Circumstantial evidence (London)

I was working on The Heart of The Dragon, a 12-part documentary series on China to start being aired in January 1984 on the then-nascent Channel 4.  (We were meant to be one of the series of three:  The Arabs, The Chinese, The Russians.  Then, a few months into our 2-year project, we discovered a Canadian team had finished their 6-part series called The Chinese, so we had to change our name.)

Towards the end, we called in a Picture Researcher, Douglas Tunstall, who’d been a Canadian Film Board director / producer, to work on the coffee table book to go with the series. 

He was based in Malaga at the time, so after The Heart of The Dragon, I’d only see him when he came to spend winter in London (and summer in N.America).  We’d go for lunch and talk films.  

One day, we were in a Japanese restaurant right by Great Portland Street Tube — not a particularly busy part of London, therefore deserted at lunch time, with only one other table occupied (3 people).  Douglas was sitting with his back to those people, who were on the other side of the restaurant.  We were catching up on what films we’d seen recently, and up came the Japanese film: Ai no korīda, 愛のコリーダ, “Corrida of Love” (1976, English title: In the Realm of the Senses, by Ōshima Nagisa 大島渚).  

Now, the visual background: Douglas was 30(?) years older.  He used to wear a mac (the flasher image comes to mind here).  And he had a loud voice.

He said, “Oh!  I can’t s-t-a-n-d that film!  Sexual intercourse!  Sexual intercourse!  Sexual intercourse!”  The people at the other table turned round, and what they saw was:  a white man, wearing a mac, 30(?) years older than the young(ish) Oriental woman he was with.  What kind of image do you think that conjured up!?  Luckily, it was London, not the East (like Taiwan).  It was so funny.

The funniest bit is: Douglas was gay, and had been with his partner Dallas since 1950, even before I was born.

(London, mid-1980s)