An infectious new drama relives Boy George’s glory days, before the
0 Comments | Sunday Telegraph, The; London (UK), May 16, 2010 | by Sam Richards
Worried about the boy Sunday, BBC Two, 9.00pm boy George’s reputation is in need of a quick touch-up. The former Culture Club singer will soon have a new album to promote – his first since 2002 – but he’s spent more time in prison than in the UK pop charts over the last decade, and earlier this year his probationary terms (of a custodial sentence for falsely imprisoning a male escort in 2007) denied him the easy option of career rehab via Celebrity Big Brother.
So it’s serendipitous for George that BBC Two has chosen to lead off its new season on the Eighties with Worried About the Boy, a 90- minute dramatisation of the controversial singer’s more carefree early years.
‘I wanted to write an affectionate film and highlight what it is that people like about Boy George,’ explains writer Tony Basgallop, outside a Salford pub that, for reasons of cost, is currently masquerading as George’s early-Eighties Soho hangout the Blitz club.As we speak,20 teenage extras in full New Romantic garb – all gaudy eyeshadow and big hair – troop out of the busy make-up trailer and up the stairs past bemused afternoon drinkers.
If all you remember about Boy George is the heroin addiction which tarnished his early success, or the embarrassing arrests, including one in 2005 for falsely reporting a burglary, Worried About the Boy tries to balance the picture. It offers a convincing glimpse of a sensitive, rebellious pop pioneer who defined the flamboyant fashions of the early Eighties and took androgyny into the mainstream.
‘In ’82, when most of this film is set, I was 14 years old,’ Basgallop continues.’I thought Boy George was fantastic – we hadn’t seen anyone like that before. In ’86, when the drugs took hold, I felt concerned above all, because I’d grown up with him.You could make a completely different film about Boy George, but I wanted people to remember that when Culture Club came out it was a time of great excitement.’ Worried About the Boy succeeds in conveying the colourful whirl of George’s early life, leading up to his first startling appearance, in heavy make-up,onTop of the Pops.Born in 1961, George O’Dowd left the family home aged 16 to live in a squat.We see him in the film then establishing himself as a ‘face’ on London’s club scene and mingling with stars such as David Bowie.There are fights, flings and 40 costume changes before he eventually finds fame with cosmopolitan pop combo Culture Club and falls in love with his drummer Jon Moss.The pair’s affair forms the drama’s backbone.
Seventeen-year-old unknown Douglas Booth has been cast in the drama’s lead role, about which he’s effusive.’There are times when [Boy George] can be quite cruel to people around him, but he’s very tender as well,’ says Booth.’He has a very passionate, fiery relationship with Jon Moss… He’s loving, wicked, vulnerable, irresponsible… and I have a chance to play it all.’ George himself will be flattered by Booth’s portrayal: he is handsome, and he’s caught George’s haughty mischievousness.The singer has acted as a consultant on the project, lending some of his outfits.
‘George sent me a message before we started filming, saying,”I just want to wish you the best of luck… and don’t be camp!”’ says the engaging Booth.’He didn’t want anyone to play him as a camp stereotype, because actually he’s quite manly.’ Gavin & Stacey’s Mathew Horne, who plays Moss, agrees that George’s popular image doesn’t convey the many facets of his character.’The affectionate and sexual side of George that comes out in this film is quite enlightening,’ he explains.’You get a nice dollop of pathos. I think ultimately Boy George is a bit misunderstood – he is a wonderful English eccentric.’The actor doesn’t dwell on the darker, self- destructive side of George’s brand of eccentricity.
Horne is already a star, whereas Booth is one in the making. Booth has recently featured alongside Maggie Smith in the Julian Fellowes film From Time to Time, and fronted a campaign for Burberry. He spends almost every second of Worried About the Boy on screen, and remains utterly absorbing throughout.
Booth may have been born long after Boy George’s singing career had evaporated but he insists that George played an important role in British cultural history.’He was huge in showing young people that being gay, or cross-dressing, was not evil or horrible,’ he says of a time when the only openly gay men on TV were middle-aged camp stereotypes.’The [New Romantic] fashion movement that started at the Blitz club spread across the nation and gave people a whole mode of expression for their sexuality that didn’t exist before.’ Schoolchildren have gathered on the nondescript Manchester road where Booth and Horne are about to film a scene together.When they see Booth emerge in full geisha girl make-up, their jaws drop
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