Gays of our Lives (February 02, 2009)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT — Emmerdale

This week we bid a fond farewell to Emmerdale’s Paul Lambert (out actor Matthew Bose) and Jonny Foster (Richard Grieve), by taking a look back at their relationship as they exit the series for a new life in Australia – oh, yeah, and to give their troubled marriage a second (or is it third?) chance. It’s been a long hard road for this couple that found their love tested time and again.

Matthew Bose (left) and Richard Grieve

During Paul’s years living in Emmerdale, he endured a series of unsuccessful relationships and tumultuous events including the night he rescued his neighbor Grayson Sinclair (Christopher Villiers) during an assault (and somehow managing to learn of Grayson’s bisexuality in the process). Grayson’s wife, Perdy (who is aware of her husband’s bisexuality) instantly concluded Paul and Grayson were secretly lovers, but once Paul convinced her that wasn’t the case, the two went on to become close friends. Perdy later introduced Paul to future fiancé Jonny, in part because she assumed that Jonny and Grayson were lovers and was none too happy about it.

Perdy’s matchmaking took, as Jonny and Paul fell in love and planned to marry. At least that was how it was supposed to go. Despite accepting Jonny’s proposal, Paul felt ambivalent about marrying him, in part because of his own troubled history with men who cheat – and because he was actually attracted to Grayson. Still, the engagement went forward and as we see in this clip, things got complicated.

There are so many things wrong with this scenario that I don’t know where to begin. Paul’s attraction to Gray made no sense. They had nothing in common, had no chemistry, not to mention Gray treated Paul horribly and had derogatory things to say about gays. Exactly what did Paul find attractive about this man? Furthermore, Paul would never do this to Perdy, his best friend.

And what about Jonny? Paul’s cheating on his fiancé was completely out of character and made no sense (for the actor’s thoughts on this plot twist, check out the GOOL Newsbeat). But as you can see in the clip below, Jonny inexplicably forgave Paul for his infidelity and they were married in what was the first primetime gay wedding in the U.K.

While it’s nice that Paul and Jonny reunited for their happy ending, the entire storyline was sloppily handled. To make matters worse, this plot arc was more about how everybody else felt about Paul leaving Emmerdale than it was about Paul working things out with his husband. The couple never really discussed why they broke up in the first place or dealt with the problems that ended their marriage. And then, after months of not speaking to each other, they suddenly realized they couldn’t live apart and ran off together to another country.

This utter lack of plausibility across the board takes away any joy one might have felt at their reunion. To add insult to injury, the two men never even kissed, instead barely hugging before being ushered out the door. Indeed, the whole storyline played out as if most of it was actually lying around on a cutting room floor somewhere.

Both the characters and the fans deserved better.

Paul and Jonny got their happy ending … and the bum’s rush.