Adam and Dan have been a couple for ten years – the same time as equal marriage has been legal. Tom Allen opens his contacts book and magics up some celebrity help for wedding singer, celebrity baker from Bake-Off for a ten-tier cake.A personal stylist designs the outfits and a celebrated choreographer also helps the couple prepare for their first dance. Some beautiful flowers and bouquets are designed by florists. In between all this, Tom traces the history of equal marriage with multiple guests in a mixture of activity, politicians and other figures. We are reminded that there is still some way to go to include everyone in marriage – specifically non-binary people. As part of the programme, Allen also speaks about his own experience of growing up gay in the shadow of the AIDS crisis and Margaret Thatcher’s reviled Section 28 law, which banned the so-called ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in school.
Broadly, the documentary did a good job of reminding us of that marriage once felt impossible for many queer people. Today more than three-quarters of Britons support same-sex marriage compared with well under half in February 2011. That’s a monumental shift in public opinion worthy of celebration. What I found weird was a mix of two genre. One side we are planning for this big outlandish gay wedding but then we are also tracing all the way back to the history if it all on how being gay was criminal, AIDS times, marriage inequality etc. I feel like we have seen this so many times that film could have just focused on journey and activism for gay marriage equality rather than going all the way back to 60s. The attempt to weave vital histories with contrived scenes of the celebs helping the couple pick their suits and plan for wedding felt a bit off to me. We are never told why this couple was specifically chosen. There is too much that has been tried to pack in one hour, but despite all that, this program is still a reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to still go. (4/10)
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