Steven Knight‘s new drama, House of Guinness, features the celebrated signature style of the Peaky Blinders creator, marked by gritty violence and heightened drama.
Set in 18th-century Ireland, the series follows the Guinness family, a beer dynasty that endures to this day. Events begin with the death of the family patriarch, and his children shoulder the burden of seeing the company to the next stage.
Among those children is Arthur Guinness (Anthony Boyle), the eldest son, who loves the finer things in life and, for several years, had escaped his family to live in London.
It is revealed that Arthur was in a relationship with a man, and indeed is gay, only returning home to get his inheritance before moving back to London.
Throughout the eight-episode first season, the series follows the three Guinness siblings, including their personal lives and how that affected their futures.
Arthur is at the center of the narrative, and his sexuality becomes a huge plot point as he tries to vie for an elected position, but his secrets threaten to expose him.
But was the real Arthur Guinness gay, or did Knight make some changes to create drama?
Arthur Guinness’ Sexuality Was an Open Secret
Being gay in the current times is hard, so one can only imagine how much harder it was for gay people in the 18th century.
Interactions were limited and once it was over, everyone was ready to forget what had happened for the fear of being exposed. Arthur straddles this fine line, and times find themselves almost tipping to the other side.
Records and receipts that can tell someone’s sexuality were not kept at the time, since it was dangerous to do so. Privacy and secrecy were huge concerns.
“There’s no Facebook, no Instagram pages,” the series’ creator said in an interview with TUDUM. “What I had to do is take things that these family members did, things that they said, achievements they made, mistakes that they made, and use them as stepping stones,” he continued, adding,
“Then I had to fill in the gaps myself. It’s just a question of saying, ‘Here’s the character that I imagine this person is. This is why they did that.’”
However, historians are convinced that Arthur was indeed gay, even if he was married to a woman. His union with Olivia is known as a marriage blanc — a marriage in form but not in function.
“What history tells us is they actually really liked each other, and they almost loved each other,” Knight explained. “So what began as this sort of quite cynical deal actually ends in a beautiful relationship.”
So while the real truth about Arthur’s sexuality might never be known, all the signs point to him being gay.
His story speaks to the intentional and unintentional erasure of queerness in history, and if the Guinness’ were not such a huge force, he would have been lost forever.
Many queer people have been erased, heteronormalized, or ignored, which makes a character like Arthur an important addition to the television repository.
Stream House of Guinness on Netflix.