BBC to air "Mr. Loverman": series about two elderly, closeted Caribbean men in London

I'm in, mainly for Lennie James. But the story sounds interesting too. My VPN will finally get some use.

Looking forward to this.

Sharon Dee Clarke was a late 80s early 90s dance superstar.

Her career as the black Hazell Dean/ Eurodance Tracy Chapman under the name Vivienne Courtland was not a success, but she had huge hits under her own name on the Italia dance cover of Going Back To My Roots and Nomad's I Wanna Give You Devotion.

And now she's the British Audra McDonald with her countless Oliviers.

I love Lennie James, he’s great in everything.

Pretty face.

[quote] BBC to air "Mr. Loverman … closeted Caribbean men

BBC to air BBC?

Mr Loverman (Shabba)

Mr Loverman (Shabba)

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I hope this adaptation lives up to it.

It's a lighthearted enough story, but also very sad because Barrington and his wife could both have led fulfilling lives with other, genuine partners out in the open instead of making each other's lives miserable. They both carried on down-low relationships instead (though she was hetero).

This sounds better than that likely-disastrous Golden Girls reboot.

Just watched 'Save Me' season 1. It's created, written and stars James. It's brilliant.

Defund the BBC already.

Defund the BBC because it has adapted a book by an award winning British novelist starring multiple award winning actors?

Or defund the BBC because it as a produced a tv drama written by a black woman about black people starring black people?

R12 Don't expect logic from the Defund BBC crowd. They've been told the BBC is all fake news, is massively biased and only employees lefty liberals. Therefore there's no reasoning with them.

They're usually fine with MP Nigel Farage doing fuck all, never spending any time in Clacton, and being paid just shy of £100K a month for appearing on GB News.

Would love to see this.

This starts on the BBC tonight. TONIGHT!

This is interesting. I’m definitely going to try to catch it.

Wait the guy who sang Mr Loverman was a batty boy?

Yeah R17, it's a biopic of Shabba Ranks and his love affair with Jermaine Stewart who sang We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off To Have A Good Time Nah Nah.

I read the delightful novel years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly, as it presented a realistic portrayal of my Caribbean circle of friends and their families.

I hope the broadcast series will be made available to those of us in the Americas.

All 8 episodes are available to stream via iPlayer - get yourself a VPN (not a VPL) and enjoy R19.

For some reason they have produced 8 30 minute episodes rather than 4 hour long episodes.

First impressions: the internal monologue is a bit jarring, the jumping across different eras is a bit confusing and the first kiss was filmed so strangely as if the actors didn't want their lips to touch. And stage school grandson is hmmm.

But it looks lovely and feels authentic.

WHET Hazelle Goodman?

I only know Lennie James from "Line of Duty," but I also recognized Tahj Miles from "Death in Paradise," and Lochlann O'Mearáin from "Harry Wild."

They showed the first two episodes tonight and I thought it was very good. I will watch the other episodes via iPlayer.

Interview with the author here.

If you want to access with a simple browser extension that cuts through the Beeb's VPN-blocking BS , look up Brit VPN (all one word).

Guardian review: