This fascinating short movie from filmmakers Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston is in ‘polari’ an old-fashioned form of English slang that was first used at the beginning of the last century by fairground and circus people, prostitutes, beggars and other outsiders. It was later picked up gay actors and chorus boys and became a part of the London gay scene in the days when homosexuality was still a crime in the early 1960’s.
The height of its popularity was when it was used on one the most successful BBC Radio Comedy Shows of all time ‘Round The Horne’ by the infamous Jules and Sandy camping it up for ‘straight’ Kenneth Horne every week. Polari eventually faded out of fashion in the 1970’s after homosexuality had legalized and people started being more open about their sexuality.
Starring actors Steve Wickenden and Neil Chinneck, the scene is set on a park bench in London in 1962 and is a story that is essentially about betrayal and there are enough clues in English for you to be able to work it all out. You may however just have to watch it more than once though.
