A true story told well. Like the movie "The Pianist", you really get a feeling of how it was to be there. Berlin, and Munich and some other German cites were quite tolerant of Gays throughout the '20's and Germany had the highest levels of education in the world at the time. From this distance it's hard to imagine how the rise of the Nazis could have happened, and movies like this make it real to today's viewers. Of course opposition to Hitler in the 1930's was not as solid here and in England as is portrayed by most of today's history books. Nor is it safe to assume that something similar could not happen again, although likely in a different form than seen among modern NeoNazis. Something that seems so right to most people at the time. It has been said that insanity is rare in individuals but quite common in groups.

I don't know why people dislike Matt Smith so much. I thought he was a very creditable Christopher Isherwood. And Imogen Poots is a far more rounded-out 'Sally Bowles' aka Jean Ross, than Liza Minelli was in Cabaret. Though that was a very different genre altogether and Minelli was OK as far as it went. Christopher and His Kind is a well-produced and acted BBC period piece that evokes Berlin of the 1930s vividly. The characterizations are appealing and often quite funny and the men are beautiful, with a far amount of nudity thrown in for diversion, but nothing vulgar or prurient.Much of the story is quite moving, the plight of the impoverished Berliners is heart-rending but not depressing. This is not a depressing tale but a cautionary one. The Nazis are well in evidence but not obnoxiously thrust into the viewers' faces as is so often the case. By now we know about the atrocities and it's good to be reminded, especially in a more subtle manner than usual.This is a fine BBC show and I recommend it strongly.

"Christopher and His Kind" was Christopher Isherwood's way of correcting what he glossed over in "The Berlin Stories" and this film version corrects the exceedingly glossy glosses of "Cabaret." The real Jean Ross (nicely played by Imogene Poots) was no Liza Minnelli. Likewise Matt Smith is no Michael York. He's simpler more direct "Herr Issyvoo," and his love affair with Heinz Douglas Booth) is recounted with great affection. It's hard for gay people today to imagine just how loose and louche things were in Berlin just before Hitler came to power. But Isherwood was there and what he recounts speaks volumes about art, politics and the beating heart of same-sex love.

Plot: An English homosexual goes to Berlin in the 1930s as the Weimar Republic ends and National Socialism begins.This is rather typical of BBC serious drama in that it has high production values, a youthful lead parachuted in because of his celebrity and a very dull script. Christopher Isherwood was a rather interesting gay novelist and the period when he lived in Germany was even more interesting as it covers the depravity of Weimar and the novel horrors of the National Socialists - but sadly the screenplay isn't very interested in all that and plumps for plenty of gay sex and clichéd Nazis instead. You'll have to read the relevant chapter in Michael Burleigh's book 'Sacred Causes' if you want insight. The acting is pretty pedestrian, with the grey-haired veterans putting the fresh faced sexy-but-dim types to shame. Nor does it help that the whole thing is shot in the same dull, flat manner, so that everything looks and feels rather same-y and boring.Worth no viewings.