Airdate: Between a Frock and a Hard Place

Later this month ABC will screen a doco on the story behind The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Between a Frock and a Hard Place includes interviews with director Stephen Elliott; actors Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp; Executive Producer Rebel Penfold Russell; producer Al Clarke; costume designer Tim Chappel; drag artists; activists; and members of the gay community.

Narrated by Terence Stamp, this is the story behind one of the world’s most loved films, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It’s about three unlikely hero-(ines) who find themselves in a backwater at the arse-end of the world daring to step out of the shadows in their shimmering sequinned glory and be counted.

It’s also about how a low-budget Australian film about three ‘cocks-in-frocks’ changed the course of history and loudly and proudly brought a celebration of gay culture to the world that continues to resonate twenty years later.

“As the old girl hit her 20th year, a bunch of filmmakers came ‘a knocking, begging me to spill the beans on the true adventures of bus Priscilla. All the dirt, goss, and everything and anything that slipped through the fishnets during the 1993 shoot and the marathon global release post Cannes 1994.

“The more I thought about it the more I realised that 1994 was almost the end of a road. The real story of how she found her heels took place during the 30 years of my suburban youth leading up to the bus’s departure from Erskinville.” Stephan Elliott.

8:30pm Thursday June 18 ABC.