PBS will debut British import Vicious
on Sunday.
Vicious, originally titled
Vicious Old Queens, looks at the lives of elderly gay couple
Freddie (played by Ian McKellen of the X-Men series), a
retired actor, and Stuart (Derek Jacobi; I, Claudius), a
former barman. Freddie and Stuart
have endured a love/hate relationship for nearly 50 years.
Jacobi and McKellen are gay in real
life.
The 6 30-minute episode series is
written by Gary Janetti, a former writer and executive producer of
the Fox animated series Family Guy and
NBC's Will & Grace.
The
show, which will return for a second season on ITV later this year,
received a mixed response from critics, many of whom knocked it for
promoting
“camp stereotypes.”
Jacobi
told The New York Times
that the show's colorful characters have turned Vicious
into “the Marmite comedy.”
“Marmite
is a spread in England that you either love or loathe,” Jacobi
explained, “and Vicious
brought with it a touch of the Marmite.”
(A
trailer from the show is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)