What’s the best new Brit comedy on TV that you’re probably not watching? Try Beautiful People, the series inspired by the childhood memoirs of Barneys New York creative director/window dresser Simon Doonan.
Raised in suburban Reading, England, but dreaming of escaping to London with his best friend Kyle (who he endearingly calls Kylie), Simon is surrounded by quite a cast of characters. His family—mom, dad, sister, blind aunt—factors hugely in this winning formula, and one of the many wonderful things about the series is how matter-of-fact everyone is about how very different Simon is.
Beautiful People does take liberty with the actual timeline of Doonan’s life, placing the 13-year-old him in 1997, though he was actually born in 1952. That creative chronology provides some quite ripe cultural pickings. Like the Spice Girls, for one. And Tamagochi, too.
Each episode of the series reveals how Simon came to possess a certain object. In recent outing, “How I Got My Tongs” (tongs = a glittery gold curling iron), young Simon was a little freaked out by death, faced with the double passing of his mom’s hairstylist (who he’d told to drop dead) and Princess Diana (who both he and Kylie held in high esteem). Simon’s mental state leads to this bedtime exchange between his parents:
Mom: I’m worried about Simon. He’s gone all morbid.
Dad: Christ, he’ll be listening to Morrissey next.
Forcing Simon to face his fears, his mom takes him to pay his respects to the deceased hairdresser, dolled up and on display at her salon:
While the series is brilliant, if you’re not familiar with the grown-up and very real Simon Doonan, you’re missing out. His droll observations, previously published in the New York Observer and elsewhere, are a total hoot. Among other important topics of our time, Doonan tackles hideous handbags (but not, sadly, buff A&F sales associates), and Thomas Kincade, “Painter of Light,” whose work Doonan describes as “excruciatingly twee,” with unspeakable horrors almost certainly hiding just beyond those picture-perfect scenes.
Beautiful People airs Tuesdays at 10:30/9:30 Central on Logo, with repeats scheduled throughout the week and full episodes available 24/7 at LogoOnline.com.
