Beautiful People seems to have slipped onto TV screens without much fanfare, which says a lot for how progressive society must be becoming for this is a show that has 2 gay teenagers at its heart. I couldn't imagine such a premise being allowed to pass unnoticed 10 years ago, perhaps sooner. Unlike Ugly Betty, who's teenage Justin is flamboyant, but not a confirmed homosexuality, Beautiful People's Simon (and to a larger extent his friend Kylie) is Camp with a capital C. And in this series we finally see young 14-year old Simon push open the closet door and come out to his Mum in a letter. It's odd that he needed to come out really, yet there's much that can be taken for granted in a parent's blinkered approach to their own children. The moment when Debbie read her son's letter, as he was finally beginning to accept himself and make a move on his new school friend, touched me greatly. 
It's not the first time I've identified with Simon - the first episode of Beautiful People last year featured a 13-year old boy in 1997, a fan of the Spice Girls and a friend of Dorothy - and I instantly fell in love with the programme because that WAS me in 1997. I was that age, I had that Spice Girls pencil case, although I wasn't as far along in my burgeoning sexuality as Simon seemed to be. I certainly wasn't (and never have been) that camp. There were episodes with Victoria Beckham dolls, and this year with Eurovision which I took to my heart and identified with in a big way. Of course, I don't identify with Simon's Reading-based family of nutters - I don't have a blind Asian aunty with a dog named Mummy, for example! The cast around Simon (who is played so winningly by Luke Ward-Wilkinson) are just as adorable and mental. His mother, Debbie, is just fantastic, and her rivalry with Reba, Kylie's mum, is one of the series' best running jokes.
Sometimes the episodes don't hang together right - there's something there I can't put my finger on, whether it's the writing or the editing or what, that makes the occasional episode feel a bit sub-par, but when everything comes together the shows are gems. This series featured excellent cameos for Dana International, Elaine Paige and Dannii Minogue that didn't always make sense (I'm looking at you Dannii), yet that didn't stop me enjoying them. I must admit to being the tiniest bit envious of (a) 14-year old Simon and (b) teenage gays watching Beautiful People because (a) Simon got his shit together over his sexuality earlier than me, and because (b) I never had a show like Beautiful People to give me any sort of guidance when I was 14. I suppose I had Queer as Folk a couple of years later, but that made the gay life seem a hell of a lot scarier!
I'm off now to pray to Dana International for a third series!
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