Category Archives: Peccadillo

What are little boys made of..?

If you’re blind to what is different, this story is not for you. But if your eyes are open, you should listen carefully

Every so often a film comes along where it is incredibly difficult to find the right tone. With GIRLS LOST we have been through countless design concepts and have really discussed, argued and fought over how it should look, how the synopsis should read, how to present this to the audience and even who that audience should be.

We’ve never had it like this on a single title before. But I have to say that after months of changing minds, designs and words we’ve finally cracked it, literally the day of release!

It’s an amazing film, in fact one for all the family! Read more below…

Kim (as a girl) and Momo (as a girl) from GIRLS LOST

Kim (as a boy) and love interest Tony from GIRLS LOST

“Girls Lost is maturely executed, offering a discussion that presents us with ideas that cannot be considered in haste, the post-contemplation of the film necessary.” HeyUGuys

Here’s the synopsis follow link

You can find out where and how to watch GIRLS LOST : http://www.girlslostfilm.com/

POUTfest 2016 Is Here!

Next week is going to be an exciting and busy time for the Peccadillo team. We will be celebrating the launch of POUT Fest 2016 with Holding the Man at Picturehouse Central on May 18^thso come on down and join us for some excitement.

Following on from the fantastic success of POUT 2015, we are bringing you all an opportunity to experience another POUT with all new titles and events ready to take up your calendar. POUT Fest 2016 aims to promote LGBT cinema with a variety of short films and feature length films that can inspire, move and emancipate the audience. To know more, read on at your leisure.

Holding the Man perfectly encapsulates what POUT Fest 2016 aims to achieve; it’s daring, entertaining, touching and makes one proud to be who they are. POUT Fest 2016 will also see the launch of The Girl King, a historical film that covers the reign of the first native, female sovereign of Sweden as she is thrust into an all-male court that has no tolerance for her awakening sexuality. Enchanting visuals and intrigue map the film throughout. Girls Lost is another fantastic addition to the line-up. The hypnotic film follows three girls who discover a curious plant that has a rare magical ability; transforming the three girls into boys. As their genders change, so does the world around them leaving their responses to this change profound. We are also honoured to be showing the classic film, My Beautiful Laundrette, starring Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke. The film is a classic example of identity and inexorable love. For some laughter and fun we also have the cult film Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same gracing the POUT screens with its witty and humorous tale of romantic emotions. For all you documentary lovers we have the privilege of showing Limited Partnership, which tells the inspiring story of the first same-sex couple in the world to be legally married; taking on the US government in court to prove the legitimacy of their affection for one another.

On May 20^th Peccadillo will also be celebrating the release of Departure, a British drama starring the talents of Juliet Stevenson (Bend it like Beckham and Truly, Madly, Deeply) and Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game). The stunning debut from Andrew Steggall confronts the issues of family, first love and the dawning of one’s sexuality. With impressive visuals and an incredible cast, this is one film that will arouse the senses of the audience and anyone who has dealt with the issues presented. Get on down to the cinema to show your support for this years’ most incredible debut!

For more on POUT visit poutfest.co.uk

Road Movies and Feel Good Journeys

As you may have read, our film Xenia was released on Monday and we thought it would be a good idea to explore the Road Movie genre and dust off some great iconic films that have paved the way for upcoming features.

The Road Movie genre came about at the birth of American cinema with a reflection on American youth culture. Notable films such as EASY RIDER and THELMA & LOUSIE have become the ultimate road movie films, which can be said to have inspired other filmmakers in different countries to use this genre and juxtapose it with other important issues of the time.

The films usually consist of one or more characters leaving their mundane day-to-day lives and journeying into uncharted territories, usually for self-discovery purposes, escaping something, or setting up a new life. There is a sense of freedom in the act, enveloping the human spirit into a state of self-reflection and embracing their own identities.

Although faced with hardships and often unfamiliarity, the films poise moments of feel-good that derive from the freedom the characters experience once they have left everything behind and fear is just a dark cloud in their rearview mirror.

XENIA is a modern day Odyssey, bringing the lost Greek traditions of ‘hospitality’ back to the forefront of Greek culture. The two boys journey through a hyper-real Greece in search for their father who abandoned them 13 years ago. Interwoven with surreal sequences, entering the sub-cultural movement called Greek Weird Wave.

We look back at some of our releases around the road movie genre and some of our favourite classics.

Yossi – Directed by Eytan Fox. A film that perhaps shows you that the longest trip might just be within yourself.

Give Me Your Hand – Directed by Pascal-Alex Vincent. If you thought twins didn’t have any secrets, get comfortable on your backseat because these two 18 year old brothers on their way to their mother’s funeral in Spain, will go on a journey that will change their lives forever.

The Adventures of Priscilla – Directed by Stephen Elliot. The film that drew attention to Australian cinema and the Aussie LGBT community. If that wasn’t a long shot for the early 90’s, then getting on the Priscilla tour bus with two drag queens and a transgender woman definitely was.

The Golden Dream – Directed by Diego Quemada-Diez, brings a different kind of journey. This time, the road it’s about a group of Mexican teenage boys trying to make it through the U.S. border and the challenges they face.

Transamerica – Directed by Duncan Tucker. Felicity Huffman is brilliant at playing a transgender woman who reconnects with her son and promises to take him to L.A. As her son discovers that she’s actually his father, she will find in him the strength to overcome her fears and finally be completely free in her own skin.

Drôle de Félix – Directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. This was Peccadillo Pictures’ first release and it is possibly the most similar film to Xenia – story wise. If you enjoyed Felix’s journey to find his father, you will definitely appreciate the journey of two brothers looking for their father as their relive old forgotten memories of their childhood.

and you all know how we like to save the best for last…

Thelma & Louise – Directed by Ridley Scott. Do we really need to say anything? Outstanding performances from Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in a film about self-discovery and women empowerment in a highway filled with phallic symbols.

So… if you didn’t know about this sub-genre, we do invite you to check it out. Road movies will most likely end up making your weekends better with their Feel Good vibe and the strong characters behind the steering wheel.

Interview with Asaf Korman – Director of Next To Her

How did you come across the idea for this film?

The idea for the film and the characters came from my wife, screenwriter and actress Liron Ben Shlush. Back in 2009 — she was still my girlfriend then – she told me she wanted to write a script based on her own experiences growing up with a mentally disabled sister. Talking about it for a while, we understood that this film will not be about looking after; it will be about a woman neglecting her own life for the sake of another person, and the dangers this neglect enfolds.

How was it working as a couple on the film?

Our combination, as a couple and as a screenwriter\actress and her director, defined the essence of this film. During the writing we got married and had our first child together, realizing that the film is not only about a situation of co-dependency, but also about parent-hood, about the boundaries we are forced to deal with when taking care of another person. There was a lot of anxiety before filming started. Liron had to perform nudity and love scenes with another man, and she had to deal with Dana Ivgy re-enacting her own real life sister. Eventually, these were the easiest parts of filming. The nudity and sex were technical, and the resemblance of Dana to Liron’s real sister allowed her to relate to her and made her feel comfortable.

The challenge in working with Liron on the character of Chelli was the fact that she wrote it. We had to find a way making every situation in the film new to Liron, making her forget everything she wrote so she can experience the scenes as if they are the present reality, and not something meticulously tailored in writing. The fact that the lead actress of the film was always the only person on set knowing better then everyone the meaning of the scenes and actions was both helpful and dangerous, but the strength of the emotional connection to the story, and the semi-autobiographical elements of it, allowed her to create an amazingly complex and ambiguous character that is both her and the troubled women she could have become. This film is an act of love, in the most complex and challenging sense. It is an act of cooperation that encloses passion and pleasure, side by side with struggle and distress. It is an act of observation, of looking deep into each other’s eyes, which required true exposure, without compromise. In that sense, the film is also a continuation of my short film DEATH OF SHULA, that also touched the edge of exposure, revolving around the family’s deepest of fears, and crossing borderline between fiction and real life.

Film making demands collaboration with hundreds of people. How did you manage to work on such a personal film with others?

It was very liberating to be able to share our intimate and personal cinematic dream with a whole bunch of creative people. Our producers Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yam Mecklberg (2-team Productions) played an integral part in all the artistic aspects of the film, from start to finish, sharing their passion, vast experience and uncompromising love for filmmaking. We also had a very enthusiastic production designer, Ron Zikno, who managed to build the main location of the film as if the characters lived there forever, and filled the set with objects from Liron’s childhood memories which he carefully researched. Amit Yasour, the director of photography, apart from bringing his innovative cinematic approach and subtle style, created an artistic and non-technical environment on set which allowed us to focus on telling this story, with all the emotional challenges, the best way we could.

Watching the film, one could think that Gabby is portrayed by a real mentally challenged actress. How did the actress manage to do that?

The actress portraying the disabled sister is a famous Israeli actress, Dana Ivgy. I met Dana in high school, she is a very close friend of mine for many years and she was lead actress in the first short film I made in high school when we were 18 years old. We have been waiting to work together again ever since, and me and Liron knew we would cast her from the early stages of writing. Our close friendship was what allowed us to trust each other going into the wild journey this character demanded. In order to play the role of Gabby, Dana worked very long hours at the hostel in Haifa where the real sister of Liron is living. She researched a lot and met doctors and specialists, trying to deeply understand the physical and mental state of the character. We also rehearsed quite a bit, trying to master the gestures of the two sisters and reach the intimacy of siblings that was so crucial to the credibility of the film.

Next To Her will be released in cinemas and on-demand – March 11 at Curzon Bloomsbury, ICA, Art House Crouch End and Home Manchester.

Next To Her Review – The Unpaid Carers of the World

‘Gabby’ played by the award winning Dana Ivgy, portrays a 24 year old girl who suffers from a severe mental disability. She is taken care of by her sister ‘Chelli’, played by Liron Ben-Shlush who has dedicated her life to helping her sister. Coping with both her work and personal life, the two sisters live together in a dingy apartment, existing in an unhealthily symbiotic bubble where everything from toothbrushes to baths are shared.

A heartwarming yet emotional journey that questions human morality and the social/political systems which sometimes fails us. It came to my attention after viewing this film and doing some research that one in eight adults are now unpaid carers in the UK, this comes in the form of looking after a friend or family member who faces an illness, disability or frailty. It estimates to a staggering 6.5 million people who are pulled into a round-the-clock system of taking care of a loved one, which becomes a struggle in managing both their own personal and working lives, this will increase to 9 million by the year 2037.

The UK statistics show that most carers care for just one person (83%), but 14% care for two people and 3% are caring for at least three people. This breaks down to 58% of carers looking after someone with a physical disability, 20% look after someone with a sensory impairment, 13% care for someone with a mental health problem and 10% care for someone with dementia. These unpaid carers help save the government billions of pounds a year, which questions the politics of our health services and how this will continue to dramatically effect us over the coming years.

The two actresses deliver a naturalistic performance, that informs us on the relatable urgency of how far one is willing to go for the person they love and care about. It also leaves us questioning our own personal commitments, and whether one could face such a laborious task in caring for someone who suffers an extreme mental disability, alone with limited facilities. Where family, love and dedication seems to be the underlining themes of the film, a darkness also clouds the film during moments of mental instability on Chelli’s part, resulting in her own theories of “fixing” Gabby’s situation by having a brief melt-down. This level of mental health can effect a carer due to their exhaustion and the helplessness they can sometimes feel when faced with tasks that they are inexperienced with. While this is not to say that all unpaid carers in the world find it difficult caring for someone, and that money becomes an easy solution, but there are people out there who do need the help and support that can make things a lot easier.

Next To Her is based on Liron Ben-Shlush’s own experience of having a mentally disabled sister, yet what we also learn from the film is that not everyone is trained as a professional carer – and looking back at the immense number of carers in the UK, this becomes worrying in that sense. She is forced to use her own methods in certain situations, although this can lead to the building of inner frustrations from both the carer and the cared if not implemented properly. This is highlighted in the film when Chelli bribes Gabby into doing something by giving her pitta bread and coffee.

This repetitive lifestyle is interrupted when Chelli brings a man into the equation. At this point, we start to see a shift in Chelli’s behavior patterns. While spending all of her time and energy on her sister, she neglects her own self-importance, from the minutiae of daily life, like getting her eyebrows threaded to much larger necessities such as sexual intimacy. While Zohar (Chellis boyfriend) moves in and disrupts the fabric of their intimate existence, his involvement also becomes a breather for Chelli as she is faced with an extra pair of hands to help out.

Besides from being an artistic achievement from director Asaf Korman, the film takes you on a roller-coaster of emotions yet is an essential cultural and educational tool that informs the viewer about the struggles carers have to face. Whether it be in Israel, the UK or other parts of the world, Next To Her is a leading cinematic force that teaches us the importance of love and care and the everyday situations people have to face that we may not always be aware of.

The film will screen at Curzon Bloomsbury March 9th with a special Q+A with the director and actors. You can book tickets here: http://www.curzoncinemas.com/bloomsbury/qas/next-to-her

To find out more about UK statistics and how to be involved in helping unpaid carers in the UK, go to: http://www.carersuk.org/

Xenia – An Interview With Director Panos H. Koutras

Dare To Follow The White Rabbit?

After the death of their mother, Dany, 16, leaves Crete to join his older brother, Odysseas, who lives in Athens. Born from an Albanian mother and a Greek father they never met, the two brothers, strangers in their own country, decide to go to Thessaloniki to look for their father and force him to officially recognize them. At the same time in Thessaloniki, is held the selection for the cult show, “Greek Star.” Dany dreams that his brother Odysseas, a gifted singer, could become the new star of the contest, in a country that refuses to accept them.

Why did you name the film Xenia?

“Xenia” could be translated as “hospitality”, though the meaning of this ancient Greek concept is much more complex. The Greek gods abided by this law, which commands us to honour and welcome strangers wherever they come from. Zeus, the father of all gods, is also sometimes referred to as Xenios Zeus, “Zeus the hospitable”. Hospitality was a major founding principle in Ancient Greece. Xenophobia is a relatively modern concept. Today, not only has Greece forgotten its duties towards foreigners, but it also deceives and misleads its people.

“Xenia” is also the name of a chain of luxury hotels built in the late fifties by great architects throughout the country. People were discovering tourism, it was a time of great economic prosperity in Greece. Today, more than 90% of these luxury hotels are abandoned and condemned.

The quest of two brothers, a family feud, a character named Odysseas… Greek mythology and tragedy haunt Xenia and hold a prominent place in your films…

I am Greek, and in Greece, they teach you about Greek mythology from primary school. There is no getting away from it. Although to me, mythology has more to do with popular culture than with some noble academic discipline for the happy few.

Your films often verge on fantasy. The way you combine present-day realism (immigration, crisis…) with fantasy is pretty unique.

Fantasy is vital to me, it is a need, not an aesthetic choice. Reality and dream often get mixed up in my daily life. I don’t see why it could not be so in films. To me, it is the best way to come closer to reality. For Xenia, it seemed only natural to resort to fantasy to build Dany’s character. Traumatized children find often refuge in the realm of imagination.

A gay club called “Fantastiko”, a lawyer named Antigone, the Greek Star… Xenia is constantly filled with humour, parody and irony, as an answer to tragedy. Will humour save Greece?

Will humour save Greece or the world? Humour holds reflection in itself. It provides a certain distance, and distance is an incredible luxury. I don’t think cinema is going to change the world. But I am sure it opens perspectives that can help us to see and understand. I totally subscribe to André Bazin’s statement, which has become a cliché but is still so true and beautiful: “Cinema is a window opened to the world”.

Drug Slang A-Z

In these winter months, especially in the colder parts of the world, you might be delighted to hear people talking about the sleigh ride they went on over the weekend. That is until you realise they are talking about their cocaine high.

Since drug use is illegal in most countries around the world, the language and terminology surrounding controlled substances constantly changes in an attempt to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. For example, gammahydroxybutrate is a drug growing in popularity, it is now known simply as G or Geebs.

Drug use is an issue that especially affects the LGBT+ community. In a portrayal of a subsection of gay society, ChemSex is a poignant exposé of the rapid change coming from the intersection of technology and desire.

Here is our list of Drug Slang:

Amani – Magic Mushrooms

Bounce – Mephedrone (Meph)

ChemSex – the use of three specific drugs or ‘Chems’ (meth, meph & G) in a sexual context.

Dimitri – Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)

Exodus – Piperazines

Flash – LSD

Glass – Methamphetamine (Meth)

Hog – PCP

Ivory Wave – 2-DPMP

Jellies – Tranquilisers

Kix – Poppers

Lucy – LSD

Mandy – Ecstasy

Nemesis – Piperazines (Pep)

Opiate – Generally Morphine

Percy – Cocaine

Qat – Khat

Rocks – Cocaine

Skag – Heroin

Tina / Christine – Methamphetamine

Ultram – Tramadol

Vitamin K – Ketamine

Wash – Cocaine

X – Synthetic Cannabinoids

Yaba – Methamphetamine

Zoly – Etizola

To learn more – there is a monthly communication forum “Let’s Talk About Gay Sex and Drugs” for anyone to come talk about how they perceive sex and drug use amongst the modern gay male community in London. It is a wonderful resource to continue the discussion. Here is a link to there Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/1PdIHYx.

Interview with Doona Bae

Watching the great film adaptation of Cloud Atlas, one of my favourite books, I first saw Doona Bae. She was playing the role of Sonmi-451 a sub-member of society. Similarly playing an outsider, lesbian police officer Young-Nam, in A GIRL AT MY DOOR, brushes on many issues, from sexism to child abuse to LGBT issues. Although these issues feature in the film, Doona Bae remarks in her interview about the film “LGBT was not the focus of the film but passed by smoothly.” It is a beautifully told story by director July Jung.

Although it surprised me that Doona would act in a smaller budget film like A GIRL AT MY DOOR, as soon as I saw it I was blown away. Is a quiet but powerful film that gave me the chills the first time I saw it. She elaborates in her interview about the film why she chose to play the part “Once I read the first few lines, I started to like the script… the first thing that appealed to me was the loneliness “

Although she often plays English speaking roles, she connects on a deep level to films shot in her native tongue. She doesn’t have to memorise all her lines verbatim she notes: “while filming when other actors speak to me and say their line my reaction and other actions should be more spontaneous.” This led to her natural and seamless performances, which are immediately evident.

I’d recommend watching the whole interview about the film with Doona Bae (Link below), as she expresses with a nuanced thoughtfulness she brings to her acting.

Andrew Steggall chats UK Premiere of DEPARTURE

Friday marked the UK Premiere of Andrew Steggall’s DEPARTURE at the BFI London Film Festival, our first film of the festival. Featuring two incredible central performances from Juliet Stevenson (The Village, The Hour, Bend It Like Beckham) and Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game), DEPARTURE is Andrew’s elegantly crafted debut feature film. We caught up with Andrew this week for an exclusive interview for our blog.

Elliot (Lawther) is a dreamer who, with his mother Beatrice (Stevenson), is packing up their French country house in preparation to sell it. Elliot takes breaks to wander into the local village bar, where he writes romantic poetry, wearing a vintage French army coat and eyeing up the rough beauty of local boy Clément, who works on his motorbike.

1. Where did DEPARTURE come from – what was the genesis for the film?

Friends of mine have a house in France and I was lucky enough to spend some time there one autumn. I was walking up the lane with two friends when the idea for the film emerged very strongly in my head. The narrative revolves around a kind condensing of a number of my own adolescent memories and around the atmosphere of the house and the landscape. Needless to say the story moved on and evolved from this starting point in all sorts of ways – through the invaluable script development work of both my producer, Pietro Greppi, and brilliant BFI script development executive, Jamie Wolpert; through the necessities of budget and logistics and through the powerful presence of the actors. One of the friends I was walking up the lane that day with was the cinematographer of my short films, Brian Fawcett. He went on to shoot Departure – beautifully I think. And the house of my friends turned out to be the house we shot in and around.

2. How did you cast the film and how did you get Juliet Stevenson and Alex Lawther involved?

Alex Lawther was the first actor on board the film. I had seen him in South Downs by David Hare at the Comedy Theatre (now the Harold Pinter) in 2012 when he was just sixteen and had spoken to him and his mother at stage door after the performance. We then went on to see many young actors but in the end I came back to Alex, thank goodness. He was about to go to Thailand to film X+Y and we thought we might film rather sooner than we did, so in 2013 I dashed down to Petersfield and we met at the train station where I found him reading Camus on a bench. We then walked to a nearby park and read some scenes there. It was obvious that he was Elliot. When casting Beatrice we had explored a number of options and it wasn’t until quite late in the day that someone suggested Juliet Stevenson. It’s funny, in hindsight I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part so it was odd that I took a little while to come to her. She received the screenplay and it was difficult to find a time to meet as she is so busy. Eventually we met at her house late on a Sunday night as she unloaded her family from their car after a weekend in the country. We chatted for just over an hour and at about midnight I left her house knowing that so long as her family agreed to her going away for a month to shoot, she was onboard. The next morning I flew to France to start the design work for the 2014 shoot.

The cast and crew of DEPARTURE speak at its Mayfair premiere.

3. Where did you film DEPARTURE and how did you find the house?

We shot the film almost entirely on location in the South West of France. The house belongs to the friends I mentioned above and who were unbelievably generous in lending it to me. It sits in the forest by a river in the Montagne Noire, which runs parallel to, and north of, Carcassonne and Castelnaudary. The mayor of the village and all the locals were incredibly supportive so we were able to house the entire crew in the very small village (Cenne Monesties). A few of them even make an appearance in the film.

4. DEPARTURE touches on some incredibly powerful themes including sexuality, aging and the bond between mother and son – did you actively want to explore these during the film?

Very much so. The initial idea of the film and the dominant theme in my head was the idea of knowing something before you know it, as it were. The sense of imminent change, or electricity in the air, of inevitability. It has always struck me that the transition from a kind of almost non-existent Blakean innocence to an all-to-real experience is one that we crave for during our adolescence. But it is a one-way journey and one we rush towards with a strange mixture of dread and excitement. This is the change in the film that Elliot has a sense of knowing will occur. For the character of Beatrice, played by Juliet, the change is one that she also intuits long before it happens but it is one that she fights agains whilst inadvertently hastening. Her marriage to Philip is full of unhappiness and she causes its demise as much as he does. The film conjectures that she chose a marriage that was destined to be unhappy out of a kind of punitive guilt and then drives it to its end by resenting Philip for not loving her. His reasons for marrying are equally perverse. Which is not to say that there wasn’t love there but that it was flawed from the beginning and that it is hard to uncover where the fault lies. Probably with neither of them. Throughout the film there is a feeling that all the characters are longing, if not for sex, then for tenderness and physical contact. Elliot is just beginning his physical and sexual life and Beatrice is discovering that it is perhaps not too late to have one.

5. What inspires you?

I guess you don’t want as long an answer as this could be? All sorts of things really: silence, forests, water, film, theatre, art, the people around me. I listen to music when I write and so it has to be non-intrusive (essentially not sung in English or not sung at all) so I listen to Bach and Dvorak and Schubert amongst others. Dvorak plays a dominant theme in the film through his opera Rusalka and particularly the Song to the Moon aria. I have just checked and I have played one of the versions I have 120 times, beaten only by Bach’s Cantatas sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and at the top apparently Do What You Do by Noah in the Whale which was the song I used in The Red Bike, a short film I made in 2010. At other times I am just as likely to be singing (in the wrong key) pretty much anything by Sondheim. A few years ago, I shared my diary with my partner, and he was particularly amused by an entry I had made when I was about fourteen which read something like: “I am listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber and feeling inspired.” So perhaps that is the answer to your question. Or it would have been that day! I think I was feeling heart broken and was listening to Aspects of Love. The first film I remember seeing was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I was taken out of the cinema in Swindon about twenty minutes in, weeping with fear and terror. I’ve always loved Spielberg! And recently I really loved Amour by Haneke and Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazier But the stand out film of the last twelve months has to be Mad Max, Fury Road by George Miller, which just completely blew me away. Oh and I have watched The Hours by Stephen Daldry more times than is decent. The first gay themed film I saw was Maurice which I watched at the age of about thirteen when it was on television. It was on late enough for my parents to have gone to bed but I was terrified I would wake them so I crouched next to the television with the volume down to almost nothing.

Keep an eye out for more news on DEPARTURE as it comes. We are due to release early 2016.

Pictured above – lead actor in the film Alex Lawther, director Andrew Steggall and lead actress Juliet Stevenson.

Don’t you want me baby? Soap’s best gay and lesbian couples.

Soft Lad brings together two of soapland’s primetime gay characters, EastEnders’ charmer Jonny Labey and Corrie’s conflicted vicar Daniel Brocklebank. With a hot new boyfriend and having just been accepted into the dance school of his dreams, David’s life is going pretty great. However, when his sister invites the couple over for dinner, David’s brother in law, Jules (Brocklebank), has a secret that could shatter this illusion. To commemorate the theatrical release of Soft Lad on October 1^st we thought we’d take a look at our standout gay and lesbian soap couples.

From Brookside to Emmerdale, to EastEnders and Coronation Street, has your favourite made an appearance below? Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook.

John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean

Probably the most shipped and well-known couple on the list, John Paul and Craig’s love was based on a foundation of unrequited feelings, longing looks and secrecy, i.e. the best kind. When Craig arrived in Chester, the pair quickly became best friends, with Jean Paul, having already come to the realisation that he was gay, soon developing feelings for his new companion. After drunkenly kissing Jean Paul at the school dance, Craig set the wheels in motion for what would be a turbulent, yet steamy, relationship, filled with buckets of denial and jealousy.

Sophie Webster and Sian Powers

Like all great LGBT relationships that came in soaps before, Sophie and Sian started out as school friends but soon came to be more. Joining the church choir to see more of one another, the pair really did go through their fair share of drama, from a wild night at a lesbian bar with ‘friend’ Amber, pre-watershed kissing, near death experiences (remember when Sophie fell off that roof – yeah, that happened), countless cheating accusations and a runaway bride, we welcomed the drama of it all. Since the disaster of her wedding to Sian, we’re holding our breaths for Sophie and her new beau Maddie.

Christian Clarke and Syed Masood

Within soap land, EastEnders has had one of the largest gay casts. Some may argue that Colin and Barry, the original ‘Enders gay couple, is the definitive relationship, being one of the pioneers in representing gay issues on primetime TV. However, this is the 21^st century and with it new relationships that brought to light new struggles that the LGBT community are experiencing today. No other couple has had as much of an impact in recent years as the gripping, engaging and, at times, infuriating love story of Syed and Christian. The undeniable attraction between the two, seen in their heated conversations and longing glances from the start, had us jumping for joy when they finally (F-I-N-A-L-L-Y) kissed. As we watched Syed come to terms with his sexuality and what it meant for him as a Muslim, our love and compassion, like Christian’s, grew and grew, making them one of our favourite couples on the show. Having left Albert Square back in 2012, we’re expecting to see their faces back in the Queen Vic soon; it is a soap opera after all!

Ali Spencer and Ruby Haswell

Looking back on Ali and Ruby’s relationship, the one thing that stands out is how normal they seemed, not that they were two women but how relatable a couple they were, considering the fates handed to other soap couples. Having had two kids, Ali was surprised to fall in love with Ruby but not afraid. Ruby took on two children and an ex-husband but didn’t seem to be over-whelmed by it all. Granted they had their ups and downs, Ali’s pregnancy scare after a one-night stand, Ruby’s infertility and financial troubles, but they always came back together. The couple moved away earlier this year to support Ali’s son Sean recover from an accident in Liverpool, but Ruby returned soon after to support her family financially. The biggest shocker of the year came when Ruby was injured in the helicopter crash during Pete Barton and Debbie Dingle’s wedding and later died. With Ali’s return to Emmerdale, it’ll be intriguing, and no doubt heart-breaking, to see how this devastating loss will affect her.

Special Mention: Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker

We’re excited to see where this couple will go, having already caused a hurricane of drama with their secret affair, and that’s not to mention that funeral parlour scene. This isn’t Ben first secret relationship, having struggled with accepting his sexuality over the past two years. But tensions will come to a head next week when resident tough-man Phil Mitchell catches Ben and Paul in the act. What will Ben do? How will his father react? Where do Ben and Paul go from here? We can’t wait to find out.

Soft Lad is currently playing around the country as part of our POUTFest tour. You can see your nearest screening and book tickets here.

If you’re blind to what is different, this story is not for you. But if your eyes are open, you should listen carefully

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