I’m Free: Inside the Comedy Closet will be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 3 July at 9.50pm

Since the dawn of light-entertainment on network television, the camp comedian has been a much-loved fixture in the nation’s living rooms.  From Frankie Howerd and Danny La Rue in the 1960s to Michael Barrymore and Lily Savage in the 1990s, the role of gay men in shaping primetime television comedy has been invaluable.

But while their contributions are now widely accepted and appreciated by the establishment, for years such stars had to perform a near-impossible balancing act: “camping it up” to woo audiences, whilst projecting a public image of red-blooded masculinity in order to protect their careers. 

I’m Free is a two-hour documentary celebrating TV’s funniest gay men and their fabulous, often subversive, creations; charting their struggles for fame and recognition in more repressive political climates. Brimming with tales from some of today’s leading entertainers, and the comic legends who pushed the boundaries long before them, they reveal the highlights and tragic hypocrisies of their careers; stardom amidst social change, the media’s fear-mongering (and fascination) with all things ‘homo’ and the ever-changing television landscape.

Back in the 1960s, comedians like Frankie Howerd lived a dangerous double life: to the nation he was a treasured performer, to those who knew him he was a sexually active gay man. With homosexuality still illegal, the stakes were high, especially for gay men in the spotlight.

But while Howerd’s ‘deceit’ would have made him ‘fair game’ for today’s popular press, back in the 1950s and 1960s there was a happy collusion between press and celebrity, as newspaper editors refused to acknowledge (or at least print) the fact that homosexuality existed. As time would tell, the press sharpened their stance when tabloid scandals, gay or straight, became essential fodder for readers.

For many other early performers like Danny La Rue, his true sexuality was also masked by those around him.  His manager, Jack Hanson was actually his lover of forty years, as La Rue candidly now admits: “It was probably the greatest love affair – could have been Romeo and Juliet”. 

After La Rue, widely regarded as the most popular performer of his generation, came another camp superstar - Kenneth Williams.  Williams, as his diaries profess, was a tortured man who ironically was to play a carefree, confident gay character as part of duo Jules and Sandy from Round the Horne – a radio show which regularly garnered audiences of fifteen million.

After languishing in obscurity for many years, few would have predicted the rise of performer and nation’s favourite, Larry Grayson.  Grayson previously had an opening in the late 1950s on one of Kenneth Horne’s shows, but his camp humour was deemed too over the top for the time.  Some fifteen years later, society had moved on: Grayson got a break, found his niche and suddenly, in his late forties, he was the next big thing. 

Although Grayson’s humour was a quantum leap from that of his predecessors, his self-image was tragically hindered by his belief in “the worst propaganda”. Burdened by his sexuality, he lived a sexless private life in denial. 

Paul Vaughan, Larry’s manager adds: “I remember somebody once in the dressing room at The Generation Game, quite bravely said to him… ‘Excuse me, are you homosexual?’ and he said, ‘Oooh, you can’t say things like that! You’ll frighten my dog!’”

After Larry Grayson’s hugely successful Generation Game, camp crossed from game show to sitcom in 1972 with Are You Being Served?, unleashing primetime TV’s first-ever camp character in the iconic Mr Humphreys, played by John Inman.

However, as show writer / director David Croft explains, Humphries was certainly not gay: “We never wrote Mr Humphries as a homosexual, we quite definitely avoided that. In fact, I don’t think I’ve written any of my characters as genuine homosexuals… if you’re looking a big audience, and we always were, I think it’s definitely something to be avoided.”

By the end of the 1970s, gay audiences were tiring of Grayson and other limp-wristed, ‘acceptable’ camp TV types - they were in dire need of some unapologetic role models.

As Graham Norton remembers, “Watching it (The Generation Game) as a young boy, I was thinking ‘I recognise some of myself in that man’ …of course, that’s not a good thing cos I think ‘Oh God, I’m going to grow up with glasses on a chain around my neck!’”

Thankfully, the new decade brought with it a new kid on the block: Kenny Everett. Everett, who only came out after several years as a public figure, re-invented camp for the punk generation. Similarly, the coming out of Monty Python stalwart Graham Chapman also served to move attitudes towards greater acceptance.

But tolerance took a back step in 1984, as AIDS hit the UK and with it a media storm.  Suddenly the growing permissiveness of previous decades gave way to a new austerity and paranoia, reflected in sobering TV broadcasts and homophobic hysteria across the popular press. Suddenly, camp entertainment did not have a place in primetime, especially when Everett was revealed as AIDS’ latest high-profile victim.

It wasn’t until 1988, when Channel 4 gave peak airtime to Julian Clary – TV’s first openly gay performer - in Sticky Moments, that the mood shifted back towards acceptance. Clary was a breath of fresh air, celebrated for his wicked innuendo and outrageous wardrobe. But he felt the full force of the tabloids’ fury some five years later, after a flippant joke about Norman Lamont on live TV.

Gay entertainers, even with Clary’s appeal, were still subject to certain limits in the eyes of the media, who were much less forgiving than the public.

Throughout the history of great gay entertainers, it was clear that each performer pushed the door open wider for those who were to follow.

“If you consider we’re fighting a war of some sort,” says Queer as Folk writer Russell T Davies, “I always feel sorry for those who stand up first.” He believes that those who follow in their footsteps often try to kill the first wave with “friendly fire”. 

By the late 1990s, the first wave of troops had paved the way for a more modern breed of gay television performer.  Lily Savage (AKA Paul O’Grady) swiftly graduated from gay club to primetime TV and straight into the nation’s hearts, reaching a widespread fan-base of young and old.

Graham Norton too became one of the nation’s favourites, especially with young adults who thrived on his sex-based humour.  Like Clary, Norton said the un-sayable and his honesty rubbed off on his audience, whose sexual revelations often shocked him as much as them.
 
Graham Stuart, executive producer of So and V Graham Norton, recalls:  “There was no sense of Graham hiding anything, he was open about what he was and what he liked…and particularly with women initially, (who) absolutely keyed into that. It meant that they were honest and open - and that allowed us to talk about things with the audience that were very frank.”

But despite the battles won and the now vacated closets in television, other areas of showbiz - such as sport and pop - are still leagues behind in terms of honesty and tolerance, plagued by the same restrictions and taboos of 40 years ago. Just who will be fighting their battles for acceptance - and how?

I’m Free: Inside the Comedy Closet will be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 3 July at 9.50pm