Mean + Gay= British!!!

[March 15th, 2006] "I want my BBC!" BBC America, that is.

Move over, Patsy and Edina. The days of watching bleeped-out versions of AbFab on Comedy Central are over. The U.S. cousin of the bawdy BBC, is the place to be if you want to watch the latest batch of bitchy queens.

For eight years, BBC America has introduced us to the likes of Ricky Gervais and the trashy Footballers' Wives. But come Friday, the network gets even more sordid with the pairing of Little Britain and High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, shows that make the stuff on HBO look like PBS.

This is the third season for LB. For those not accustomed to its fiercely fresh humor, it might come as a bit of shock. Creators and stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas' characters are a-holes of the highest order. Perhaps none more so than "Bubbles" (a free-loading, zaftig spa-goer who loves to get naked) and "Dafydd—the only gay in the village." This is the only place where you'll see a hairy vagina, an old lady pissing her pants and a prostitute wiggling his ass while telling someone to sod off—all on the same show.

What's weird about LB, which is just a showcase for foul drag queens and freaky queers, has become a phenomenon with straight audiences. This U.K. hit has its own line of action figures, for chrissakes.

And speaking of Christ, the mean-spirited High Spirits might be the BBC's next big import—and most sacrilegious. A psychic medium (who looks like a large), Shirley Ghostman purports to "have VIP access to the backstage area of heaven." I spoke with him from "Londonian."

On High Spirits, Ghostman pretends to channel famous dead folk. But his studio audience isn't in on the joke. They think he's the real thing. They're also led to believe he has a psychic sidekick, a dead dog named Sheba. "I don't like to pick myself up," says Ghostman. "But what I'm doing is fucking genius."

What this "genius" does is skewer fakers like John Edwards who don't have a ghost of a chance of knowing what's going on in the spirit world ("Edwards is a woman trapped in a man's body and gay, gay, gay" says Ghostman).

I think that's why he's so nasty. "Any nastiness comes from the spirits, not from me," says Ghostman, "because I'm lovely."

And what's not to love about a man who calls a dead Lady Di his "rock." "She actually came through me last night," says Ghostman, "and Dodi as well. They've had a baby in heaven called Diddi. Dodi and Di have done the Diddi."

But don't call this campy fellow gay. "I'm not gay, all right," says Ghostman. "I'm not some queen...but Frank Sinatra once came on my face."

American telly may never be the same.