Sue Perkins

Sue appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2017, when she discussed both her time at Cambridge and wishing she hadn’t had to make a binary choice about sexuality. Summarised on the BBC website as follows:

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“Studying at Cambridge was one of the happiest times of her life and she saw Footlights as a way of challenging herself. When she stood in front of the audience for the first time she was “wearing a very prickly lambswool jumper”. Improvising gave her a sense of freedom.

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She didn’t know anyone gay when she was growing up. She fell in love with a boy as a teenager and the relationship lasted six years, before he came out as gay, as did Sue, in her twenties. “It was like having a second adolescence,” she says. She dyed her hair blue, drank heavily and went from being the shyest person in the room to the person standing on the table dancing.”

 

Sue’s 2015 memoir, Spectacles, explains how she came out to her mother:

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“Me: [on phone, strained voice] Mum. Can I come home tomorrow?

Mum: Yes. Why? Are you all right?

Me: Yes. I just . . . I just want to talk to you about something.

Mum: [matter of factly while eating what sounds like toast] Is it about you being gay?

Long, long pause.

Me: Yes, it might be that.

Mum: [still munching] Is it that?

Another long pause.

Me: It might be.

Mum: Fine. Well, just whenever you like. No rush. Lots of lore, darling.

Click of the receiver.”