Channel 5 gives London lesbians their first reality TV show – ‘The Candy Bar’ – just a pity it sounds like a car crash
by Petit Fours
Well. London is getting its own Real L-Word and it’s called “The Candy Bar”. As in that club in Soho where they have strippers and you went when you first came out, back when you had a Shane haircut and were terrified and thought that groping strangers in sportswear was the only way to be a lesbian.
Yes, the CandyBar, don't pretend you haven't been there
It’s a six part series, filming now in and around London and it’s going to be shown on Channel 5 this Spring.
The plot is based around the relaunch of yes - The Candy Bar – and follows a handful of lesbians-about-town as they try to reconcile things like their career as a stripper with their desire to enter the modelling industry.
TMC favourite Shabby Katchadourian is one of the stars.. we think there about six in total. One is the 21 year old model / pole dancer Dannii Orsii, then there’s her girlfriend Lucy, DJ Lil’Jo who’s trying to juggle a drama course with her job behind the decks, all while looking for love. Aren’t we all.
We only have one picture, it's very small but does have Shabby in it
I suppose it was inevitable someone would decide to make a reality tv show about lesbians. After all Lindsay Lohan made it sort of sexy back in 2008, that BBC one got a second series commissioned, and the whole lesbian sex thing sure looked pretty hot in that film about ballet.
I suppose it was also inevitable that it would make 80% of us pound our fists into our eyes, heave deep sighs and moan about how this will take representation of lesbians back about two decades and make everyone think we are either strippers or DJs. Reality TV hasn’t been very kind to either fat people or gypsies, so the fear is that it’s not going to make us come across very well.
Being Channel Five – famously owned by porn baron Richard Desmond – it was never going to be Dispatches, but we got interesting little insight into the mechanics behind the show from someone who applied for (but didn’t get) a job in The Candy Bar doc’s production team. She relayed to us a little snippet of her interview…
Exec: I know lesbians are all going to twat superstore or whatever but the candy bar has offered us the place for free.
Our contact: Twat Boutique. So who’s on the casting list apart from Shabby?
<Exec lets her rifle through photos and character summaries>
Our contact: I don’t know anyone on this list.
Series Producer: We’re going young. And this one is a dominatrix.
On the balancing side, we understand there are a range of story lines including some more mature and slightly less cliched characters. And you know- representation is good right?
I guess we’re gonna have to reserve judgement until we actually get to watch this thing, but in the meantime : Any thoughts cake-readers? Anyone know any more about it?
[facts via DigitalSpy]
More scathing coverage of Television gays?
Owie: Lip Service: Banana Bread’s take on BBC 3′s lez drama
View from the Couch: Lip Service Episode 5
Tuesday Top Ten.. Things We Have Learnt from the Real L-Word
Our early predictions: New London lez reality show: could it be you
Proof that someone does actually fancy Whitney
YES!
Dear Petit Fours, I am surprised to find you don’t seem to be aware one of your best writers is actually part of the cast of this reality show. Unbelievable to find someone who you must find ‘cool enough’ to be allowed to contribute to your website, actually being part of a ‘mainstream’ tv program showing the lifestyle of lesbians you all fight so hard to remove yourselves from.
I am sure showing people the video you guys made last year will portrait lesbians as we really are. We all have weird haircuts, ride funny bicycles, have lots of tattoos and live in council estates. Awesome!
Well obvs some of us know… But nb, it wasn’t Petit Fours who didn’t know cast members, it was the girl she was interviewing. NB also re the article in general – This is Petit Fours’ opinion, and a range will be presented, of course. Just as we presented a million opinions (harsh to very complimentary) on Lip Service, we will do the same with this show :)
PS
a. Um if you meet any of us (especially me) you will realise we are the biggest geeks you will ever meet. The only proviso for writing for us is that you’re a good writer (like said girl)… seriously, look through our content, it’s actually usually super geeky and “mainstream”…
b. Also watch said video again… there are definitely a range of girls… I for one have always had very boring long hair, zilch tattoos and have never lived on a council estate. You could almost call me square (correction: you could). And I’m in it, proudly acting like a douche, dancing badly and covering myself in cake.
@TheInsider – I’m honestly not sure where this sudden perception that we’re all elitist and stuck-up has come from – this couldn’t be farther from the truth, which you would really know if you met us. And what LT says is true – we literally take submissions from anyone whose writing is good – it doesn’t matter what the subject is and it doesn’t need to be based in East London and it doesn’t even need to be based in the UK (a lot of the stuff I write, for example, is not set in the UK at the moment).
Really though – we’re pretty much of the opinion that everyone is “cool enough” to write for us – so there’s no need to be so aggressive about it. Also – reality TV shows tend to be a load of crap, and this is true about everything, not just ones that feature Shabby.
FOR EXAMPLE The Real L Word was a load of toss, but we all watched that, didn’t we? (We did.)
You win
DFC – Lexie has lots of details on this – ask him. His flatmate was asked to be in it as a main character but apparently said no, but will still feature at the sides.
SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE.
Sorry for that mainstream pop culture reference, I’ll get right back to re-shaving my undercut and making dubstep remixes of the XX.
one thing i heard was that it was originally proposed by a lesbian producer, who was firing ahead with getting an all-gay production team and making something that would work for the channel five slot but also just be quite good. but now it’s all been taken over some guy with a random team whose approach to authenticity is getting a cheap venue and centring it around Gary Henshaw – and the relaunch of the Candy Bar.
really it’s more the lack of imagination in tying it to the clubbing/pole-dancing scene again and situating it in the most advertised and commercial place in london. but then – maybe that’s just TV for you. however, imma gonna call it out where i see it. we’re allowed to comment, just we commented fully and heartily on the Real LWord &lipservice…
@insider – i do indeed know that one of our very good writers is in it, which is what i was referring to here – “a range of story lines including some more mature and slightly less cliched characters”. It was just disappointing that the press release leaked to digital spy didn’t reflect that and just focussed on the 21yr old poledancer stuff.
Our writer has had a v impressive career and is a really interesting person, just hope it gets space to come across in the edit. we’ve asked for an interview to balance it out.
OF COURSE i’ll watch it religiously: i had lots of love/hate with the real L-Word and it actually made me so excited i couldn’t breathe sometimes.
[not the times with whitney]
LEAVE WHITNEY ALONE!
(Imma getting this on a t-shirt)
I saw the casting call looking for “artists, tattoo artists, dancers and other lesbians in young, creative jobs”. That’s a pretty self-damning statement. They weren’t looking for Real L-Word Tracy types, just people with a flex-schedule who will hopefully make fools of themselves. They could have asked for any sort of person, and they went for the low-hanging fruit. Then the focus on the Candy Bar… WHAT?!?
I’m “friends” with two girls in the doc on facebook, and me and my friends are avoiding anyplace they’re filming. Cameras were supposed to be at Twat Boutique, so a load of us partied somewhere else, but then they apparently didn’t go there in the end. This show is going to be so embarrassing.
The trouble with ‘Real L-Word’ type lesbians, is they don’t wish to out themselves to their boss, their local grocery man and their ex-girlfriends parents by appearing on a reality TV show. It’s a shame as London has many intelligent, good-looking and successfully Normal lesbians, all living normal lives and more than happy to bypass their five minutes of fame.
I’m just glad the show is following at least one person who isn’t a dominatrix, a pole dancer or is living in a squat. As for the rest I shall be holding my breath..
[Comment removed by moderator]
[Comment removed by moderator]
oh my gosh. ‘fat people or gypsies’ i actually laughed so hard when i read that. because its so very true! i went to the CandyBar when i moved to London and hadnt yet made any friends and it was an experience and a half. thankfully i made some friends there and didnt have to go back.
i would definitely watch this show religiously.. but probably with all my mates and we would spend the whole time talking about how much we hated it. because thats what lesbians do when they watch bad lesbian shows.
I have to say that this is an amazing and really funny blog!! I am truly loving it right now!
About the “Candy Bar Girls” TV show coming, I believe that it is pretty early to make any comments about something we haven’t see yet. I absolutely agree with fact that not every lesbian has short-hair, tattoos, overweight and is looking for drama and if you do… Who cares???? Come on… welcome to the new century, people is free to express themselves in their own way. I am not the “stereotype”, I have long hair, I love going to the gym and I work in an office. I am sure that there are many lesbian that aren’t the type you will find at Candy Bar or the highlighted characters that we will see in this TV show but it is almost impossible for a reality show to find every single “type” of person who has that much hunger for fame that agreed to expose their private live on a TV show.
So… Let’s give a chance and we will back to open the discussion.
PS: Even if you hate Candy Bar you have been there at least once.
You have to be kidding me. First off this is channel 5 if anyone thinks they are interested in how real lesbians live in London they are deluded. Have you seen the advertising on the underground….. It’s a massive billboard with LESBIANS in big pink writing. It may as well have said ” guys if you fancy pervin on some lezzers tune in” . I’ve seen the rushes and believe me this ain’t gonna be good. The candy bar have pimped themselves out . I mean apart from tourists who actually goes there. 1 step forward and ch. 5 and the candy bar take us 20 back . Well done
The show was about Candy Bar appealing to new lesbians, trying to lure you all back from Dalston. So all they have done is change the interior design but kept the strippers.
Now I recall! that’s why I havent been in there so long- it must have been the wall paper..and nothing to do with the revolting strippers…