BBC America has set an October 14 premiere date for Queers, the eight-part television event curated by Sherlock’s Mark Gatiss that commemorates 50 years since the U.K.’s introduction of the Sexual Offenses Act of 1967, which began to decriminalize homosexual acts in private between two men.
The project is a partnership between the BBC and The Old Vic theatre, which presented a live run of Queers in late July. The short-film premiered in the U.K. earlier this year.
Both the stage and screen versions are comprised of a series of eight 15-minute monologues written by a team of playwrights and screenwriters including Matthew Baldwin, Jon Bradfield, Jackie Clune, Michael Dennis, Brian Fillis, Keith Jarrett, Gareth McLean, and Gatiss himself.
The cast includes Ben Whishaw, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Front, Russell Tovey, Gemma Whelan, Ian Gelder, Kadiff Kirwan, and Fionn Whitehead
Touching, riotous, tragic, and ultimately resilient, Queers covers the U.K.’s HIV Crisis and the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act itself, as well as personal stories that offer a slice of gay history from the past 100 years.
According to the BBC:
“In The Man On The Platform, Ben Whishaw (London Spy, Spectre) returns from the trenches of the First World War, whilst a hundred years later, Alan Cumming (Cabaret, The Good Wife) reflects on gay marriage in Something Borrowed.”
“More Anger finds Russell Tovey (A View from the Bridge, Being Human) playing a gay actor in the 1980s, and Rebecca Front (War And Peace, Humans) contemplates her very particular marriage in Missing Alice.”
“Gemma Whelan (Game Of Thrones, Decline And Fall), Kadiff Kirwan (Black Mirror, Chewing Gum), Ian Gelder (Snatch, Game Of Thrones) and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk, HIM) appear respectively in A Perfect Gentleman, Safest Spot In Town, I Miss The War and A Grand Day Out, each examining the very different attitudes and social changes in gay men's lives over the century.”
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