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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Larry Ryan

What links Queer as Folk to the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem?

Come again?

Devin Way at Peacock’s reimagined ‘Queer As Folk’ premier, Los Angeles, California, USA - 03 June 2022
Devin Way stars in Peacock’s reimagined Queer as Folk … Photograph: Matt Baron/Rex/Shutterstock

“Don’t read your reviews‘; weigh them,” Andy Warhol is reputed to have said. AnotherOne way to judge a film or TV show is by how many remakes it prompts: Russell T Davies’s Channel 4 series Queer as Folk is gaining fast on A Star is Born. The 1999 drama about gay men in Manchester became a US version set in Pittsburgh; now another round (StarzPlay, 1 July) centres on New Orleans’ diverse queer community. Devin Way, Jesse James Keitel, CG and Fin Argus are among the cast.

No dummy

Actress Kim Catrall attends the World Premiere of ‘Sex And The City’ held at the Odeon Leicester Square on May 12, 2008 in London, England
… as rebooted as Sex and the City, starring Kim Cattrall, who was also in Mannequin, with a banger co-written by Albert Hammond … Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Also in a recurring role is Kim Cattrall, clearly not opposed to all TV reboots. Long before Sex and the City, Cattrall was in Mannequin, an 80s romcom about a window dresser at a New York store who falls in love with a mannequin that comes to life after closing time. It was accompanied by Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond.

Is this it?

Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes performs on the Lands End Stage during day 1 of the 2021 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival at Golden Gate Park on October 29, 2021 in San Francisco, California
… whose son, Albert Hammond Jr, is in the Strokes, whose story is told in a documentary that namechecks David Holmes … Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Outside Lands

His son, Albert Hammond Jr, is the Strokes’ guitarist. Their story, and that of the 2000s rock revival, is retold in Meet Me in the Bathroom, a book and documentary. In it, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem has a life-changing conversion to dance music and having fun, aided by ecstasy and Northern Irish producer/DJ David Holmes.

Spies like us

Ben Wishaw attends “The Taming Of The Shrew” opening night at Delacorte Theater on June 13, 2016 in New York City
…who collaborated on the score for London Spy, starring Ben Whishaw … Photograph: Roy Rochlin/FilmMagic

Central to Holmes’s oeuvre has been his jazzy, funk-infused scores for Steven Soderbergh films. Elsewhere, he collaborated with Keefus Cianca on the score for the 2015 BBC series London Spy, featuring Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft in a love story twisted into an espionage thriller.

Sin when you’re winning

Russel T Davies Attitude Awards, Roundhouse, London, UK - 09 Oct 2019
… who also appeared in A Very English Scandal, written by Russell T Davies, author of the original Queer as Folk. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex/Shutterstock

Whishaw appeared alongside Hugh Grant in the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, written by Russell T Davies, whose handprints have been across British TV for two decades. Years on from Queer as Folk, he returned to Manchester (and C4) with Cucumber, while last year’s Aids crisis drama It’s a Sin was an international hit.

Pairing notes

Dance The original series had Cruz 101 in Manchester’s Gay Village standing in for Babylon. It’s still going strong.

Read Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, published last year, was described by Colm Tóibín as “​​a brilliantly written and incisive account of gay life in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London”.

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