Originally Posted by
Scrabbler:
“Sharon is the Queen of Camp
”
Sharon ticks all the boxes - the messed up childhood, the disastrous love life, the big hair, those lips, the demon child. She's like the Joan Crawford of Walford.
Originally Posted by
sorcha_healy27:
“Alexis from dynasty ”
Dynasty was wall to wall with gay icons. Alexis led the pack but Sable, Caress and Dominique were up there too. They didn't even have to say anything. They just had to show up in a scene and there outrageous outfits were enough to propel them into gay icon history.
Originally Posted by NoughtiesMusic:
“Wasn't Vanessa Gold considered one after the crazily hilarious "bubbly's in the fridge"?”
Poor Vanessa was only getting started when she was written out. Maybe they knew Sharon was coming back and there was only room for one big haired queen of camp in a trouser suit on the show and Sharon won out.
Originally Posted by
sloe_gin:
“Elsie Tanner - when asked how a 23 year old man could write a character so complex, Tony Warren retorted that any gay lad on the Manchester scene WAS Elsie Tanner by the time he reached his early twenties
Bet Lynch - no-one could use the word 'cock' like Julie Goodyear. She was a Blackpool slot machine made flesh
Angie Watts - from the trembling hand-to-breast gesture to 'those eyes' when Den handed her the divorce papers, Angie was queen bee in every way
Sharon Watts - somehow manages to be both the classiest and roughest character on the square simultaneously. With her vibrato voice and readiness to hand out a slap at the most minor of insults, Queen Shaz literally ran the joint circa 2001. You want evidence? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iyg_UJfDJE
Pat Butcher - probably more of a lesbi-gay icon, the scene of her taking down Yolande whilst looking like a polar bear is what cemented her status for me. Why they never did a 'Pat behind bars' spin-off I'll never know
Kat Slater - the perennial 'dirty little slut', Kat's disgust at her voracious sexual appetite yet seeming refusal to do anything but indulge in the most vulgar and creative of ways is what makes her a true icon of camp degredation
I think that is the super league for me, although there are many second division players, such as Uncle Umed from Corrie, etc ...”
Great post Gin
I couldn't have picked a better bunch myself.
There's a few, slightly more older characters that I think would fit the bill but are out of people's minds as they haven't been onscreen in years.
Noele Gordon who played Meg Mortimer in Crossroads was super camp both onscreen and off. Onscreen she was the flame haired, queen of the show who ruled the roost and got involved in fourth wall breaking scenes like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLv-ffzW_Co
Offscreen, she hung out in Birmingham's gay bars and was best mates with Larry Grayson. I even saw an interview online once where she was chaffeured onto the stage of a talk show in her Rolls Royce.
Lynne Perrie who played Ivy Tilsley on Corrie was something of a gay icon. Not only did she play a battleaxe onscreen, her offscreen antics on talk show and in the papers only added to her notoriety. However, behind all of that she apparently did a lot of charity work for HIV and AIDS foundations as her own son was diagnosed with HIV.
