Tipping the Velvet by Geoffrey Sax (2002)
3 July 2008A sumptuous BBC adaption of the Sarah Waters novel about torrid lesbian romance in Victorian London. This is quite an enjoyable series, and I heard about it because Keeley Hawes who I recently saw in Ashes to Ashes the sequel to Life on Mars, and thought she was a great actress, and she was good in this, though the lead role played by Rachael Stirling is really the standout here. After this I am sure she will be huge. This is quite an enjoyable 3 episodes and I highly recommend checking this out. You have to love that the BBC shows nudity on TV, while we can show violence but not nudity, a part of everyday life. There is not a huge amount here, but enough to make this pretty sexy.
Nancy “Nan” Astley (Rachael Stirling) is a young girl living in Whilstable, England in the 1880’s working in an oyster cafe that her family owns and runs. She doesn’t really fit in, and never is too interested in the boy she dates. Then the man who courting her sister takes the whole family to the theater, and Nan is awestruck by a female impersonator named Kitty Butler (Keely Hawes), and she starts going to the show every night. Kitty ends her act by throwing a rose to a girl in the audience, and one night she goes over and hands a rose to Nan, and then has her taken backstage to her dressing room. The two hit it off, and Nan starts coming every day, and helping Kitty get dressed, but secretly wanting to be here lover. One day Kitty gets a job offer to move to London, and to headline a show, and she asks Nan to go with her, and Nan agrees, and goes to London, living with Kitty and sleeping in her bed with her. One day Nan tries on Kitty’s clothes, and when Kitty sees her, she decides they can do an act with the two of them. Nan goes by the name of Nan King. The first night, they do their act, which includes a kiss, and they are celebrating afterwards, but when Nan dances with a trumpeter, Kitty gets angry and storms out, but Nan follows, and in the carriage the two start kissing and when they get home they make love.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…
Kitty and Nan continue their act, and stay as inseparable though secret lovers for 6 months. Then they get some time off, and Nan goes home, though her sister now hates her and can’t accept her, so she comes back to be with Kitty, but finds Kitty in bed with Walter Bliss (JOhn Bowe) another entertainer. They tell Nan that they are getting married, and what Nan and Kitty were doing is done.
Nan is just crushed. She finds a flat and moves in, and barely leaves, only surviving because a kindly made brings her food. One day the newspaper the food is wrapped in tells of Kittie’s and Walter’s wedding. Nan finally decides to go out, with her boys clothes, and change into a man. While she is out, dressed as a soldier, an old man comes up to her and offers to pay her to give him a blowjob, and she becomes a streetwalker, only jacking guys off and sucking them off. Eventually she moves into a better flat, with a woman and her daughter who is simple in the head. While there she sees a girl named Florence Banner (Jodhi May) who she likes, and goes to tea with, but she starts lying about what she does, and she can’t take it and leaves.
That night a guy is going to bugger her on the street, but is stopped by the manservant of a woman named DIana Leathaby (Ann Chancellor). Diana takes Nan in as a sex slave, and shows her off at her lesbian Tom parties. The relationship last years, but is very unhealthy, and at one of the sapho parties when Diana is going to mistreat her kind maid Zena Blake (Sally Hawkins) Nan has had enough, and talks back, until Diana smashes her face. Nan retreats to her room with Zena, while Zena tells her of her being a reformatory girl after a lesbian relationship, and the two make love, and get out Diana’s phallice, before being caught by DIana and kicked out. Zena gets Nan to sell her men’s clothes, and they get a place to stay, but during the night Zena skips out, and Nan is alone.
Nan tried to find the woman she boarded with, and then goes to find Florence, and finds her married to Ralph (Hugh Bonneville) a kind socialist and their child, and they take Nan in the night, long enough for her to recover, and are kicking her out the next day. Nan is determined to stay though, and cleans the whole house, and cooks a lovely dinner. Nan also learns that Ralph is actually Florence’s brother and the baby was from another boarder. They take Nan in and she works as their made, and takes care of the baby. Florence is always cold, but eventually warms up to Nan and tells her story, where the day Nan stood her up she met a girl at the meeting they were supposed to, and fell in love, though the girl had a boyfriend. The boyfriend left when the girl got pregnant, and she moves in with Florence, and died giving birth to the child, and that is the child, and she can never love again. So Nan is going to leave, but Florence asks her to stay, and they go out to a lesbian bar. Someone recognizes Nan, and she sings a song, which brings tears to Florence’s eyes, and a theater owner hears it, and offers Nan a job singing again.
Nan and Florence head home, and make love, it seems Florence can love again. Nan ends up helping Ralph hold a socialist rally at the theater.
While Nan is rehearsing Kitty shows up and tells her she still loves her and will leave her husband for her, and will come to the show to get her answer. At the show Florence and Kitty are there and Nan seems to be singing to them both, but she throws the rose to Florence, her true love.
And we end with Nan and Florence in Whilstable going to meet Nan’s family.
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Really a lovely story, and something that would never be on normal TV in the states.
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