So Oranges ARE the Only Fruit.

In the winter of 2015 we had the 21st Conference of Parties (CO21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This was supposed to end with a comprehensive global agreement to combat climate change that would go beyond the work of the expiring Kyoto Protocol.

In order to build the suspense before the summit the BBC's special projects produced and broadcast a program called; "London Spy." This was heavily inspired by the 2010 death of Gareth Williams - a gay man working for Britain's MI6 spy agency who was found dead locked inside a bag in his London home.

The TV show centred around a young gay man who entered into a relationship with a man who ended up being found dead locked inside a trunk in his London home. As it emerged that the dead man was a spy the story developed into mystery that uncovered a conspiracy amongst all the World's major spy agencies to prevent this world changing theory this man had been working on from ever seeing the light of day.

That of course was intended to serve as a metaphor for the way that US President Obama arrived at COP21 and snatched away what everybody had spent the previous five years working on to replace it with what is to all intents and purposes a blank sheet of paper. That blank piece of paper has become known as; "The Paris Agreement" or; "The 12/12 Atrocity."

November 2016 has seen the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22). So the BBC have been back with yet another spy drama entitled; "Close to the Enemy." I think it's fair to assume that this isn't supposed to be taken anywhere near as seriously as London Spy.

For example the hero of London Spy is played by the actor Ben Wishaw. Close to the Enemy features the actor Freddie Highmore who looks a bit like Wishaw. However far from being the hero of the story Highmore's character is almost the village idiot constantly getting in the way of the heroes of the story.

One of the things that make London Spy stand out was its very graphic portrayals of gay male sex. This was against a backdrop of British TV seeming to get ever more prudish in terms of on screen portrayals of sex and nudity.

A prime example of this new found prudishness was the series "Life in Squares" which was billed as being the sexiest programs ever to be broadcast despite featuring absolutely no sex or nudity whatsoever. One of the lead actresses in Life in Square was Phoebe Fox who plays really the female lead in Close to the Enemy. I can report that Close to the Enemy not only features heterosexual sex scenes but also - I would say - rather pointedly, female nipples

Set just after the Second World War the plot centres around efforts to get a brilliant German jet engineer to work by Britain. The British think this brilliant engineer will help them break the sound barrier allowing them to fly faster than everybody else. That is my character in the piece.

As part of their efforts to recruit this engineer the British first try intimidating him. They claim that if he doesn't help them they'll falsely accuse him of carrying out Nazi war crimes and ship him off to the Nuremberg Trials. This is a reference to the whole thing with my Grandmother.

For many years Britain justified her mis-treatment as part of a medical experiment into Dementia. That of course would represent a crime against humanity in violation of the Nuremberg codes on medical ethics thus making it an issue of international law. However if Britain had said that they were simply trying to steal her money and house that would be a simple matter of domestic law.

The fact that Britain was choosing the explanation that made it sound way more guilty does make you really start to question the quality of the British government's legal advisers.

Eventually they realise that dragging this devilishly handsome genius from his home and family in order to threaten isn't encouraging him to help. So instead they change direction and try being nice to him.

Obviously being set at the end of the Second World War the topic of how the war started in the first place does come. Particularly Nazi Germany's 1938 invasion of Czechoslovakia which has such relevance to the current war on Syria.

Also Angela Basset does turn up as an obviously black singer who has been banished from America over claims her support for the civil rights movement makes her a Communist. That obviously touches on the 2016 Oscars diversity row. Particularly the "Trumbo" about the screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who was blacklisted by Hollywood for similar reasons.

I think what really sums up the show is that in 1985 British author Jeanette Winterson published the book; "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit." This is intended to serve as a metaphor for Winterson coming to terms with her homosexuality. It is sort of an icon of lesbian literature.

Close to the Enemy is set during a period where food rationing was still very much in effect in Britain. As a result certainly in the opening episodes Oranges are the only fruit you will see on screen. That strikes me as a little in joke at the expense of the great rivalry between gay men an lesbians.

So yeah. I think Britain may have slipped into Panto season a little early this year.

17:10 on 19/12/16 (UK date).