Ian Iqbal Rashid

Canadian writer/director Ian Iqbal Rashid makes his feature film debut with the romantic comedy Touch of Pink. Jimi Mistry plays Alim, an young gay Ismali-Canadian living in a fashionable section of London. He has an active fantasy life involving Kyle MacLachlan, who appears as the charming ghost of Cary Grant. Alim also has an active social life in the real world with his actual boyfriend Giles (Kristen Holden-Ried). His life of leisure is interrupted when his mother Nuru (Suleka Mathew) arrives in town unexpectedly from Toronto. She also has a secret plan to take him back with her to Canada so he can settle down and find a nice Muslim girl to marry. Touch of Pink premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this episode of This Life, romantic meals abound. Egg (Andrew Lincoln) and Milly (Amita Dhiri) quarrel about their domestic routine, but she cooks him a dinner to make it up to him. Miles (Jack Davenport) squires Rachel (Natasha Little) to both lunch and dinner, making more aggressive sexual moves at each turn; she lets him down gently, telling him she doesn't want to get involved while Anna's still in the picture. Anna (Daniela Nardini) enjoys a flirtatious supper with lesbian lawyer Sarah Newly (Clare Clifford), though it's more for professional than personal reasons. And Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White) turns Jo (Steve John Shepherd) down for a lunch date but shows him just enough affection to keep his interest. Meanwhile, Ferdy (Ramon Tikaram) turns up at the workplace of his ex-fiancée, Mia (Danielle Tarento), hoping for personal interaction but settling for the chance to collect his belongings. When he heads to her place to get his stuff, he learns that she has a new boyfriend, one who knows about Ferdy's bisexuality. He flips out and smashes up the smug prat's new car. A sexual harassment case at work leads to discussion of PMS, and it's up to Anna to educate Jo and Miles about the reality of women's menstrual mood changes. Egg finally gets to meet Nicki's son, George (Greg Prentice), whom he learns is the son of her college tutor, a married man who wanted nothing to do with the boy. And Rachel misses out on the chance to attend a Women in Law lunch when Milly pulls rank on her and sticks her with some extra work. Series two, Episode nine of the cult-favorite British soap This Life: Men Behaving Sadly first aired on BBC 2 on May 15, 1997. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Often described as a more realistic alternative to Friends (or a less comprehensively gay Queer as Folk), this 1996-1997 British television hit tracked the sexual, personal, and professional misadventures of a quintet of young lawyers living together in a South London flat. Created by writer Amy Jenkins, who collaborated on the first three episodes with director Sam Miller, the show's high-drama, party-hard ethos brought the acid-house generation back into the TV fold and paved the way for a number of subsequent twentysomething soaps, from the aforementioned Queer as Folk to the Internet-themed Attachments. Although American audiences didn't get to see the show until it was broadcast in seemingly perpetual reruns on BBC America a few years later, only the program's Brit-pop- and trip-hop-heavy soundtrack seemed dated. The 11-episode first series, from 1996, chronicles the lives of brash, boozy junior barrister Anna Forbes (Daniela Nardini); Miles Andrews (Jack Davenport), Anna's posh, public-school arch nemesis/soul mate; Andrew "Egg" Cook (Andrew Lincoln), Miles' boyish, football-loving best friend; Milly Nassim (Amita Dhiri), Egg's cool, conflicted, control-freak of a girlfriend; and their therapy-addicted, working-class, defiantly gay friend, Warren Jones (Jason Hughes). Although these five characters share the same alma mater, it isn't until they all end up working at a pair of London legal firms that they enter the domestic constellation that will drive the program's drama. Some American audiences may not grasp the class and professional intricacies that add nuance to the characters' lust, envy, love, and friendship; others will savor the irony that crisp Milly is a more experienced solicitor than her inexperienced boyfriend; that hardworking "pouf" Warren is initially such a threat to likably laddish Egg; and that rich Miles and by-the-bootstraps Anna both long for the same exalted position as successful barristers. Indeed, professional intrigue, as much as sex, drives This Life's plot lines; Egg ditches his job in hopes of finding himself, leading to domestic tension with Milly and ultimately a new career; Anna angles for better cases any way she can, including a cozy friendship with a lesbian barrister; Miles finds himself on the opposite side of the courtroom from his manipulative father and feels threatened by Anna's burgeoning success; Milly indulges in a flirtation with her '60s-survivor boss and nurses a deep hatred of a beautiful blonde co-worker; and Warren finds his brash sexuality in conflict with his profession -- and with his desire not to scandalize his family. By the end of its first series, cult-favorite This Life had grown into a bona fide hit; but after 1997's 21-episode second series -- which featured heavier contributions from the supporting cast of Ramon Tikaram, Luisa Bradshaw-White, Steve John Shepherd, and Natasha Little -- the BBC decided not to continue. Some fans still trace rumors of a forthcoming third series, while others express gratitude that their favorite program went out on top. None of the principal participants besides Davenport (The Talented Mr. Ripley) has found further high-profile success, although Nardini, Jenkins, and Miller re-teamed for the similarly themed British film Elephant Juice. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide