And other acronyms beginning with C

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who remembers CLASS - the Cagney and Lacey Appreciation of the Series Society, a UK fan club that I joined in 1986. It continued until the very early 1990s, when it almost seamlessly morphed into an appreciation group for Sharon Gless alone, who was then starring in The Trials of Rosie O'Neill. I have a yellow rose (Rosie) pin badge to prove my interest continued.

I've just come across an article in Attitude, a UK gay male fashion magazine, from before it had a web presence. Fortunately, the author, David Spedding, has created his own archive, and this is from May 2001. This paragraph stood out:

It's now two decades since the show first appeared on American screens. It was cancelled three times in its existence, re-instated twice as a result of public outcry. Plainly, there's still the hugest affection for Cagney & Lacey. An internet fansite still exists, the cannily-named Cagney And Lacey Infortainment Terminal. Or, acronymically-speaking, CLIT. "I love that," laughs Gless today. "How great is that? And there's the Cagney and Lacey Appreciation of Series Society in the UK, or CLASS. Clit and class," she chuckles. "No shame in either of those!"

I love that too, Sharon. Even more, I love that you love it. Nothing can beat a bit of CLIT and CLASS!

David Spedding indicates that Christine Cagney wasn't just a lesbian icon:

Blonde, gorgeous, twinkly-eyed and blessed with the kind of deep-throated cackle that one associates with a '50-Woodbines-before-brekky' habit. She looked angelic, but could speak like a dimestore hooker when the occasion demanded it. That perfect blend of 'Hard-ass toughness' with 'heart-of-goldenness' that would subsequently establish itself as a pre-requisite for any potential shag. In short, she was my perfect boyfriend.

Ah, David, bless! But us dykes spotted her first!!

If any other members, or particularly the founders, of CLASS ever drop by this blog, please say Hi. Better still, if anyone is still keeping CLASS running in some form, it would be great if you could let me know. Ann Rutherford was the woman who wrote back to me in May 1986 after I made an early enquiry. I don't know what was in my original note, but she told me:

"Flattery always pays - and you have made sergeant in that!"

This is a lesson I've never forgotten, and better still, I didn't even need to sit the sergeant's exam.