Joe Lycett to celebrate queer culture with Birmingham based extravaganza – Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party

9 June 2022

To mark Channel 4’s Proud All Over programming celebrating 50 Years of Pride in the UK, Joe Lycett is hosting a big queer party, live from his Birmingham hometown. The two-hour inclusive spectacular, which will form the climax of the Pride season, will see the comedian and consumer warrior celebrating all things LGBTQ+ alongside a whole host of famous faces.

Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party will be full to bursting with Joe’s trademark wit, a barrage of naughtiness, and just a smattering of righting wrongs as Joe is joined by a dazzling line up of celebrity guests including Hollywood superstar Rupert Everett, Heartstopper sensations Joe Locke and Yasmin Finney, comedian Mawaan Rizwan and Drag Race queens Lawrence Chaney and Tia Kofi.

Confirmed to perform are queer heroes Boy George and Culture Club, Steps, Self Esteem, with further announcements in due course. Danny Dyer will make a cameo from the closet, Rosie Jones is out on the road and comedian Jen Ives will also feature.

We’ll also be counting down the Top 10 LGBTQ+ TV moments and the specially invited audience – made up of LGBTQ+ icons, allies of the LGBTQ+ community, and local heroes – will be sharing their own personal stories of Pride.

Joe Lycett: “As a straight white man who works in scaffolding I’m not quite sure why I’ve been asked to host this????”

Louisa Compton, Head of News, Current Affairs and Specialist Factual and Sport who is overseeing Channel 4’s Pride season: “As a broadcaster who has proudly championed LGBTQ+ programming for forty years, we are delighted to be marking the climax of our Pride at 50 season with Joe Lycett’s loud and proud celebration live from his Birmingham hometown. This isn’t just any party – it’s a Pride party with purpose - and whilst we’ll be celebrating all that’s been achieved we’ll also be calling out where progress has stalled across the world. Watch out for some very noisy and exciting stunts.”

Steve Handley, Commissioning Editor for Entertainment at Channel 4: “The Big Pride Party is set to be an unmissable mix of joy, mischief and purpose, all with a sprinkling of the tour de force that is Joe Lycett. We are thrilled to be able to get together in Birmingham with Joe and celebrate, with Pride.”

Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party was commissioned by Phil Harris, Head of Entertainment and Events and Steve Handley, Commissioning Editor for Entertainment at Channel 4. The 1 x 120’ programme is a Rumpus Media co-production with My Options Were Limited; the Executive Producer is Susan Maxwell, and the Series Producers are Mark Barrett, Charlotte Barker and Alan Thorpe. 

Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party will TX this Summer on Channel 4.  

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Channel 4’s Pride at 50 season

Channel 4 is marking 50 years of Pride in the UK with a special season of landmark programmes and specials. This bumper season of high profile content will reflect on the incredible achievements and challenges of advancing LGBTQ+ rights and visibility over the last half century, while also platforming the diversity of identity and sexuality in the 2020s.  

The programming will include:

50 Years of Pride (w/t)

Channel 4 has commissioned a feature-length documentary from BBC Studios to mark the 50th anniversary of Pride in the UK, made in collaboration with filmmaker Stephen Daldry & playwright Joe Robertson.

Since 1972, each summer brave bands of men, women and non-binary protesters have marched the streets of Britain for recognition and equality.  Over the years, Pride has developed from a small scale protest march to a spectrum of parades and events across Britain which annually draw many millions of participants and spectators. Pride has become a mass celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. 

This documentary will reveal the surprising and overlooked history of Pride: its origins, its struggles and its triumphs.  Made in creative and editorial collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Stephen Daldry and playwright Joe Robertson, the documentary will tell the story of Pride primarily through first-person testimony and archive footage.  We'll hear from people who shaped the movement from the start, facing down intense hostility and discrimination, as well as from a younger generation for whom Pride has always been part of their life and identity.  The film will also tackle difficult questions: is Pride sufficiently inclusive of all voices in the LGBTQ+ community?  Is it a protest or a celebration?  Has Pride sold out?  This is a love letter to Pride… but a love letter from a slightly grumpy lover.

The film will – by turn – be heart-warming, mischievous, funny, shocking, and moving, as it explores the sea change in attitudes that have characterised the last half-century and explores the ways in which these changes have been influenced by and reflected at Pride.  It will tell some remarkable personal stories of courage, love, support, anger and determination that have defined 50 years of UK Pride.  Fabulous costumes and an incredible soundtrack are all but guaranteed…

April Ashley

This single documentary tells the epic story of how one transgender woman changed Britain and how Britain changed for transgender people. April, who died last year at the age of 86, was one of Britain’s most prominent transgender women – a model, dancer and restaurateur whose life took her from the slums of wartime Liverpool to the height of Knightsbridge society. In the late 1950s April became a dancer in an infamous Parisian nightclub, before travelling to Casablanca to undergo pioneering gender reassignment surgery. Returning to Britain she became a model for Vogue before being outed by a tabloid newspaper. From then on her life was a rollercoaster involving celebrity friendships, a landmark divorce trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, and an MBE for services to transgender equality. Through April’s story, and interviews with a stellar cast of contributors, the film will take the audience inside the intimate reality of the transgender experience and explore how this celebrated trailblazer paved the way for future generations of transgender people. 

Outed: George Michael and the Fight for Freedom

Channel 4 has commissioned Blast! Films to make Outed: George Michael and the Fight for Freedom (w/t) – a two-part documentary re-examining the watershed moment that the pop icon’s 1998 outing as a gay man and how he refused to be ashamed, speaking honestly about his sexuality, risking his career and his reputation. Reflecting on a time when the outing of gay men in the media was commonplace, the series will tell the story of a culture war – between those who wanted to turn the clock back on gay rights and the musicians, actors, sports stars and politicians who took on the haters – and won. In a first for British television, the documentary will use the first-person testimony from public figures who were outed by the press, as well as journalists of the era, to unpack the history of outing and the fight for LGBT people to be out, proud and free to be themselves.

A Celebrity Gogglebox special will see a mix of series favourites and some of Britain’s best loved LGBTQ+ personalities – including Rylan and his mum Linda, Nick Grimshaw and his niece Liv, and Paul Sinha and his husband Oliver – take to their sofas, ready to share their views with the nation for a very special Pride anniversary episode. Further names of those taking part will be revealed in due course. There will also be special compilations of Naked Attraction and First Dates celebrating some of the memorable LGBTQ+ contributors across both shows, each of which have consistently showcased diversity and inclusion.

Across All 4 there will be a special collection of content that reflects on how Channel 4 has been at the forefront of pushing LGBTQ boundaries with ground-breaking programming. Film4 and Channel 4 will be showing a number of films exploring representation-from ground-breaking classics like My Beautiful Laundrette and Buddies to recent hits like Rocketman, Gods Own Country and Love, Simon.

ENDS