Who volunteers to be lectured by children?

The screenwriter Russell T. Davies has said that only gay actors should be cast in gay parts, believing this leads to greater authenticity. The obvious question here is how would Russell know who is gay and who is not gay when he comes to casting? It is not always obvious, surely. Do all gay actors who attend casting sessions enter the room humming hits from Mamma Mia! before enthusing over the decor? Perhaps Russell just guesses, like I do when I’m watching the BBC weathermen flouncing around.

The other obvious question is that if it’s authenticity you’re after, surely gay men must never be cast in straight roles? For reasons never properly explained, authenticity doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to straight roles. Unless it is a straight black role: then authenticity becomes even more important. Or, to double down, a trans-gendered black role: then this ectoplasmic concept of authenticity is the only thing that really counts. If they were to shoot another remake of True Grit and decided to cast in the role of Marshall Rooster Cogburn a blind, transgendered paraplegic dwarf, such casting would be warmly applauded by the progressive left.

In other words, authenticity has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue. In a sense, the more inauthentic the better, because in their strange, monomaniacal view of the world, such inauthenticities chip away at the horrible straight, white hegemony under which oppressed people like the millionaire Russell T. Davies OBE live their undoubtedly difficult lives.

Russell is most famous for having written many episodes of Doctor Who, as well as many plays and screenplays about the lives of hedonistic gay folk (which would have been improved greatly by the arrival halfway through of several Daleks screaming ‘exterminate’ and going after the cast right, left and centre from that egg whisk thing they have).