Listening to the dulcet upper-class voice of openly gay Brit actor Rupert Everett talk about the seedier side of gay life seems a tad surreal, even though if you have read his own colorful memoirs you will know that this posh-sounding actor has had more than his fair share of rather scandalous living. He is in fact  traveling round the U.K. to find out how things have changed since 27 July 1967, when the decriminalization of gay sex was given the royal assent. 

It’s all being filmed for a new program on UK’s Channel 4, which for a pleasant change, has been been uploaded onto YouTube so that it can be viewed around the world.  It’s called 50 Shades Of Gay  one for every year of being legal, and it’s being going down like a storm.

Everett is extremely funny and witty, and as well as making us laugh about the ridiculously side of the bad old days of when practically every gay man was in the closet, he points out that even now in some sectors of society, little has changed. He touches on the Jamaican community where homosexuality is still very much taboo, and the Financial establishment in the City of London which is still so homophobic that graduates who were ‘out’ in University now have to go back into the closet to secure a decent job.

It’s a brilliant take on a very important part of gay history that possible should be compulsory viewing for all of us.