A Gay Summer... Coming

Channel 4 has announced its summer schedule, and The Gays feature heavily in it.

Clapham Junction is about a group of gay friends living in London - I'm sure it'll be more interesting than it sounds. It isn't on ITV, after all. Starring is Paul Nicholls (right), formerly a sexy schizophrenic on EastEnders, and Rupert Graves. It's been written by a playwright called Kevin Elyot.

British television has been noticeably bereft of gay drama, since the initial breakthrough of Queer As Folk and This Life in the nineties, whereas America is awash with them (Noah's Arc, Dante's Cove, The DL Chronicles, The Closet et cetera), and although these shows are of variable quality, at least they're visible. The best Britain can manage is an endless dirge of leaden cop shows and medical soap.

But I stray from the point. Also in Channel 4's summer line-up is a look at what life was like for gays in the grim 1950s, in the docu-drama The Last Gay Trial, and How Gay Sex Changed The World. This documentary will go out on the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, in July. The broadcaster has also imported Brothers & Sisters from the US; this series made it onto AfterElton.com's list of "Most Influential Gay Male Sex Scenes" earlier this month. Apparently Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) is in it, but I won't hold that against it...