152: Michael Cashman | Part 2
Homo Sapiens
Christopher Sweeney
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2021
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
The man who ‘Changed The World’ is what The Guardian called our guest this week - Lord Michael Cashman CBE. On the 18th anniversary of the repeal of section 28 in England & Wales, I chat to Michael about his central role in getting it scrapped. He’s starred in Eastenders, founded Stonewall, helped get most of the civil rights LGBTQ+ people have today so it’s quite the odyssey of a chat with a lovely, warm and funny man all ending with a some chat about spaghetti. Of course. Press play now to find out what the Queen had to say about civil partnership, how Tony & Cherie Blair approached civil partnership, and why this Trans Awareness Week trans rights are more in need of defence than ever before.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to part two of our lovely chat with Michael Cashman. If you have a part one, head |
| 0:09.2 | back to the feed. Here's part two, if you have. When you were asked to go in for your conversation |
| 0:18.2 | about playing the first gay character in EastEnders. Yes, lovely Colin. That period was |
| 0:27.6 | during AIDS and HIV when AIDS and HIV was misrepresented as a gay plague that you could catch from |
| 0:35.0 | people. The BBC decided to bring in to EastEnders, which in those days used to get about 14 million |
| 0:43.4 | viewers per episode. It was the BBC's flagship show. It had been going about eight months. |
| 0:51.8 | So anyone who was going to play a gay part was immediately going to come under the magnifying |
| 0:57.8 | glass of our friends and I say that with a certain degree of irony in the tabloid press. |
| 1:04.1 | And that's why Julia Smith had been trying to cast a straight actor because it would have been |
| 1:08.9 | easier for the actor and easier for the BBC, no controversy. And so when she offered it to me, |
| 1:17.7 | I said, well, how do I deal with the press? And she said, we the BBC can't advise you. |
| 1:23.5 | That has to be between you and your agent. And I said, well, I can't accept it. I've got to ask |
| 1:29.2 | my mum and dad first and I've got to ask Paul. She looked at Tony Holland, the co-creator. |
| 1:36.3 | And she and I told you would be bloody sensible. Go on then, ring me later. And I did and I thought |
| 1:43.0 | about it. And Paul said, yes, caution must do it. But we didn't. We thought there'd be tabloid |
| 1:49.4 | intrusion, but we weren't prepared for what happened. And of course, the son announced the character |
| 1:56.7 | with the front page banner headline of East Benders. That was before the character had appeared. |
| 2:03.3 | There were questions in Parliament. Moral campaigners wrote to the BBC saying, why with AIDS and HIV |
| 2:11.9 | swirling around the country, are you bringing a gay character into this family show? |
| 2:18.9 | Brookside had brought in a gay character a bit earlier, but because it wasn't like a flagship |
| 2:25.0 | programme, there hadn't been the outrage. And of course, the outrage would build. |
| 2:30.7 | Especially when we had our first on-screen gay kiss. |
... |
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