breadth of social and political issues without ever (well, almost never) feeling preachy.
Most TV series would take a topic like this last legal wrangle and stretch it over an entire season, but Queer as Folk is more ambitious. The writers recognise that the resolution of one problem is rarely the end of the story, that muddy consequences can be as dramatically compelling as head-to-head conflict. This aggressive and effective plotting, combined with the show's willingness to explore the complexities of every issue, be it assimilation or the coming out of a celebrity, results in an increasing emotional power as the series steamrolls towards its final episode. Some subplots can be silly (Brian has a ridiculous stud-off with a new hot guy in town), the dialogue can sometimes veer from wit to camp cliches, and the omnipresence of sculpted, muscular physiques is absurd and even a little alienating for some viewers, but Queer as Folk's strengths, the compassion and intelligence of the writers, the commitment and nuance of the acting make this show a true television landmark and a pleasure to watch. And then, of course, there's all that graphic and lovingly photographed sex.
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Hits: [1847]
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| 10. Vicious - Series 1 [DVD]
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Vicious tells the story of partners Freddie (Ian McKellen) and Stuart (Derek Jacobi), two men who have lived together in a small central London flat for nearly 50 years. Constantly picking each other apart and holding on to petty slights for decades, we can still see that underneath all their vicious co-dependent fighting they have a deep love for each other. Into their world steps a young man, Ash (Iwan Rheon), as their new upstairs neighbour. Joining Freddie and Stuart is feisty best friend Violet (Frances de la Tour), young at heart and with a deliciously dry sense of humour.
Starring: Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Francis de la Tour, Iwan Rheon
The first series drew mixed reviews. It had some funny moment but felt very 'stagy' and somewhat outdated and, you had to wonder if they were constantly so bitchy towards each other, why they bothered living togather. Regardless of that, a second series has been commissioned for ITV.
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Hits: [2002]
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