Blue Jean: A Moving Lesbian Drama Exposing 1980s British Society
Blue Jean is a Bafta-nominated film that follows a lesbian physical education teacher in late-1980s England, at a time when Section 28 was making her…
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Blue Jean is a lesbian drama that was nominated for a Bafta award. It follows a lesbian physical education teacher in the late 1980s, at a time when there was fierce controversy over a law banning the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools. Through its two female lead characters, the film shows how those rules affected their lives.
Blue Jean: a lesbian drama about a young teacher who loves women
Coming face to face with a younger version of yourself must be a strange experience, especially if at the time you were even younger and struggling through one of the hardest periods of your teenage years. That is what Catherine Lee felt as she watched the actor playing the PE teacher in her twenties, with short blonde hair uncannily like her own, running netball drills in the sports hall of a secondary school.
"It was just like the gym I taught in every day," Lee said. She experienced a vivid kind of time travel by visiting the set of Blue Jean, a new British film shot in Newcastle and set in the late 1980s. Part of the story was inspired by her own experiences and those of other gay teachers.
From behind the camera, Lee watched as the actor playing the young teacher stepped in when a lesson descended into mockery and homophobic slurs.
"I hadn't heard that word in years, and my reaction was... it was almost automatic," Lee said. "It took all my restraint not to put my fingers in my ears.
"It affected me emotionally more than I expected. It really got to me."
In the film, Jean, played by Rosy McEwen, has to navigate complicated relationships both at school and in her personal life, at a time when public and political attitudes toward homosexuality had become a fierce moral battleground, and many people were far from accepting.
Section 28, introduced in 1988, was designed to protect traditional family values and safeguard children, according to its supporters. Opponents branded it "state-sponsored homophobia."
For many gay teachers, avoiding any mention of sexuality in lessons was not only about fearing trouble for themselves. It also meant being unable to support students struggling to understand their own sexuality, or students facing homophobic bullying from those who rejected anyone different. For gay teenagers, there was a great deal to contend with.
Lee, who was a PE teacher in Liverpool at the time, shared her experiences with McEwen.
"It would take a long time to explain what that constant anxiety at school was like, whether or not anything had ever actually happened. Always thinking one step ahead, in case someone asked what you had done at the weekend or invited you to the pub.
"Seeing Rosy play Jean, so small, anxious and shy in those school scenes, really affected me," Lee continued. "I went from feeling sorry for her to wanting to hold her and tell her everything would be all right. I wanted to shake her, and I felt genuinely angry at her for not standing up for herself more."
Lee is now a professor at Anglia Ruskin University and has just published Pretended: Schools and Section 28, drawing on her diaries.
"I actually cried just watching that footage. It hit me right at the heart of everything I had been through," said Sarah Squires, who described hugging McEwen as feeling "like embracing my past self who had come through it."
The film is nominated for the outstanding debut award at next week's Baftas and recently won four British Independent Film Awards, including best lead performance for McEwen.
"When I finally saw Rosy bring this person to life, I had to go to her and thank her, and I hugged her, and it felt like hugging my past self who had made it through," added Squires, who is now a headteacher in Leeds.
What was Section 28?
"There was so much hiding of people's own sexuality. So many people feared losing their jobs that they kept quiet, and even in their reading many would avoid literature connected to LGBTQ people."
"I immediately began to think about how this law had shaped my life without my even knowing it existed," she said.
Now 34, the filmmaker Oakley decided the story should be told. She wrote and directed the lesbian drama Blue Jean. She believes that Section 28, along with broader prejudice, led many people to stop being open about their sexuality.
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"My experience growing up was that I didn't know a single gay person," she said.
"I didn't know anyone, in my own life or in the public eye, especially when it came to women. I didn't think there were any lesbians in my life, in my school, among my teachers, among my parents' friends, which, of course, was not true."
"One message I hope comes through is that we can't be complacent about our rights, because everything is fragile," Oakley said. And while things are very different now from how they were then, some things have not changed, she said.
"So much of Jean's experience is still relevant to what people go through today, and not only relevant, but also things I experience all the time: the small aggressions. In that sense, not much has changed about telling everyone you are a lesbian," she said, adding that she hopes the film will be one more message helping people understand difference.
Source: BBC News
Verified references
Links and relevance to the article’s main topic were reviewed on 13 August 2026. Each source supports only the scope stated in the original document and does not replace personalised medical, legal, or service advice.
- OHCHR: LGBT rights fact sheet Accessed 13 August 2026
