A kiss before dying

I'm huddled behind a monitor at Ken-wood House on Hampstead Heath watching a joyous wedding scene from Clapham Junction, a one-off drama that Channel 4 hopes will stir up more than a little controversy. Surrounded by family and friends, Will (Richard Lintern) and Gavin (Stuart Bunce) are celebrating their civil partnership. As they kiss passionately at the end of an emotional ceremony, they are showered by white petals.

Beaming with pride as he brushes the petals off his jacket, Will announces to his new "husband": "Now we can step out of the shadows and into the light, declaring our love." The scene's message appears clear: it's all hearts and flowers in the gay community these days. Well, actually, no it isn't. It's tempting to pat ourselves on the back for our society's supposedly enlightened attitudes and advances, such as the introduction of civil partnerships and the equalisation of the age of consent, are undeniable. But Clapham Junction, written by Kevin Elyot, indicates that life for the UK's gay community is far from easy.

Prompted by the homophobic murder of 24-year-old Jody Dobrowski on Clapham Common in 2005, Elyot's drama zooms in on the deeply worrying increase in attacks on gay people. During the 12 months to January 2006, the Metropolitan Police dealt with 1,359 incidents of homophobic hate crime, a rise of 120 since the last available statistics. The inference is clear: we have made some progress, but we must still guard against complacency.

The drama, is set around Clapham Common (scene of the then Cabinet minister Ron Davies' "moment of madness" in 1998). It traces a cat's cradle of interconnected stories over 36 hours on a broiling summer's day in London. Will and Gavin's ceremony is intercut with a swanky middle-class dinner party and a group of young thrill- seekers hitting the gay bars. The different strands are woven together as the film builds to a shockingly violent climax on Clapham Common.

Surrounded by Kenwood's exquisite ornaments - an antique harp here, a Thomas Gainsborough portrait there - Elyot explains what inspired this drama. "The shiny surface seems bright and cheerful, but we're not there yet," sighs the writer, previously responsible for My Night with Reg, the acclaimed 1994 play about a group of gay men mourning the loss of a friend to Aids.

"There appears to be a more liberal attitude towards gay people. There are certainly more liberal laws and many more visible gay people in the media, such as Graham Norton, Julian Clary and Paul O'Grady. So the veneer is that everything's fine, but at the same time the incidence of homophobic attacks has gone up. That inherent contradiction makes a good subject for drama."

Clapham Junction which also stars Paul Nicholls, Rupert Graves, Samantha Bond and James Wilby, forms the centrepiece of a Channel 4 season marking the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales. It also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the death of Terrence Higgins, the first man known to have died from Aids in this country and who gave his name to the high-profile organisation that helps people living with HIV.

Over the decades, gay drama has reflected what appears to be the community's inevitable journey from persecution to emancipation to acceptance. Pieces from the 1960s to the 1990s about the oppression of gay people such as Victim, The Naked Civil Servant, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Stonewall have given way in recent years to dramas which have celebrated the hedonism of certain gay life- styles, such as Queer as Folk and The Line of Beauty. Clapham Junction, though, marks a return to a more campaigning, "political" approach. According to Liza Marshall, C4's commissioning editor for drama, "this film will not be fluffy like Queer as Folk because times appear to have changed and gay politics has moved on.

"This is Kevin's take on what it is like to be gay in London today, which is in many ways very disturbing. There has been a rise in gay bashing, but this is accompanied by civil partnerships and widespread public acceptance. We wanted to explore that conflict."

But why has there been this increase in assaults? Elyot says: "I'm sceptical about how effective legislation can be in counteracting bigotry. If you're bigoted, you're bigoted, and no law will change that. Onehas to be one's guard because that prejudice is never far below the surface. It's not helped by the fact that DJs and schoolchildren use the word 'gay' as a derogatory term.

"The rise in attacks might be a reaction to the fact that we now have a much higher presence. That's an irony - the homophobes resent the much greater acceptance of gay people. I'm sure it sets some people's teeth on edge when they see someone like Graham Norton on television. But it just goes to show we can't be complacent. Just as there will always be racism and anti-Semitism, so there will always be bigotry and homophobia."

Elinor Day, the producer of Clapham Junction, takes up the theme. "When pushed, some people still say, 'do gay people have to rub our noses in it?' They have a deep-seated fear of the unknown, an anxiety about a culture that can seem alien and anarchic. Many people feel marginalised and alienated and need a scapegoat. Gay people have become the modern scapegoats."