The cast of Gunpowder Milkshake is enough to have us gays quaking in our boots anyway but the fact that Carla Gugino aka older Jamie from The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Lena Headey aka Luce from Imagine Me & You are BOTH in it? You can't put the actresses who played the ultimate flowershop lesbian dreamboats in the same movie and expect us to LIVE!! I mean, I'll die HAPPY but there's no way I'm gonna survive.
I thought I would channel my emotions productively (ft. the world’s most poorly-drawn venn diagram):
More info under the cut.
-British Vintage Lesbians-
Sarah Waters [books/ITV drama/BBC drama]: SW deserves her own section – she's written FIVE books about vintage lesbians (Tipping the Velvet, The Night Watch, Affinity, Fingersmith and The Paying Guests) and they're all WONDERFUL. All but TPG have been turned into either films or miniseries, and all of the adaptations are brilliant. You seriously can't go wrong with Sarah Waters, but my favourite book is The Paying Guests and my favourite adaptation is Fingersmith.
Home Fires [ITV series]: Very similar to CTM (women supporting women in a period of great change), Home Fires follows the lives of the members of a village's Women's Institute (including a lesbian character) at the outbreak of WWII. The second series is due to air this year.
Pride [2014 film]: Is something set in the 1980s 'vintage'?? Eeeeh, probably not, but it's a wonderful look at a true piece of LGBT history (with a ton of Wales, if you're missing Delia's lovely accent).
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister [BBC series]: The true story of a heiress who refused to get married and have babies, preferring instead to persue various women and write about it all in her diary (Delia’s hero, I’m sure).
Virginia Woolf [books/various movie adaptations]: Not only are most of Virginia Woolf's books very queer (Mrs Dalloway, A Room of One's Own and Orlando especially), and the movies they've inspired tend not to shy away from the gay themes (The Hours is especially great –Meryl Streep kisses Allison Janney!!!! - but sad), but Virginia Woolf herself was bisexual, and she wrote many love letters to women, many of which have been published and are wonderful reads in their own right.
Doctor Who [BBC series] Forgot it off the graphic at the top, but the DW episodes with Jenny and Vastra are worth watching :D
-British Vintage-
The Bletchley Circle [ITV Series]: It's a shame I couldn't put this in the middle section because honestly it's the gayest non-canonically-gay show I've ever seen (not even in a queerbaiting way; two of the four main characters show no interest in men whatsoever). It's all about incredibly brilliant women supporting each other and solving crime. The actual best.
Suffragette [2015 film]: Women in Britain fighting for the right to vote, told from the often-excluded viewpoint of a working-class woman. I watched it with my co-workers and we spent the weeks afterwards shouting “votes for women!” across the office to each other.
Downton Abbey [ITV Series]: Ngl, I haven't actually watched Downton, but 'British Vintage' without it seems like a glaring omission, and while it doesn't have lesbians, it does have a gay character and Maggie Smith being smugly sarcastic.
Jane Austen [books, various movie adaptations]: Again, I can't not mention Austen, and the BBC Colin Firth series of Pride and Prejudice is basically the best.
Call the Midwife [book series]: Want to cry over the real-life SMJ's tragic backstory? Want your heart ripped out by reading about the closure of the real Nonnatus? Look no further.
-British Lesbians-
Imagine Me & You [2005 film]: To be honest, my default state is just wanting to watch this film. Just an endless loop before CTM comes back. I won't judge.
Skins [Channel 4 Series]: Naomi and Emily are still one of the best-written couples in lesbian canon (Skins Fire does not exist).
Last Tango in Halifax [BBC series]: Last Tango still holds a piece of my soul, even though it emotionally destroyed me last year. Series 1 is an amazing piece of writing and acting, and S2 ends with the slow-dancing/kissing scene we should have had with Pats and Deels (S3 does not exist).
Lip Service & Bad Girls [BBC and ITV dramas, respectively]: Like UK versions of The L Word and Orange is the New Black, respectively. Not as good as either, but still worth watching, with some really lovely storylines.
-Vintage [non-British] Lesbians-
The World Unseen [book and 2007 film]: Set during the South African apartheid, the book and movie are both great, featuring developed women of colour (unlike basically the entire rest of this list).
Aimee and Jaguar [book and 1999 film]: the true story of two women who fell in love in Germany during WWII. Will rip your heart out.
Carol [dir. Todd Haynes, 2015]: if you haven't sat down and watched it by now, you've probably seen the entire thing anyway in gif form on tumblr. You should sit down and watch it, though, it is so good.
If These Walls Could Talk 2 [2000 film]: This film tells three seperate stories about women who love women, but the second segment in particular focuses on the early gay clubs, and features butch women more than the .5 seconds we saw of Pats and Deels at Gateways.
Bomb Girls [Global TV series]: Canadian drama set in a munitions factory during WWII - saving the best for last, Betty McRae is the original vintage lesbian. She didn't get the story she deserved, but she's still queen of my heart.
