Bob & Rose

I'm only a few episodes into 'Bob & Rose' as I write this, but the programme is already shaping up to be a far superior product to Russell Davies' last TV hit 'Queer As Folk'. Daring and provocative (and just damn-well needed) as that series was, it always smacked of 'preaching to the converted'.

'Bob & Rose' is a far more more mainstream affair than 'QAF', but in many ways is slowly proving to be more subversive. The characters in 'QAF' lived almost exclusively in the gay ghetto and thus the series sometimes seemed to avoid addressing the more common truth about those of us who attempt to live an open gay lifestyle whilst also operating in the 'real' world. By making 'Bob & Rose' a gay/straight affair, Davies has succeeded in telling a few home truths about the strained relations that exist within the supposed 'liberal' masses, who may be comfortable with gay lifestyles in the abstract, but who often react somewhat differently when faced with the less glamourised reality. The writer has, as a result, produced a far more profound and touching study of (shifting) sexuality than his - perhaps in retrospect - overrated last work.

Moreover, the language is frank and realistic throughout, avoiding the overbearing coyness that other gay/mainstream programming ultimately suffers from (I'm talking to you, 'Will & Grace'!)

One minor quibble, though, in relation to Alan Davies' character. I've been 'out' for almost 5 years now, and I have yet to have met any self-respecting gay man sporting a 'wet-look' shaggy perm. We're talking 'meek suburban white boy sporting early-eighties Rick James jeri-curls' here. Please sort your barnet out in time for series 2, sweetheart....

I have watched all but the last episode of this series and really look forward to finding out how the the story pans out. The characters are fully believable and likeable -warts and all. Alan Davies is developing into a credible actor and has shed the lisp (?) and the overgrown-boy-image.

Bob's mother (played by Penelope Wilton) is an absolute hoot and would drive any son to drink, gay or straight. A lovely, gentle series, funny but not shallow - it puts a smile on your face.

I saw this program at a screening at the NY Gay/Lesbian Film Festival. While Bob maintains that he's still gay even though he's fallen in love and lust with a woman, I seriously doubt that's a concept most people would grasp, let alone believe. Even the British press who covered this program generally called it a "gay man goes straight" show, which I gather is not what Davies had in mind.

I didn't really buy what "Bob and Rose" is selling, but it was better written and acted than expected. What the show depicts may indeed occur once in a blue moon, but I was surprised that "Bob and Rose" painted a rather dreary picture of gay relationships (breakups, shagging in the alleyway) while turning the gay/straight relationship in to a complex, but finally positive and romantic experience. Double-standard, eh? And from a gay man like Davies, you'd expect better.

Back in 1978, there was an American film called "A Different Story," about a gay man and a lesbian who wound up falling in love, getting married, and having a kid. "Bob & Rose" has been called "mold-breaking" in the U.K., but it's not that far from the older film in many ways.

If someone really wanted to break a mold, they'd make a film about a straight male who finds himself attracted to a gay man, and finally falls in love with him. I wonder if audiences would embrace that scenario as readily as they do "Bob & Rose," or simply refuse to believe such things could happen, while more than willing to believe a gay man can "change?"

Russell T. Davies, the creator and writer of Channel 4's hit gay drama "Queer as Folk" (1999) has come up trumps again with this warm, touching comedy about thirtysomething schoolteacher Bob who, having been happily gay all his adult life, has a chance meeting with feisty Rose and finds - to his amazement - that he fancies her.

Alan Davies (BBC1's Jonathan Creek) is perfectly cast as likeably diffident Bob, while Lesley Sharp is excellent as no-nonsense Rose. The supporting cast, too, give beautifully judged performances: Daniel Ryan is heartbreaking as Rose's boyfriend, Andy, as is Jessica Stevenson as Bob's colleague, Holly, who secretly carries a torch for him. Penelope Wilton puts in a hilarious turn as Bob's mother, who regularly embarrasses him in public by being a vociferous campaigner for gay rights.

As with Queer as Folk, the joy of Bob and Rose lies in the way it skilfully blends laugh-out-loud comedy and painfully recognisable human dilemmas. You find yourself rooting for this unlikely couple, yet wondering how a writer of Davies's calibre will resolve the situation happily without recourse to sentimental cliché.

I watched this show with growing horror, the more and more i watched it the more i wanted to turn it off and put on something where it doesn't depict Gay lifestyle as hopeless, and that doesn't show that if the str8 women perserves then she shall recieve the holy grail of marriage and children, this series left me thinking "What the F***"

One of my major complaints is that now you can just hear the thoughts churning in every other gay parents head thinking "Ohhh, that could be our son!" Don't think so! I had nothing against the acting, nor the way the story was presented, i just didn't like the story itself. The idea that a gay man can go str8, and then leave it all behind while his gay friends are turning into old men and still shagging whatever it is they can, is horribly depressing.

I watched this with friends, they both liked it while i could utter what i thought was wrong with it, a gay man, shagging a str8 women in a train? And then he's completely horrible to her afterwards so Christ knows what happens next!

Most of my complaints with this series is that basically it is everything which most gay guys dont' want their parents seeing, we do not want our parents thinking that it just takes "the right girl" to snap us out of being "gay". Apparently it was written, or based on some guy and girl that the writer knew, well... Are you sure he was totally gay in the frist place? Most gay men consider women fun playful things, but never would consider sex with them EVER.

I don't like this series, i personally think that it should have never been made, but, i can't find a fault with the actors, their acting or the way the story is portrayed, it's a nice piece of work, it's just a terrible shame the story has to be about something which makes my blood want to boil.