Rainbow Crew is an ongoing interview series that celebrates the best LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Each instalment showcases talent working on both sides of the camera, including queer creatives and allies to the community.
Next up, we're speaking to Nolly star Augustus Prew.
Augustus Prew is in awe of Russell T Davies, the creator of Queer as Folk, It's a Sin, and now Nolly, which Augustus stars in alongside Helena Bonham Carter.
"He's one of our auteurs really, isn't he? One of our all-time special people," says Augustus, unprompted, at the start of our chat. "I don't know how he does it. He just knows what's going to resonate. I feel like he's nailed it with this."
And "nailed it" he has. In what will come as a surprise to no one, Russell's latest show, a tribute to Crossroads' legend Noele Gordon, is another triumph. And although Noele herself wasn't queer, Nolly is still an intrinsically queer show thanks to Gordon's status as a somewhat forgotten gay icon.
That's set to change now though with the release of ITV's Nolly. As Augustus says, it's about time we get "Noele in the canon of homegrown British queer icons." But beyond her appeal to gay men and Russell's own involvement with the show, Nolly also has a queer sensibility thanks to Prew's magnetic turn in the role of Noele's best friend, co-star Tony Adams.
This isn't your standard "gay best friend" story though. In fact, Tony isn't gay at all, contrary to what some people might think after watching the show. "He's like a queer straight guy," says Augustus. "By contemporary standards, he's very queer."
Digital Spy caught up with Augustus Prew to unpack the queer sensibilities of Nolly and how Tony Adams fits into all that.
Did you ask Russell for advice on your character?
On the first day, Russell gave me his mobile number. He's like, "Whatever you want to ask me, here's the answer."
"Is there a way I can meet Tony?"
"Yep, there's Tony's number."
He's such a team player. He's way too nice for someone with that much power and that much intelligence and vision.
There was no one who wasn't important on this set. Everyone felt that from him. And that's really rare in something like this. That's to Peter's [Hoar] and Helena's credit as well. The people on top always set the tone for everyone else. It says a lot that we're all still chatting to each other. That group text is still going. It was just like a big family.
I'm so sad that Nolly was just one season. I could do this forever. I'd love it. It would be my favourite. It's just magic.
What kind of conversations did you have with the real Tony ahead of playing him in Nolly?
He's such a special guy. He's so sweet. He's just like a font of all stories. Most of the script is based on stories that Tony told. Tony is like the Crossroads whisperer. He's the Noele Gordon whisperer, shall we say? He was really generous with his time. He's 81 now, and I interviewed him twice for two hours each time, which was quite a long time to interview someone.
He has these stories, and this really magnetic, playful, fun energy that I really like. That's the key to Tony Adams. He's got a very specific way of talking, this really specific tone and mannerisms. He's a really eccentric, kind of magical, unique person. So I wanted to make sure that I really captured that.
By contemporary standards, he's very queer. He's in a relationship with a woman, so it's not like he is a gay person, but he's a very queer man. For the time, we're talking 1981, he drove Noele Gordon to work every morning. They spent the whole day together. He went home, ate dinner with her. He went back to his apartment that Noele Gordon got for him opposite her apartment.
And that thing where they talk on the phone every night? That absolutely happened. They did go walking around Birmingham in the middle of the night, just chatting. They were like each other's soulmates.
You know that bit with a boat? That really happened. They just had this really special... It was almost like kismet, like it was meant to be.
Tony told me he appeared in Crossroads first in the '60s when he just got out of drama school. He did a guest spot on it for one week playing Mr Perkins, the estate agent. When they did the rehearsals Noele Gordon went up to him and said, "You should grow a moustache. It would really suit you." And so he did. And that became his trademark.
There's something just really magical about that sense of companionship and how they looked after each other in a really tough time.
It's this idea that these institutions and these people in power are not to be trusted. The way that you find comfort and solace and empowerment is in your friends, in the people that you love. That sense of solidarity, I think, is gonna really, really resonate with where we are politically in the world, but specifically in this country at this time, especially when it's tough out there.
This queer sensibility you bring to Tony is really interesting. After watching Nolly, we did wonder if he was queer in real life.
He's a very open hearted, radically non-judgmental person. He's just a real luvvie, I guess. It's like your classic old-school, Laurence Olivier style. He's loving love. He just takes you as you are. He's not judgmental. He's like a queer straight guy. He's a pioneer at a time when that didn't exist.
I think there's something really special about that and I wanted to capture that kind of queer spirit, shall we say? That camp playfulness, that whimsy. That sense of fun and playfulness and vulnerability and an openness and showmanship. He's your classic, almost vaudeville-era showman. He's a man from another era that doesn't exist anymore.
It wasn't all dark back then. There were good men who cared about women and cared about people who no one else cared about. In part, it's like an homage to that spirit.
Nolly must have been a queer icon of sorts back when she was on Crossroads?
Right? I have older friends who were obsessed with her, but I didn't know who she was, which is so f**ked up. I mean, how the f**k do we not know who this iconic f**king gay icon was?
She was the first woman ever globally on colour TV? Excuse me? John Logie Baird, the guy who invented TV himself just hand-picked her. She was also the first woman to interview a Prime Minister. She had her own chat show.
Crossroads was this inherently queer show. It was about women. The main character was a woman. That didn't happen on TV. It was the only show. That's why it was so ridiculed, arguably. They didn't have the language at the time, but we know now, in hindsight. It's very clear. It's an inherently camp, fun show.
It's the little show that could. It's really subversive in many ways at a time when that wasn't a thing that was seen as a virtue. It was really ahead of its time in this sort of spectacular way. And of course, Russell T Davies would know that, and pick up on that and be like, this is really relevant now.
When Russell was starting to write Nolly, he said he was gonna write this show that was like a behind-the-scenes, the catfights of Crossroads, like everyone's at each other's throats, all bitchy. Not the case. Literally, every single person he spoke to said how incredibly lovely [Noele] was, and how she was the matriarch. She took care of people. You know the stage manager? Noele really did walk her down the aisle at her wedding.
She's a very, very, very special, powerful woman who basically got betrayed by men who were intimidated by her. In this time, misogyny was rampant. It was expected. It was normalised. I hope that she's now rightly remembered as the icon that she should be – this incredibly powerful, authentic, playful, progressive woman who changed TV because that's who she actually was. This beautiful, kind, magical authentic spirit.
There's a scene where Tony has to be up front with Nolly and tell her straight: "You're being a coward." What was it like to film that confrontation with Helena?
I mean that's the sign of a good friend, isn't it? Somebody who can be truthful and honest with you, even when it's tough. Someone who can give you the hard truth.
Also, that scene when we shot it, that was one shot. It's broken up because there's lots of cuts, but we shot that as a 10-minute take each time we did that scene. That scene was 10 minutes of just me and Helena talking to each other back and forth, which is amazing. That's magical. That's like a gift, especially being on TV. You never get to do that.
Nolly will stream on ITVX from February 2, 2023.
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