Tipping the Velvet, the controversial British mini-series based on Sarah Waters's popular 1999 lesbian novel set in Victorian England, is coming to American television for three nights starting Friday, May 23.
Unfortunately, Tipping the Velvet will only be shown on the digital cable channel BBC America— ( where is Showtime and PBS when you need them?! ) .
For those who have digital cable, the broadcast is a unique opportunity to see the mini-series that created a media sensation when it first aired in the U.K. last fall.
Like the possibly faux lesbian Russian teen pop stars t.A.T.u., who made their first splash in the U.K. by courting the young British lesbian market while also appearing on the cover of the straight British men's magazine MAXIM, Tipping the Velvet occupied an odd double niche in the British media world.
For the British gay audience, the mini-series was a breakthrough for its portrayal of previously untold aspects of British lesbian life and history.
While for many British straight men, the mini-series offered a chance to be leering voyeurs.
Columnist Rowan Pelling of The Independent, for instance, thanked the BBC for scheduling the mini-series in the fall with these salacious words: 'At this time of year, one's thoughts naturally turn to lesbians. If cuddling up to one female body is an appealing thought as autumn rolls in, how much warmer would it be to curl up with two?'
Although such straight male takes on lesbianism offend many and can make one recoil with disgust, it is worth nothing that the notoriously conservative and sexist British tabloid newspaper The Sun ( yes, the one that publishes a different bare-beasted Page 3 model every day ) went so far as to say, 'The series is much more than a story for voyeurs ... [ Thanks, SUN! ] It is a moving love story and exploration of the problems of being a gay woman in Victorian Britain.'
Velvet was guaranteed a huge audience in the U.K. because it was adapted from the Waters novel by Andrew Davies, a popular British screenwriter who is a household name in the U.K. as a result of his adaptations of such classics as Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, Middlemarch, Othello, Moll Flanders and Daniel Deronda. ( Davies is now working on the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary. )
'Sarah Waters writes from a deep understanding not only of the great Victorian writers,' Davies said. 'But also the underground literature of the time—the illicit fiction and private memoirs which revealed the truth about what men and women thought and did in the later years of the 19th century.'
The adaptation turned out to be a lot less work for Davies than some of the other novels he has adapted.
'The book is beautifully written,' he said. 'It has great dialogue and great scenes. I slid back to 'Jane Austen mode,' where you just find yourself copying out huge chunks because you can't improve upon them!'
Tipping the Velvet ( the title is a now-obscure Victorian slang for cunnilingus ) follows young Nan Astley ( Diana Rigg's daughter Rachael Stirling ) as she slowly comes to realize that she is attracted to women, a discovery which leads her into a series of picaresqure adventures right out of Dickens.
Over the years, Nan goes from innocent girl to music hall star, from working in disguise as a male prostitute servicing elderly gay men to becoming the live-in sexual slave of a manipulative, rich lesbian.
Along the way, she finds two true loves and becomes torn between them:
Kitty ( Keeley Hawes ) , a popular music hall male impersonator, and Florence ( Jodhi May ) , an earnest social worker initially unaware of Nan's secret life.
The Story of Tipping the Velvet
As Tipping begins, Nan lives and works in her parents' oyster parlor in Whitstable, a small seaside town in southern England in the 1890s. Confused and unsure of her feelings for her boyfriend, Nan finds herself falling in love with Kitty Butler, a popular 'masher'—or male impersonator—who performs at the local music hall. For Nan, the attraction is instant and she returns to see Kitty night after night.
Eventually Kitty notices Nan and asks to meet her. They become close friends, but Nan is thrown into despair when Kitty tells her that her manager Walter ( John Bowe ) has offered her a career in London. All is not lost, however, as Kitty invites Nan to come to London as her dresser. Once in London, Walter sees Nan and Kitty singing and playing together and suggests they do a double act.
Nan and Kitty become a huge success, and, after a jealous row on the eve of their triumphant debut, the two young women begin a secret love affair—something that Kitty is reluctant to make public.
After a brief visit home, Nan returns to find that Kitty has decided to marry Walter.
Devastated by Kitty's betrayal, Nan takes to the streets to survive, dressed in her guise as a male impersonator—and unexpectedly finds a niche for herself as a 'male' prostitute. At the same time, Nan becomes attracted to a new friend, social worker Florence ( Jodhi May ) —but is unable to tell Florence the truth about her secret street life.
One day, predatory wealthy widow Diana Lethaby ( Anna Chancellor ) spots Nan and picks her up off the streets. Diana's interest in Nan is not romantic—but sexual, acquisitive, and domineering. Although Diana rescues Nan from the street and introduces her to a world of luxury and debauchery, Nan virtually becomes Diana's sex slave in return.
Anna Chancellor, who plays the manipulative Diana, is best known in the U.S. for her role as Henrietta, a guest at one of the weddings in Four Weddings and a Funeral with the unfortunate nickname 'Duckface.' But Chancellor has played major lesbian roles twice on the London stage—in 2001, opposite Zoë Wanamaker in David Mamet's play Boston Marriage, and in 1996, in Pam Gems's Stanley, a play about Stanley Spencer, a real-life eccentric English artist of the early 20th century whose second wife ( Chancellor ) later turned out to be lesbian.
'I think this might be the peak of my lesbian career,' Chancellor laughed. 'I have played gay women before, but I can't say I've ever done anything quite like this.'
After two years, when Nan crosses Diana over her treatment of a chambermaid, Diana throws her back onto the streets. Desperate, Nan seeks out and finds the social worker Florence, to whom she had once been attracted but with whom she had been too ashamed to be honest about her secret life on the streets.
Unfortunately, Florence initially appears to have a husband and a baby and doesn't welcome Nan at all. Florence allows Nan to stay only one night, but the next day, Nan hears that Florence's 'husband' is actually Ralph, her brother—and that the baby is Cyril, the child of a close friend who died.
Nan decides to make herself indispensable. She persuades Florence and Ralph to let her stay and, gradually, she makes herself a part of the family and even becomes involved in Florence's and Ralph's political and social causes. Florence's initial hostility towards Nan soon begins to fade.
The two become very close and, eventually, lovers.
Her self-confidence restored, Nan even returns to music hall performing—but her return to the stage brings Kitty back into her life, anxious to start all over again.
As the mini-series moves towards its conclusion, Nan faces a difficult choice between the two women in her life—Florence and Kitty.
Tipping the Velvet BBC America Part 1: Friday, May 23, 9 p.m. Part 2: Saturday, May 24, 9 p.m. Part 3: Sunday, May 25, 9 p.m. Repeats midnight each night.
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