Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

The movie version of the West End London hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is like a breath of fresh Yorkshire air and a massive feel-good experience.

The real-life story of Jamie Campbell, a 16 year-old teen from Sheffield, England, and his twin desires to become a drag-queen and go to the school prom in a dress, has echoes of Billy Elliot and The Prom, and a million gay clichés we’ve seen countless time before, but it still manages to inject humor and reality into the cliches thanks to its excellent cast.

Star Max Harwood, a newcomer, is a charismatic Jamie New, and carries the film on his slinky shoulders as he totters around in red platform-soled glitter shoes. It’s an endearing performance that is instantly appealing, and proves he deserves to be in the ‘Spotlight’ with his tiaras and the like.

Sarah Lancashire, as his mother Margaret, brings emotional depth to the role and sings an achingly beautiful ‘He’s My Boy’ late in the film, whilst Lauren Patel has spunk and lots of support as Muslim bestie Pritti Pasha.

But the performance that anchors the movie and the 90s era is Richard E. Grant’s turn as Hugo Battersby, gay father figure, drag supply store owner, and alter-ego drag-queen Loco Chanel. The character is enhanced by the new song, ‘This Was Me’, in which Grant not only displays his flamboyant alter-ego, but encapsulates 40-years of LGBTQ struggle. Sung by Grant and Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead-singer Holly Johnson, it provides younger audiences with some much-needed queer history. The song, which sounds like an undiscovered Boy George number, uses archival footage and recreated historical moments to capture a small part of Britain’s drag culture from the AIDS crisis through the death of Freddie Mercury, gay-rights street protests, cops arresting queer club-goers, to the radical moment when Princess Diana talked to AIDS patients in hospitals. It adds a whopping big emotional dimension to the movie.

The smaller roles are also excellently cast, with Ralph Ineson as the homophobic dad, Samuel Bottomley as the school bully Dean, Shobna Gulati (Sunita in Coronation Street) as family friend Ray, and Sharon Horgan as the tough school careers counselor, all giving fine performances.

Kate Prince repeats her original West End choreography for the movie. It works well, especially the schoolroom and schoolyard sequences where the students joyously show-off Dan Gillespie Sells’ (lead singer of the Feeling) poppy songs. In fact these sequences work much better than similar sequences in the Dear Evan Hanson movie and it’s because of the era-specific sounding songs.

Footage of the real Jamie and his mother plays over the closing credits, whilst Jenny Popplewell’s hour-long original documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 (2011), is also streaming on Amazon Prime. Both are well-worth viewing but especially the movie, which is a must!

Peter Pinne