An Englishman in New York DVD, 2009

John Hurt reprises the role of Quentin Crisp which he played in The Naked Civil Servant over 30 years ago. Milo Wakelin reports that it's well worth returning to.

‘You cannot touch me now. I am one of the Stately Homos of England’, Quentin Crisp declared at the end of The Naked Civil Servant.

John Hurt’s 1975 portrayal of Crisp remains one of the great biographical performances, and in television terms, Civil Servant is as revered as its blue-rinsed subject. Any attempt to make a sequel to this much-loved piece of British TV courts potential disaster; fortunately this is an eminently worthy follow-up whose sombre, reflective tone forms a moving counterpoint to its predecessor.

Partly based on Crisp’s later volume of memoirs, Resident Alien, the film sees the now-notorious raconteur relocate to the Big Apple. At first he is embraced as an erudite English oddity, but just as he teeters on the perilous brink of acceptability, his ambivalence to mainstream gay culture and his thoughtless dismissal of the AIDS epidemic soon confirms his fate as a perennial outsider.

More than 30 years after he first stepped into Crisp’s open-toed sandals, Hurt re-inhabits his BAFTA-winning role with relish, never failing to captivate and entertain.

Milo Wakelin on 1st December 2009
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