Related: Watch the incredibly queer new trailer for Netflix’s Tales of the City revival The new characters (which Armistead is thrilled to note represent “all the colourations of the flag”) have all sorts of dilemmas to contend with, plus there’s a flashback to Mrs Madrigal’s life as a trans woman in 1960s San Fran and a blackmail plot that’s as edgeof-the-seat thrilling as it is comical. I think people need to take the ride for themselves.”Īnd what a ride Tales Of The City 4.0 is! Without spoiling things with spoilers, it brings back Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver (played by Looking’s brilliant Murray Bartlett) and gives him a younger boyfriend, which leads to a few generation-gap clashes. But I’m uncomfortable about analysing it too much. Maupin feels this fourth series couldn’t be more timely, with the writer of a memoir entitled Logical Family saying: “I think we all need to feel the security of a logical family, of kindred spirits around us.
The first series debuted in 1993 and was produced by Channel 4 and PBS, then when the latter pulled the show (allegedly because of pressure from religious groups and the far right) its two sequels were co-produced with Showtime and aired in 19 respectively. It’s great that we have our voices heard in so many ways this time round.” “Then I remembered I didn’t have token straight people when I wrote the goddamn thing. “And at first heard I thought ‘Maybe we should have at least just one token straight person’,” Armistead jokes. These vivid new characters sprang from the experiences and imaginations of an all-queer writers’ room. Tales Of The City is queerer than ever this time round, with Mary Ann Singleton (a peerless Laura Linney) returning to 28 Barbary Lane after 20 years away to discover lovably eccentric landlady Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis) is hostess to some familiar faces as well as some new ones – including Garcia’s trans man Jake, Ellen Page’s very woke gay girl Shawna and May Hong’s sexually fluid Margot. It’s going to every country except the ones that don’t have Netflix, so it’s going to Iran.” He laughs. With a satisfied chuckle, the author adds: “The main thing I can’t believe I’m seeing right now is this version of Tales Of The City in 2019. Huge progresses have been made in LGBTQ representation in the 43 years since Maupin began penning the stories, which were initially serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle before being turned into novels and eventually adapted for television, prompting the 75-year-old to marvel: “Any old queer, this one in particular, will tell you it’s gotten better for us and we can’t believe what we’re seeing right now.” “But of course we wanted Netflix because it reaches everywhere,” says the creator of the most enduring queer saga in literary and TV history. The fact the new Tales Of The City is going out on a global platform isn’t lost on Armistead Maupin.
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