Quote Originally Posted by DebsUK View Post
Oooh, so many instances. There is Christopher Morley in Freebie and the Bean. I know it's a bad role model because he was a crossdressing assassin, but he looked fantastic and that was probably the first time I realised you could actually dress and look like a woman. Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde (the 70s Hammer movies) was something that I really longed for, to be able to change into a woman lke that. I also remember seeing Renee Richards on the telly one time and I was stunned to hear that a man could actually have an operation to become a woman. There was a very early youth show in the 1980s on the BBC called Riverside which featured an interview with someone I don't know the name of, but this was a guy in a dress with big hair, makeup and the works and this made me think I could try dressing in full. There were the New Romantics I was so jealous of because they were wearing makeup and great clothes, especially David Sylvian from Japan. Then I saw Boy George and he blew my mind, he was gorgeous and again gave me something to aspire to. Let's also not forget Roger Taylor from Queen in the "Want to Break Free" video, though that was later in my life, but still had an impact. Otherwise I was always looking out for newspaper articles on transgendered people that occasionally cropped up, even though they invariably showed the subject as a pervert or a weirdo, but it did help me realise there were others like me

These were mostly in my early teens, but there wasn't much in the way of real crossdressing on British TV before then, or not that I saw. You had comedians like Dick Emery who did some female characters, but he was clearly a man in drag, or Monty Python who were the same but actually funny, and there was Danny La Rue who was more glamourous, but I never really saw much of him. We have pantomime with the dame characters, but these are just men in dresss with the worst cartoon makeup. I was always more envious of the principal boy who is a woman playhing a male character, who is unquestionably an attractive woman in a very short skirt and sexy boots playing a boy.
Debs, I remember much the same as you, I think I have a video recording of the Riverside Studio incident (apparently he got friends to sneak in a change of clothes for him, so it was not expected by the interviewer) somewhere.

Two other major television influences for me, were :-

1. An (1970s Christmas?) advert for a portable hairdryer with hood, in which a 17th century cavalier on the run from roundheads, restyled his long hair using curlers and the hood, and got past his pursuers disguised as a woman with ornate hair, corset, floor-length dress, etc.

2. In the cartoon 'Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table' an episode has Lancealot accidently being transformed into a beautiful woman.

I certainly liked the idea of trying both of these out for myself. I would dearly like to see these short items again.

Regarding Christopher Morley, I think he was in a number of U.S. programmes & films, including a hospital soap where his 'female' character had a number of weeks, before being exposed as a crossdresser.

Is there a website/resource where those of us who have such clips could share them with our fellow members?

Sandra