No, not 'loads'. Someone above mentioned soaps, which I don't watch so can't tell how true it is.

I'd say that it says more about that homophobe than McKellen. That viewer was never going to change his/her mind about gay people and is simply using the show to continue with the poor misled attitude. That sort of person very rarely changes

No, but the show clearly pandered to their pre-conceived ideas. The best thing about Will & Grace (apart from the fact it was funny) was that the main character just really just a regular guy who happened to be gay. It was ground-breaking in terms of showing gay people on TV. This latest effort is tired, rehashed old crap from the 70s.

But even not taking soaps into account, i would still say i could think of more non-camp gay characters on recent TV than i could stereotypical ones. However Vicious is ABOUT 2 stereotypical camp men, which do exist so deserve to be represented as well. The show wouldn't work is they were non-camp!

I would suggest that they're already more than represented and have been since the 1970s.

But Will and Grace also got a lot of flack for being what it was in America. It was definitely a break through but it still got a hell of a lot of criticism from Christian groups and that Mom group who tried to get it taken off air. Yes this show may belong in the 70s but I do like the humour and bitchiness. I like Mrs Brown too. I like that silly over the top stuff just as much as I love 30 Rock or Raising Hope. No matter how you portray gay people on TV there will always be those who will find something to object about. It's sad and it's pathetic but that's just the way those people are unfortunately

I agree that back in the 70's camp gay men were the only representations, but can you really even name that many which have been on TV recently?

Just because it's filmed in front of a live audience doesn't mean the editors won't mess about with the laughter track. Boosting laughter that wasn't as loud as expected, adding laughter where there wasn't any. So it can be a live audience and still be artificial laughs.


Friends was pretty bad for the way some "laughs" began and ended very unnaturally. Far too uniform to be natural.

In my opinion if the laughter doesn't sound natural then it probably isn't. Live audience or not.

Not of course your typical 9pm ITV programme - but it had its moments.

Not quite sure how its going to develop into 5 weeks worth of storylines.

Also why is Ash popping round so often - and what work does he do which allows him to afford the rent which would I expect be quite pricey. Perhaps all will be revealed.

I was expecting it to be fairly mediocre, but it was actually very good and I liked it a lot. I thought that Ash was supposed to be really dim (without any functioning gaydar) so it was an unexpected twist at the end when he announced that he was straight. That was a question which could have been left as a long-running joke through the series, with them never quite knowing if he was really straight or not, or whether he realised that they were gay.

The only thing to spoil it is the torrent of silly people here complaining about the non-existent so-called "canned" laughter, when there wasn't any.

Plenty, then?

You mustn't watch a lot of TV if you think most gay characters on TV are still depicted the way you seem to think they are.

I sat down to watch this with zero expectations because the ads did not impress me at all but I was intrigued they got two big stars in a small time itv comedy. I have to say I really enjoyed it though. I laughed out loud several times. I will be back next week.

I liked it but it strange that Freddie and Stuart are a couple, he's quite rude to him.

I'm not quite sure what to make of that, the pedigree is stonking and I think some of the one-liners were there and I laughed a bit (more in the first half tbh, which some have said was weaker) but it was very OTT, the premise is naturally niche and the better moments was when the two of them weren't overacting it imo, we need to see more of their relationship and how it affects Ash (who doesn't have a role at the moment) but I can see some moments if he gets a girlfriend being very funny

I liked it

but it did have that 70s feel to it

All Gay couples are like this just as all straight couples are like those in the Royle Family.

Disappointment is when something doesn't live up to your expectations, not when something is exactly as you expected it would be. Have I really just had to explain that?

I really wanted to like this, but from the beginning I felt as though the audience were watching a different show from the one I was. It was almost as though the warm up act had worked too well, and the TV watchers had wandered in half way through.

I'm sure it must have been canned laughter. It really ruined it for me. They were laughing like drains at lines that were not funny.

Even if there was a live audience, the laughter must have been doctored with. It had a 'Last Of The Summer Wine' feel about it.

I Know many many straight and gay couples who bicker just like that.

My own parents used to call each other names and moan to other people about each other, everything My Dad asked my Mum to do she would roll her eyes, and say something sarky to him, every time my Mum moaned about toilet seats being left up or whiskers left in the sink, Dad would mutter under his breath normally 'old cow'

My Mum died last year my Dad is totally devastated takes flowers to her memorial in the cremmy EVERY day.

They would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in July last year, Mum died in the May

I found the show funny and am already looking at using some of the lines myself

I agree. It was disappointing rubbish. The audience "laughter" just had to have been added straight out of a can after the show.

It was filmed in front of a live audience as I know several people who went to the filming of the Christmas Special. They all loved it

That was almost like a re-enactment of part of my life story, with me as the Ash character.

In the 80's when I moved to London from the north I became the lodger of a famous ex-Film Director, in his studio apartment in Belgravia. He thought I was gay when he interviewed me, even though I'm not, and I moved in not realising that he was gay. However, once I'd lived there a little while his gay lifestyle soon became apparent. He was a lovely old geezer and once he'd realised I was straight he was the perfect gentleman, but whenever I came in from work he'd be in his living room, entertaining his old film cronies, some quite famous faces among them, and they all spoke and acted in exactly the way depicted last night, camping it up mercilessly and bitching to one another.

Perhaps it's an actor thing, but I found the TV portrayals pretty accurate, and quite funny to watch too, bringing back memories of happy times.

Is this all people say about new sitcoms? "It looks like it's from the 70's" - many people said that about Citizen Khan as well.

alot of camped up gay stereotypes. Is this what you have done forty years of gay rights for sir ian?