It is hard to recall now the collective, nationwide gasp that greeted the prequel to this drama in 1975.
The Naked Civil Servant was a straight, so to speak, account of the vicious anti-homosexual climate that stalked Quentin Crisp, whose autobiography it was, and other gay people before homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967.
John Hurt Warned Not to Play Quentin Crisp
But 1975 was still an age when ridiculing ‘poofs’ on primetime television was the norm and non-judgmental depictions of homosexuality were extremely rare.
The BBC turned down the chance to make the film before Thames TV took the risk. John Hurt was warned that protraying the make-up wearing Crisp, struggling to overcome prejudice to live his life openly, would be a disaster for his then fledgling career.
Award-Winning
Conventional wisdom was proved wrong. Crisp’s tender, courageous story was garlanded with awards (Hurt won a Bafta, while the drama picked up a Prix Italia and was voted fourth in a BFI poll of the top 100 British TV programmes). Crisp himself became internationally well-known and Hurt today acknowledges the role as his big break.
He undoubtedly has affection for the part. ‘People still come up to me and say, “That was the day that I came out,”’ says the actor in ITV’s publicity material. ‘It’s a wonderful feeling to have been a part of something which moved people to such an extent.’
Crisp in New York
Now, aged 69, Hurt returns to the character in An Englishman in New York (the title being taken from the tribute single by Sting). It places the actor at about the right age to play Crisp at the time he moved to New York.
Revisiting past glories is often a mistake, but Hurt is still riding high as an in-demand actor and didn’t need the role. He did, however, admire the script by Brian Fillis (Curse of Steptoe, Fear of Fanny) and again gives a nuanced, compelling portrayal of this loveless loner.
I'm Gonna Smash Your Face
The 90-minute drama begins with him in Britain still fending off the hate of strangers, one phone caller promising to ‘smash his face’, to which Crisp relies, ‘Do you want to make an appointment?’
Arriving in New York for a media interview, the dandy Englishman immediately feels at home among the exhibitionists and outcasts of Manhattan.
Out of Step with 80s Gay Scene
But the twist in the tale is that Crisp is no longer the plucky individual refusing to bow to conventional prejudice. He is, in fact, a 73-year-old out of step with the politicised gay scene in 1980s New York. When he is onstage entertaining an audience, one man shouts out that he is pandering to the straights.
In his voiceover, Crisp says, ‘I will not be nudged into a new struggle with the human race. Now that we’ve met, I love it.’
Crisp Attacked
Later, however, he causes anger and loses friends when he says in public that Aids is ‘a fad, nothing more’. His apparent point, that by treating the virus as ‘a fad’ might take the sting out of a homophobic, gay plague agenda, was never made clear by Crisp, and he was bitterly attacked for the remark.
The irony is that Crisp, who recommends being ‘uniquely you’, was too uncompromising an individual to belong to any movement. As depicted here, he was a man who did not believe in homosexual love, lived alone and at times had a low opinion of humanity. When he is asked to leave a gay club because he is not dressed as a clone construction worker, he says the clientele have simply made for themselves a ‘more fashionable ghetto’.
Cynthia Nixon
But his words have tragic echoes for a lonely gay artist friend, Patrick (Jonathon Tucker). Agreeing with the older man that ‘homosexual love is impossible’, Patrick goes in for anonymous sex, a hazardous lifestyle choice during the early years of the Aids epidemic. When Crisp finally tells Patrick that he does not have to lead the life he did, it is too late for the artist.
Later, Crisp forms a bond with performance artist Penny Arcade, played by Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon, here with luxurious dark hair. She encourages him to appear onstage with her, despite his feeling he is no longer relevant, and he soon has one last burst acclaim.
Filmed on location in New York, with strong performances from Hurt and the cast, this a fine companion piece to The Naked Civil Servant. It won’t give viewers a funny turn today, but it captures Crisp’s contradictions and cussedness and presents a more challenging, bittersweet portrait of a mild-mannered loner who was seldom lonely.
- An Englishman in New York, ITV1, Monday 28 December 2009, 9-10.30pm
Robin Jarossi - London-based journalist and editor specialising in TV, sport and books. I was the editor of 'Cable Guide' and have worked at 'Radio ...
