Ah, but Roger Collins wore HIS ascots "with a difference"!
I'm fascinated by the notion of (RT) Roger Collins as a closet homosexual. It would actually explain a lot about the character. In some ways he is very much in the vein of stereotypical "killer queens" in the more lurid 1950s paperback--the sort that came along in between Gore Vidal's "The city and the pillar" (1948) and John Rechy's "City of Night" (1963) (James Barr's "Quatrefoil" published in 1950, evokes the "twilight world" of closeted gay men of that time with a vivid clarity). I am thinking now particularly of the original concept of Roger as seen in the first year of the series. With Jason's appearance on the scene, Roger segues more into the snooty rural country club squire type--the kind who would characterize the rough trade his niece was dating as a "cheap, insufferable pig!" (lol) I always wondered whether Roger got written out of the Summer of 1970 storyline simply because the writers had run out of things for him to do. I would guess that the real reason is that Louis Edmonds was doing theatre and needed a break.
The gay man who desires the glamorous woman of wiles appears most obviously in Laura, but in All about Eve the character of Addison is the same, and I still find his scene where he claims "Eve Evil, little Miss Evil" for his very own unutterably delicious. In my younger days I found this scene just plain confusing because, like Eve herself, I couldn't imagine what Addison was actually planning to DO with her. Presumably, become a trophy wife who would put paid to those persistent rumors regarding his true nature.
Fascinating speculations in this thread...
G.
