That was the advert over ten years ago when Channel 4 was going to broadcast one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen.... Armistead Maupin's Tales Of The City. Set in San Francisco at the height of disco, hippies and free love, the tales of this city surrounded the antics and tenants of 28 Barbary Lane on Russian Hill. The landlady was Mrs Anna Madrigal who welcomed each new tenant with a joint attached to their door. Dull and naive Mary Ann Singleton turns up in San Francisco seeking a new life and finds it in Mrs Madrigal's building. Casting had never been so perfect when Olympia Dukakis was signed to play the mysterious landlady. The tales also meant that we met Beuchamp Day, Mona Ramsey, Dr Jon Fielding, DeDe Day and Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver as their lives intertwine and affect each other sometimes without ever meeting.
It was also the first show where some hot man on man action was going to happen and I remember being in Majorca when it started and was majorly pissed off and never got into it until it was repeated a few years later. After that, I bought all the books in the series and adored it. I was enraptured withMichael. I adored his relationship with Dr Jon. I cried when Jon contracted AIDS and time moved on in Barbary Lane, I laughed when we discovered the truth about Mrs Madrigal. I hated Mary Ann by the end, Mona was a moaner and the wild situations kept me turning pages night after night. It showed a side of San Francisco that has partly inspired me to go to San Fran in a few weeks. I want to find Barbary Lane and soak it all in!! The storytelling of Maupin is superb and the fact that there was even some sauna action topped it off!!
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