Sunday, June 17, at 9pm

From PBS Masterpiece comes Man in the Orange Shirt, a story of love and acceptance that spans generations. The film’s title, Man in the Orange Shirt, references an artwork that years later unveils one family’s secret of forbidden love and betrayal while forcing a reckoning with self for those closest to its subject.  

Starring Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, the two-hour presentation, explores how love, family loyalty, and issues of sexual identity evolve across generations.  Man in the Orange Shirt, originally broadcast in the UK in 2017 in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality, is a part of PBS’s celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

The film begins at the end of WWII when British Captain Michael Berryman falls for his fellow-soldier and old friend Thomas March. While homosexuality at this time was punishable by law in the UK, Berryman too was engaged to his long-time sweetheart, Flora. While Berryman, eventually giving in to honor and responsibility, marries Flora, a single painting of the Man in the Orange shirt survives as a tribute to the forbidden love between Berryman and March.

The second half of the film portrays an elderly Flora, played by Redgrave, and her closeted grandson, Adam, who are both faced with the undeniable truth of Berryman’s legacy as well as the still-present stigmas of homosexuality in the present.  While Flora and Adam must both contend with the Berryman’s past, they too must find acceptance of Adam’s present and future.

Man in the Orange Shirt was heralded as “a well-crafted and moving dialogue between past and present” by The Telegraph and Redgrave as a “magnificent standout” by the UK’s The Mail on Sunday.

While the film portrays a significant social issue, Patrick Gale, the film’s screenwriter and best-selling novelist of A Place Called Winter, was upfront with his intention that Man in the Orange Shirt be “much more than just a drama about gay men and their difficulties. I hope that it’s two love stories will touch people simply as love stories.”  

Man in the Orange Shirt premiers in on PBS Sunday, June 17, at 9pm ET.

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