There has always been a streak of camp in British comedy, such as Are You Being Served?, the hugely popular Britcom set in a department store, that ran from 1972 to 1985. (It has been shown in endless repeats in the US on PBS and BBC America). Among its leading characters was the effeminate menswear assistant, Mr. Humphries, played by openly gay actor John Inman. Humphries elicited screams of laughter from the audience every time he swished across the shop floor or brandished a limp wrist.

The show featured a continuous stream of innuendo pointing to his sexual orientation as gay. And his shriek of “I'm free!”--usually occurring when store floorwalker Captain Peacock asked which of his workers were available - became a catchphrase. Though gay activists balked at the stereotype, the character was a hit with viewers. In 1976, Inman was voted 'Funniest Man On Television' by TV Times readers, and was declared BBC TV's Personality Of The Year.

The influence of Mr. Humphries can be seen--with a twist--in the character of Sebastian Love, aide to the Prime Minister in the BBC's latest comedy hit, Little Britain. Created and mostly acted by straight comedian David Walliams and openly gay comedian Matt Lucas, Little Britain is a thirty-minute sketch show that has run for three seasons so far. (The first two are now available on DVD, and the third is currently showing on BBC America).

Described as celebrating “all that is mad, bad, quirky, and generally eccentric about the people and places of Britain”, the show features a vast array of grotesque characters of both sexes, different groups and social classes. One of them is Sebastian, who is swishy, fey, and can flounce across a room in a manner of which Mr. Humphries would be proud.

But Sebastian is a creation of today, not the seventies. The differences between him and Mr. Humphries are significant. While Mr. Humphries was the target of an endless stream of jokes about his effeminacy and supposed interest in men, he was never explicitly defined as gay on screen. Indeed, one episode showed him throwing himself onto the female assistant Miss Brahms. The creators of Are You Being Served?, and even John Inman himself, have denied (unconvincingly) that they ever intended Mr. Humphries to be a homosexual.

Sebastian's sexuality, in contrast, is not in doubt. Madly in love with the Prime Minister (played by Anthony Stewart Head, best known as Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), he is intensely possessive, bitchy, and always socially inappropriate. (As indeed are most of the characters in Little Britain, whether gay or straight).

As the show progresses, Sebastian becomes increasingly confident about expressing his attractions. He jumps into the Leader of the Opposition's lap. He serenades the Prime Minister with a rendition of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful in the House of Commons. He celebrates an election victory by dancing with the PM to Careless Whisper, and then giving him a lengthy kiss. Indeed, by the end of the third series, it is beginning to appear as though the Prime Minister himself may not be as straight as the audience at first assumed (though the object of his affections may not be Sebastian).

Matt Lucas has stated that “I loved all the camp comic [actors] of my childhood, Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd and John Inman”. The character of Sebastian demonstrates one of the ways in which Lucas appropriates these old representations of gay men, and recycles them with a knowing, modern twist and a strong queer sensibility. The swishy ‘gay' characters of old might have been comic fodder for their mannerisms, but their sexuality was not really something that could be stated openly.

The same is very definitely not true of Little Britain.

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