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Home » Blogs » snicks's blog » Simon Doonan's "Beautiful People" arrives on the BBC with an absolutely fabulous pedigree

Simon Doonan's "Beautiful People" arrives on the BBC with an absolutely fabulous pedigree

by
snicks

Beautiful People premiered on BBC Two this week, bringing the memoirs of out Barneys fashion director Simon Doonan (and current Mr. Jonathan Adler) to life.

Produced by Jon Plowman (who produced Absolutely Fabulous, aka "the greatest show in history"), it centers around the thirteen-year-old Simon and his adventures in school and with his dysfunctional family:

"Surrounded by dreams of the big city and the beautiful people that apparently live there, 13 year old Simon (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) cannot open a fridge door without belting out a show tune.
But such behaviour will always fall flat on a family even more eccentric than Simon’s latest attempts to be marvellous. The Britain of 1997 might be changing, but the Doonan clan remain consistently nuts.
Mum Debbie is a peroxide whirlwind of matriarchal warmth and tottering pride for husband Andy – an opera-savvy plumber come home-made wine maker. Sister Ashlene is a ghetto queen, blind lodger Aunty Hayley has a guide-dog who is far from size zero, lobotomised grandma Narg has just lost God and found her wicked streak and best mate Kylie wants to be Reading’s own Princess of hearts."

Yes, you read that right, it takes place in 1997, which was ... a few years after the real Simon was thirteen (I guess it was easier to update it to '97). You can see a promo clip after the break, and it'll be interesting to see how far they take the subject of little Simon's sexuality. Will he just be "artistic", or will they make it clear that he's gay?

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    • Submitted by
    snicks
    on Thu, 2008-10-09 10:38.
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    Griet's picture

    tiny spoiler if you've not

    Submitted by
    Griet (552 points) (112 posts)
    on Thu, 2008-10-09 11:51.

    tiny spoiler if you've not seen the first episode:

     

    it's very clear he's gay. Which makes it even better. I loved the first episode.

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    Knickie's picture

    1997? O-KAY! I've seen Simon

    Submitted by
    Knickie (4275 points) (871 posts)
    on Thu, 2008-10-09 13:43.
    1997? O-KAY! I've seen Simon Doonan in interviews and he's got to be at least 55, meaning he was 13 around 1966-67. That's a pretty fair stretch because I lived in England in the 1980's and it sure as heck wasn't the way it is now -- or even in 1997 -- so I know for certain it wasn't in the mid to late 1960's. Frankly, I'd rather see a show that dealt with that period than the late '90's (yawn!), if only for the cultural references and great music. But also it's really nuts to pretend this is based on someone's life when it's 40 years out of date!
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    Anonymous's picture

    You've spotted the flaw

    Submitted by
    Anonymous
    on Thu, 2008-10-09 14:13.
    You've spotted the flaw in their cunning plan.  The book Doonan wrote covers growing up in the 1950s (?).  I can only think either the BBC or Harvey thought it would be more viewer friendly to set his teenage years in the 90s - or there were budget constraints.  The first ep was a bit, 'enh' - but some of the cast are good and apparently Frances Barber's going to be in it.  A great actress and always worth a look.
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