GENERAL FEATURES
10 Gayest Movies On TV This Christmas!
We've picked the queerest films on the telly this year and lined them up with trailers for your ease of viewing
1. Calamity Jane (1953) December 22, TCM, 3pm
Although heterosexual love blossoms in the Black Hills of Dakota, this is a film loaded with gay subtext, from the duet between Jane and Katie Brown, ‘Never Underestimate a Woman's Touch' to the ‘Secret Love' a song that if it's taken out of context is the ultimate gay anthem.
2. A Mighty Wind (2003) December 23, TG4, 12.50am
A welcome chance to see Glee's Jane Lynch star as as porn actress-turned-folk singer Laurie Bohner in Christopher Guest's high-camp mockumentary about a folk music reunion concert in which three folk bands must reunite for a television performance for the first time in decades.
Christmas Eve, RTE Two, 3.55pm
Billy Wilder's cross-dressing comedy is a Christmas staple, but never fails to entertain with gay abandon. When two male band members become witnesses to the St Valentines Day massacre, they go on the run from the mafia dressed as women in an all-female touring band. One of them falls for Marylin Monroe, the other for a male millionaire.
Christmas Eve, RTE Two, 7.15pm
John Travolta drags up as Edna Turnblad in this marvelous remake of John Waters' 1988 comedy, which starred Divine in the same role. Switch homophobia for racism and you've got a subtext, but who needs one in this musical that just keeps giving.
Christmas Eve, UTV, 12.15am
Toni Collette and Nia Vardolos star in this cross between Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Some Like It Hot. When to aspiring cabaret artists get caught up in mob mix-up in Chicago, they run away to LA, where they score a perfect gig: posing as drag queens on the dinner theater/cabaret circuit. Lots of nods to Bob Fosse's choreography in Cabaret and a pitch perfect singing performance from Collette make this an extra-special gay pleasure.
Christmas Eve, UTV, 2.10am
A famous scene cut from this swords and sandals epic involves a slave boy, Tony Curtis and his master, Laurence Olivier, and the line: "Do you eat snails?" Watch it on youtube and then look for the hundreds of homoerotic moments that got by the censor in the final cut.
Christmas Day, RTE Two, 1.45am
Al Pacino delivers a tension-ridden turn in this heist movie based on a true story about a bisexual guy who holds up a bank in order to get a sex-change operation for his male lover. A 1970s queer classic.
St. Stephen's Day, RTE One, 8.40am
It's on almost at the crack of dawn, but it's Barbra's best musical performance by far. You won't be raining on her parade.
December 29, Channel 4, 9pm
This adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel lays the homosexual subtexts of the plot on with a trowel, and ratchets up the melodrama until it goes to camp excess. Divinely decadent.
December 29, BBC One, 10.50pm
The film that defined the term ‘bromance' stars Paul Rudd and as a friendless guy who goes on a series of ‘dates' with other guys to find a best man for his wedding. He finds a new BFF, but his fiancée isn't too happy about it. Don't even bother looking for the gay subtext here. It's a love story between two men.