''Like It Is'' is a 1998 British

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

-themed

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

. It stars Steve Bell, Ian Rose,

Roger Daltrey Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is a co-founder and the lead singer of the rock band The Who. Daltrey's hit songs with The Who include " My Generation", " Pinball Wizard", " Won't Get Fooled ...

and

Dani Behr Dani Behr (born 9 July 1970) is an English former singer, actress, voice-over artist, and television presenter. Early life Behr was born in Mill Hill, London, of South African Jewish descent. Her father is a partner in London estate agents Be ...

Plot summary

Matt (Rose) is a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

music promoter who wants to one day own his own club. His flatmate is Paula (Behr), a pop singer whose music he helps promote. While accompanying her on a personal appearance at a gay club in Blackpool, Matt meets Craig (Bell), an unemployed youth who makes ends meet as a backroom bareknuckles fighter. They go back to Craig's place to have sex but it's Craig's first time and he freaks out. Matt leaves his card and takes off. Craig wins his next fight and the fight promoter plans to put him against an opponent Craig labels a maniac. Rather than fight, Craig goes to London and finds Matt. Matt invites him to stay, but Paula's not pleased about it. Also not pleased is Kelvin (Daltrey), Matt's boss, who wants Matt to help put over his new pop group ZKC and doesn't want him distracted. Matt agrees to put the final touches on ZKC's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

in exchange for the opportunity to run Kelvin's club when it re-opens. Meanwhile, a friend of Matt's offers Craig a staff job at his club. Unfortunately, on his first night he gets into a fight with one of the patrons. He calls Matt, who ditches a video editing session to retrieve Craig. Kelvin is livid, but invites Craig to a party at his house anyway. The invitation is a pretext, however, to break up Matt and Craig. Kelvin offers Craig a job doing "market research" (meaning travelling around Northern England with several others, buying copies of Paula's and ZKC's new single to manipulate the pop charts) to keep him away from Matt for several weeks. He also aims Jamie, a member of ZKC, at Craig, who has a drunken one-night stand with him the night before he leaves for his job. While Craig is away, Matt learns about his fling with Jamie. Paula also acts to keep them apart, refusing to give Matt his messages from Craig. Craig returns to London the night of a music awards show at which Paula and ZKC are scheduled to perform. Matt confronts Craig but forgives him, then has to calm down Paula, who's terrified of performing live, and Jamie. Kelvin tells Craig that he won't be needed any longer for "market research." Jamie and Matt have had a previous fling as well and, while high on

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

, they start making out. Craig catches them and storms out. Matt catches up to him and Craig asks him to leave with him right then. Matt hesitates and Craig leaves. Craig returns to Blackpool and agrees to take the fight. Matt, preparing for the club opening, decides to go to Blackpool after him. Kelvin fires him from the club and the record company. Matt meets Craig's brother Tony, who figures out the nature of their relationship. Tony, who just wants Craig to be happy, helps Matt find him, finally tracking him down at the fight. Craig loses badly, but he's bet all the money he made in London against himself and makes a big payday. Matt and Craig decide to give it another go.

Cast

* Steve Bell as Craig * Ian Rose as Matt *

as Kelvin *

as Paula * Jude Alderson as Gloria * Emile Charles as Aylon * Chris Hargreaves (billed as Christopher Hargreaves) as Tony, Craig's Brother * Paul Broughton as Minto * P.J. Nicholas as Jamie * Sean Simpson as Jack * Charlie Caine as Terry, DJ * Stephen Burke as Luke *

Dickon Tolson Dickon Tolson is a British actor who started training at the Anna Scher Theatre school when he was 8 years old. Between 1996 and 1998, he appeared as Lee Simms in 12 episodes of ''Peak Practice''. In 1998, he appeared as 'Dirty Dave' in Like ...

as Dirty Dave * Chris Ross as Andy * Tony Van Silva as Fight Loser * Suzy King as Amy * Ursula Lea as Sonya * Suzanne Hall as Train Girl * Jason Redshaw as Dancer in nightclub

DVD release

''Like It Is'' was released on Region 1

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on 7 August 1999. It was re-released 19 May 2004, along with '' The Wolves of Kromer'' and '' Boyfriends'' in a box set entitled ''The Best of Gay Britain''.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Like It Is''
at

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

1998 films British boxing films British romance films British LGBT-related films 1990s English-language films British independent films LGBT-related sports drama films 1990s romance films Films set in Blackpool 1998 LGBT-related films British sports drama films 1990s British films