Pictures from BBC
I can't remember how it started but today I found myself in a conversation about how scared we used to be as children of acid rain. Neither of us in the conversation ever experienced it but for a period of the 1980s it was all we could think about. That 'whatever happened to...' shtick isn't really my style, you will never hear me waxing nostalgic about white dog shit, but this was a genuine head scratcher, at some point between the 1980s and now one of two things happened. Either acid rain has been solved, or we stopped worrying because it wasn't worth the bother. The ozone layer was another one. When I was a kid I loved sunbathing and would take every opportunity to lie in the sun and soak it up, going a beautiful shade of brown emphasised by the deliberate watch strap that seemed to glow in the dark. These days I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing, mostly because I can't be bothered but I'm never quite sure if it's safe to do so. Besides, I have a slight case of vitiligo so my forehead ends up looking blotchy which would be a lot worse if I encouraged it. Aerosol cans became an overnight enemy and virtually disappeared from the shelves, to make a comeback some time later screamingly declaring themselves free from the evil CFC gases. Once again this is something that no longer gets the coverage.
By curious coincidence all of this 1980s scaremongering got a slight mention on the telly tonight as Eastenders brought in a cameo appearance from 1980s gay yuppy Colin, from off of Colin and Barry. These days Michael Cashman is a prominent politician and gay rights campaigner so it was a surprise to see him reappearing in the role that brought him to public attention. It was a surprise but it made for an amazing bit of television; simple, low-key, yet the very definition of a show stealer. If you watch Eastenders you will be aware of the current story-line involving the murder of Paul Coker in a homophobic beating on a night out with his boyfriend Ben Mitchell. Watching the occasional scene with Colin and Barry on YouTube showed how far we have come in a short space of time. Colin and Barry were a gay couple on television in the era of the terrifying AIDS awareness campaign of the late 1980s. I was a young boy who knew very little about sex and even less about homosexuality and as a shameful sign of the times, AIDS was sold to the general public as a gay disease, down to the tasteless playground joke that AIDS was an acronym of 'Arse Injected Death Sentence', a joke I didn't understand to be honest. Paul and Ben were not the first gay couple on a soap but it was Eastenders that set the standard back with Colin and Barry. In those days a simple kiss between the two men garnered complaints from viewers, yet as you can see from the above picture, public tolerance has come on in leaps and bounds so on one hand this story-line is a sad one because Paul and Ben were a lovely couple that the viewers were rooting for. It was a relief to see Ben confront his dad and come out in style revealing a calmer and happier side to himself. On the other hand the story is an important one because it highlights how hatred is still there.
To return to the theme of forgetting about the threats that once terrified us, AIDS no longer warrants a mention due to advances in medicine so just like acid rain and the ozone layer we no longer think about it. The fear of AIDS was highlighted on Eastenders due to Dot Cotton's horror at finding out that Colin and Barry shared a bed, totally at odds with her religious ideals. At one stage Dot took her own cup to the cafe so that eventually the character could learn that AIDS can't be transmitted in such a way and her and Colin eventually became friends. Colin's return to the soap to see his old friend was a moving story in which he wanted Dot to attend his wedding at the same time as Paul's funeral and she didn't want to go to either because deep down she still thought that a same sex coupling was wrong. This led to a wonderful exchange between Colin and Johnny in the pub about how times have changed on the surface, and an even more wonderful breakthrough that meant that Dot attended Colin's wedding and had apparently re-learned the error of her ways. The fact that Michael Cashman's quick comeback wasn't advertised in any way made it rather a special moment too, one simple appearance on screen for less than an episode and he acted everyone else out of the room.
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