The 3rd in a four part series telling the story of British pop music and our changing attitudes to sex, gender and sexuality.

I may have missed some Morrissey/Smiths references, as I came across this while channel hopping. Getting straight to what I expect you want to hear and mostly avoiding non Morrissey/Smiths references:

Margaret Thatcher speaking at a press conference, looking especially evil and arrogant proclaims, "What we've got is an attempt to substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law, and it must not succeed." Cut to a clip of mounted police using their batons on striking miners. The narator states, "In the wider world, divisions in British society were starting to spill onto the streets. It was time to make your mind what side you were on." The background is Smiths footage of Manchester and Salford lads club. The music is How soon is now? and Panic!

Summing up the 80's; Moving from Thatchrite thinking of promising the philosophy of, I have a good life and you can have it too; Duran Duran Club tropicana, the programme moves to the topic of boy bands dominating the 80's.

A clip of an old tv interview of Marr sitting beside Morrissey is shown. "We feel that the music should be used in order to make serious statements. Emm, so many groups sell masses and masses of records and don't raise peoples level of consciousness in any direction and that we find quite sinful. Especially in these serious times." Says Morrissey.

Morrissey is then cut to Thatcher having her hair done, interlaced with police violence towards striking miners. Then we hear the voice of Marr from a central Manchester pub in a new interview: "We felt really fucked over by Thatchers' government and the environment was pretty crap. Morrissey and me self. We had to escape from that environment. Morrissey turned it into poetry. I turned it into music but I was idealistic and I was in a position where I could just go, you know, this is unfair. This is crap. Because of where I came from really. So pop music gave me a chance to do that. And The Smiths were, we were gonna use that opportunity."

Panic from the concert of The Queen is dead tour, where the schoolboy is singing continues until some expert (sic) being interviewed says, "Morrissey. He represented the sort of lonely young guys at the back of the room (yawn!), the outsider and the outsider is always political."

The narrator continues, "But Morrissey also wrote about much more personal matters". It cuts back to that old interview again with Morrissey saying, "I think within virtually every song there is some, a serious message, a serious implication but it's all done with great erm humour".

Over various clips of videos, concert footage, tv footage of The Smiths and the actual interview, Marr continues the new interview: "We got right in there and said to everybody, lets escape. You know, right ok, you escape from your restrictions and your ideas. You know, you don't have to be...not just you don't have to be straight but you don't have to be 'gay' "(makes a box with his fingers), "or you don't have to be just a bloke. You know? Get rid of all the labels."

"The typical thing is that we made music for people who were disassociated from regular culture. Who couldn't get in relationships. Who sat in their bedroom saying" (mimics writing), "I am alone..eh no. I am so alone. Well, we did but we also made music for lads who went to the football. We made music for people who worked in shops. I know cause I've met 'em".

The narrator moves to William on TOTPs saying, "Morrissey was flirtatious but coy about his own sexuality. Celibacy was central to his appeal. He was touchable and available."

Mark Simpson continues, "Morrissey aimed to put himself above and beyond ideas that we have about sexuality. The new romantic idea of androgyny, which was, it was literally skin deep. Whereas Morrisseys' interior androgyny, if you like, was deeply, deeply threatening and subversive but seductive."

Then to a clip of clause 28 Thatcher, "Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalien right to be gay". I hope that woman dies a slow and painful death.

The narrator says, "The government was promoting economic freedom but personal freedom was another matter." Homophobic interviews of the time moves to the story of the sexually repressed gay community demanding equality and the rise of openly gay artists and sexual openness in the pop world. Then the effect AIDS had on this.

The narrator continues, "The success of Thatchers economic reforms and the price paid. Women were getting stronger, men were taking a battering". to clips of the miners strike and industry such as car manufacturing. "For the male of the species, the world looked less and less certain. The new romantics and the other boy groups of the 80's all split up but one outsider remained." Cuts to the queue of Wolverhampton at Morrisseys' first solo concert. "As Morrissey launched his solo career, his fans became more obsessive."

Mark Simpson cuts in, "He is this man who sings in this extraordinary voice, these extraordinary lines, which no-one else could sing that way or write those kind of lines about longing, about male vulnerability and tenderness. So he give expression to these feelings, which those men. Those straight men otherwise probably have a great deal difficulty expressing in their lives. Perhaps they don't manage it at all!" The footage is of stage diving fans kissing him. Lovely!

Sandie Shaw cuts in, "Morrisseys' work is homoerotic but people didn't seems to realise." Giggle. Giggle. "It's because he represents that growing up time where things are actually ambiguous. People think of him representing their student years where things are a bit, could go anyway and he, not through his work so much but how he was kind of articulated that not knowing."

To images of Morrissey apostles stage diving a guy says, "Entire coach loads of off-duty gas fitters from Bolton will risk death to get on stage. To try either to shake his hand, to hug him or to kiss him, or whatever. Almost although as if they feel that some sort of ritual communication with Morrissey will enable them to connect part of their emotions that they normally feel distant from."

The programme moved to Wham, Madonna and powerful working women before I fast-forwarded to the end in search of Morrissey/Smiths mentions.