The Line of Beauty (2006– )

A young man becomes attached to a family that's not his own, and casts himself into the life of plentiful riches and gay love affairs that he seems destined for.

Stars:

Dan Stevens, Tim McInnerny, Hayley Atwell

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Dan Stevens	...	Nick Guest (3 episodes, 2006)
Tim McInnerny	...	Gerald Fedden (3 episodes, 2006)
Hayley Atwell	...	Cat Fedden (3 episodes, 2006)
Alice Krige	...	Rachel Fedden (3 episodes, 2006)
Carmen Du Sautoy	...	Elena (3 episodes, 2006)
Alex Wyndham	...	Wani Ouradi (3 episodes, 2006)
James Bradshaw	...	Polly Tompkins (3 episodes, 2006)
Oliver Coleman	...	Toby Fedden (3 episodes, 2006)
Lydia Leonard	...	Penny Kent (3 episodes, 2006)
Don Gilet	...	Leo Charles (3 episodes, 2006)
Christopher Fairbank	...	Barry Groom (3 episodes, 2006)
Oscar James	...	Brentford (2 episodes, 2006)
John Warnaby	...	Badger (2 episodes, 2006)
John Standing	...	Lord Kessler (2 episodes, 2006)
Siri Svegler	...	Martine (2 episodes, 2006)
Nikki Amuka-Bird	...	Rosemary Charles (2 episodes, 2006)
Justin Salinger	...	Russel (2 episodes, 2006)
Caroline Blakiston	...	Lady Partridge (2 episodes, 2006)
Julia St. John	...	Greta Timms (2 episodes, 2006)
David Yelland	...	John Timms (2 episodes, 2006)
John Quayle	...	Geoffrey Titchfield (2 episodes, 2006)
Bruno Lastra	...	Tristao (2 episodes, 2006)
Tom Knight	...	Norman Kent (2 episodes, 2006)

Storyline

Nick Guest comes to London to live with his college friend's family, the Feddens. A short stay becomes permanent, and Nick positions himself in the family's plentiful lives of parties and politics during the Thatcher years. Over the course of three episodes spanning four years in the mid-eighties, we follow Nick's two homosexual love affairs in a time of promiscuity and carelessness, until the AIDS crisis and a bout of scandal threaten life as he has come to know it.

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Plot Keywords:

thatcher | scandal | gay | homosexual | party | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 May 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

A Linha da Beleza

Filming Locations:

Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

179 min 179 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the pub scene for Nick and Leo's first meeting, "time" is called at the end of the evening by the real landlord of that pub, the Windsor Castle pub.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Nick Guest: Wow. Is this really where you live?
Toby Fedden: Yep, well, you know, where my parents live. What's the matter, something wrong with it?
Nick Guest: No, it's... it's lovely.
Toby Fedden: Come on, then.

User Reviews

80's hate fest

This British pot-boiler has one thing going for it: the young men are uniformly good looking. The older men are opinionated, right-wing Thatcherites whose behavior brings back all the acrimony of the Reagan/Thatcher years. Young or old, however, morals in this three-part mini-series are universally suspect and no one comes off particularly well.

Nick is a handsome young gay man fresh out of Oxford. It is not pivotal to the story, but he has an extraordinarily beautiful head of hair which makes watching this drivel much easier. Nick comes to London with a friend, whose father Gerald is a rich conservative politician, and babysits his sister Cat while the family frolics in the south of France. They neglect to inform him that, when upset, Cat cuts herself with an assortment of knives and other kitchen implements. Nick mistakes their self-serving 'gratitude' for affection and moves in, finding out too late just how much they despise and patronize him. Inexplicably, Nick lives in this house for four years but, as the plot depends on this point, it's best not to question it.

While Nick is most pleasing to look at, he is unbearably obsequious. His coy subjection to rich bigots soon had me climbing the walls. Deeply closeted except to Cat (she guesses his big secret on sight), he does like a little anonymous sex just so we know he is actually gay. Though it hardly seems possible, Nick takes a lover who is even more closeted than he.

Supercilious Tories scorn and insult the two blacks in the film, so imagine the venom which spews forth when Nick's sexual orientation is reported in a tabloid. Gerald, in true Tory fashion, has become involved in several personal and financial scandals, so the revelations about Nick add to his embarrassment. This gives Gerald one final opportunity to roundly castigate the hapless boy.

Except for one brief moment of indignation, Nick takes the abuse heaped upon him in silence and tacit agreement. Denial, self-loathing, naiveté, or ignorance? You decide, if you can manage to sit through this whole thing without throwing something at the set.