A Manchester actor who is starring in a new Netflix drama about a gay US military recruit at a time when open homosexuality in the armed forces was illegal says the story remains “quite poignant now”.
Max Parker, who has also appeared in Emmerdale and Doctor Who, plays a boot camp instructor in comedy drama Boots, set in the 1990s and adapted from the memoir The Pink Marine by a former sergeant.
He told BBC Radio Manchester: “I wanted to do a queer role. As a gay man, I wanted to explore that story.”
A policy banning open homosexuality in the US military was dropped in 2011, nearly 20 years after it replaced an outright ban on gay people. In the UK, it was illegal to be gay in the military until 2000.
“The themes in the show are important and I think it tackles the era but also, I think it’s quite poignant now really,” said Parker.
“There’s still a lot going on in the world, especially with acceptance, and times haven’t changed that much in certain ways.”
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