Ishouldhave openedagay barjustlike theFlamingo Club..itwould havemade afortune
TAGGART WRITER ON TV TEC AND NEW PLAY Glenn Chandler reckons he might have been in the wrong job after the interest shown in a fictional bar he created.. but playwright is back to what he does best with a show close to his heart at the Edinburgh Fringe
hindsight, I should have opened a gay club – it would have made a fortune.”
Glenn is back in his home town of Edinburgh with his new play, Lord Dismiss Us, at the Festival Fringe.
Based on the controversial 1967 book of the same name, he has brought the play to the capital to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, when homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales.
The writer, who is gay, read the book about a homophobic new headmaster and his religious wife taking over a boys’ boarding school when he was coming to terms with his own sexuality.
He said: “I was a teenager when I read it and I had been through all the teenage angst, contemplating suicide because I was different, all that sort of thing.
“And then I read this book set in a public school not unlike the Royal High School in Edinburgh where I went and it’s a riot, it’s a gay hotchpotch. I was reading this book in 1967, literally under the bed clothes because I kept it hidden from my parents.
“I was going through the crisis of being young and gay and it did help, knowing I wasn’t alone.
“The hero in the book, he’s coming out and is told he’s going to be a criminal until he’s 21, which indeed I was, although nothing ever happened to me.
“I was very lucky and then the law changed and we see where we are now.”
Glenn’s mum died when he was just 19 but his dad was shocked when he discovered he was gay.
He said: “The only hassle I ever got was from my father. I was more or less made to feel very uncomfortable at home and I went to live in a bedsit with a boyfriend but he came round a few days later.
“He went to the doctor and asked if anything could be done and the doctor said no and he came round and accepted me after that.
“He was of a different generation but he was great thereafter.”
Working in the arts, Glenn has had a largely positive experience and he is aware of how fortunate he has been.
While, 50 years on, the landscape in the UK and most other western countries has changed dramatically, he feels there is much more to be done around the world.
He said: “I’ve been very lucky, I have never felt under a shadow. Working in television, in the theatre, it is a very liberal environment.
“I think we do get too complacent, we think everything has changed, things are wonderful and we’re living in a land of milk and honey but two friends of mine have been subject of homophobic attacks in Soho in broad daylight and, as we know, guys have been thrown off rooftops in Chechnya.”
Something which will never change is Glenn’s association with Taggart.
He created the show, starring Mark McManus as the gruff Glasgow cop, for STV in 1983 and it became the longest-running police crime show of all time, coming to an end in 2010 after 27 series.
Stars including John Michie and Alex Norton have spoken of their desire to end it properly and give it the finale it deserves but Glenn, who has gone on to work extensively in theatre, is happy for it to rest in peace.
He said: “We had 28 years of Taggart and that’s long enough for anybody.”
What he does take from the show is fond memories of the man who played such an integral part in its success, original star McManus, who played DCI Jim Taggart until his death in 1994.
He said: “In many ways, he was a role model to me – I wish every actor was like him. You get actors who want to interfere with lines but he would come along and do his scenes brilliantly and that was it.
“He was a very gentle and giving man. He gave you lots of time and he wouldn’t disappear to his trailer between scenes.
“You would find him chatting to wee boys watching filming and signing autographs. He had his problems later on as we know but he was such a lovely man.” ● Lord Dismiss Us runs from August 4 to 26 at the Space at Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh.