Beautiful Thing | 1996
- Locations |
- London
- DIRECTOR |
- Hettie Macdonald
Hettie Macdonald's adaptation of Jonathan Harvey's play about two young, working-class London lads, Jamie (Glen Berry) and Ste (Scott Neal), discovering their feelings for each other eschews the clichés of monochrome bleakness for cheery sunshine and a bouncy Mama Cass soundtrack.
All the more surprising, then, that the housing estate setting is the same one used as Alex's grim neighbourhood in A Clockwork Orange. It was the Thamesmead South estate, southeast London, spruced up with a lick of paint and some geraniums.
The unlovely Tavy Bridge Centre itself has since been demolished, though Southmere Lake remains.
The local bar was a real gay bar, the Gloucester, in Greenwich. Times move on and it's no longer a gay venue. It's now the Greenwich Tavern, 1 King William Walk, SE10.
