Originally Posted by KornerKabin:
“Phil's death was still shocking for me 15 years later. The death itself was horrific, but the following episode where his mam was phoning round people to say that he had been found dead was harrowing. The others slowly realising that they hadn't been in touch with him since the night he died and that he'd laid dead on the kitchen floor for God knows how long was horrible. Similarly, the funeral scenes were uncomfortable to watch and very much depicted what it was like to be a gay person at that time. As much as gay rights had moved on, they were still pushed to the edges of society with many people questioning their supposedly dangerous 'lifestyle' that revolved around drugs and unsafe sex.
I think Cucumber is definitely a show targeted at the older gay man. I'm only 30 but there are little bits of it that are starting to make more sense to me as time goes on. In fact, I had an experience last weekend where I suddenly thought of Cucumber and another part of it clicked into place. It was the bit where Henry childishly squeals 'One more cock!'. At the time I thought it was just a crass line and a bit ridiculous, but after (yet another) bad experience with a guy, I've started to come to the conclusion that most gay men are always hoping/wishing/dreaming/looking for that elusive 'one more cock'. I don't think any of the messages in Cucumber are as overt as they are in QAF, which shows how Russell T Davies has developed as a writer.”
“Phil's death was still shocking for me 15 years later. The death itself was horrific, but the following episode where his mam was phoning round people to say that he had been found dead was harrowing. The others slowly realising that they hadn't been in touch with him since the night he died and that he'd laid dead on the kitchen floor for God knows how long was horrible. Similarly, the funeral scenes were uncomfortable to watch and very much depicted what it was like to be a gay person at that time. As much as gay rights had moved on, they were still pushed to the edges of society with many people questioning their supposedly dangerous 'lifestyle' that revolved around drugs and unsafe sex.
I think Cucumber is definitely a show targeted at the older gay man. I'm only 30 but there are little bits of it that are starting to make more sense to me as time goes on. In fact, I had an experience last weekend where I suddenly thought of Cucumber and another part of it clicked into place. It was the bit where Henry childishly squeals 'One more cock!'. At the time I thought it was just a crass line and a bit ridiculous, but after (yet another) bad experience with a guy, I've started to come to the conclusion that most gay men are always hoping/wishing/dreaming/looking for that elusive 'one more cock'. I don't think any of the messages in Cucumber are as overt as they are in QAF, which shows how Russell T Davies has developed as a writer.”
Phil's death was shocking, it was definitely one you weren't expecting and it was horrible. I think they said he had been there for 4 days before anyone found him, which in itself is horrifying enough. There was a scene where Vince was trying to call him but of course not getting through. That's true, the funeral was quite uncomfortable to watch. I do recall watching this short film about a gay man who had died and it was his funeral and the vicar said that the person should have never been so stupid to 'follow that lifestyle'. I did have to remind myself that the short film wasn't real though.
I think that was the aim of Cucumber, to aim for the older gay man whilst Banana was aimed at younger viewers. I certainly felt more connected with Banana anyway and I think I liked that one more. I found that 'one more cock' line humorous at the time but it seems a lot of gay men can relate to it. Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with men, I can say I have that problem also, some experiences have been pretty scary IMO.
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