. Rather, it is a story about how TV itself has shaped our reality. It is also about a way of seeing the world that celebrates every kind of difference, queer and otherwise. As a gay boy, born in Portsmouth in 1960, Bailey was enamoured by Quentin Crisp and knew that, like him, he must somehow get to New York. Television had already become 'a friend. It didn't call you names. It changed my life'. At Oxford, he got a scholarship to film school where he met Barbato. On the plane to the US, he filled in the immigration form which asked 'Are you or have you ever been a member of the Nazi Party?' The next question was: 'Are you a homosexual?' New York in the early 1980s was where he found himself, honing his aesthetic amongst drag queens, bands, punks, clubs and fanzines. He went on to gather the alienated and dispossessed, and put them on TV. He told the stories of outliers, those who society looks down on, wit){kind=link}
TV producer Fenton Bailey made his name with films about misfits, punks and televangelists – then created a global brand with Drag Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race debuted in 2009 on an American gay television channel called Logo, owned by Viacom. It was made very cheaply and the suits thought it would be “a guilty pleasure”. The show built and built, as the host RuPaul’s star quality soon apparent. By 2016 he had won a Emmy and the likes of Lady Gaga were appearing on it. Now Drag Race is made in several countries and has become a global social phenomenon.
Fenton Bailey is the award-winning producer and director behind it, along with his filmmaking partner Randy Barbato. Together they founded a company called World of Wonder and have produced some extraordinary documentaries, TV shows and films – often focusing on misfits or those embroiled in scandals – which have done a great deal to usher gay culture into the mainstream.
In his new book ScreenAge, Bailey gives us glimpses of his 30 years in the business. This is more than a series of celebrity vignettes and gossip (though there appears to be no one that Bailey has not worked with, from Britney Spears to Graham Norton to Anna Wintour to Monica Lewinsky). Rather, it is a story about how TV itself has shaped our reality. It is also about a way of seeing the world that celebrates every kind of difference, queer and otherwise.
As a gay boy, born in Portsmouth in 1960, Bailey was enamoured by Quentin Crisp and knew that, like him, he must somehow get to New York. Television had already become “a friend. It didn’t call you names. It changed my life”. At Oxford, he got a scholarship to film school where he met Barbato. On the plane to the US, he filled in the immigration form which asked “Are you or have you ever been a member of the Nazi Party?” The next question was: “Are you a homosexual?”