ou‘ve never had it so good so many times. In terms of popularity with television producers. the 50s is a decade rivalled only by the Roaring 20s. Every props workshop worth its . position on a Producer‘s Choice
f shOpping list is stacked to the rafters with
3 jukeboxes. Brylcreem. Winkle-pickers.
i beehives and inflatable Marilyn Monroes.
’ Meanwhile in Winnebago parks across the US of A. menopausal former rockers with names dike Guy or Bobby are still kept in semi-
9i
$.."
A-wop-bop-a-loobop-a-wop-bam you know the rest. Tom Lappin finds Channel 4’s Dennis Potter serial Lipstick On Your Collar is more than just another bash at 503 nostalgia.
comfortable drug habits by the royalties they earn from snippets of their old hits used on TV. Lipstick On Your Collar. Channel 4‘s six-part spring drama series thus runs the risk of finding us all fiftied-out. We’ve already had to suffer Carlton‘s Head Over Heels, a sugary slice of rock ‘n‘ roll schoolgirl nonsense crammed with careless anachronisms. Do we really need another upbeat and vibrant evocation of a bygone age when boys were men and girls wore frightening underwear? With loads of singing and dancing. dusty old hits and moody
Ill»
i
f
Giles Thomas, Louise Germaine, Ewan McGregor, and Kimberley Huffman
‘quiffs‘.’ Written by Dennis Potter?
Hold on a sec. did you say Dennis Potter‘.’ He of Brimstone And TIPUC/U. Pennies Front Heaven and The Singing Detective fame‘.’ Apparently so. Despite giving the impression that he had submerged in a swamp of voyeuristic perviness with his last two works. the pretentious Blackeves and poorly-received Secret Friends. Potter has returned with an optimistic. almost escapist. series that looks set to be his most popular work since The Singing Detective scandalised Mary Whitehouse and titillated the rest of us with those buttocks in the forest scenes.
‘This is the third part of a trilogy.” explains Lipstick On Your C ollar‘s producer Rosemary
Whitman. ‘After Pennies From Heaven and 30s j
14 The List 12—25 February 1993