The Dreyfus Affair

One from the archives: The shabby treatment of a gay actor.

I’ve actually worked with James Dreyfus. Arthur Mathews and I cast him in our first little-seen sitcom ‘Paris’ back in the early nineties. You will certainly know him better from his performances in the fondly-remembered sitcoms ‘Thin Blue Line’ and ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’, but this is what he looked like in our thing.

Just before I was kicked off the misogynistic/ideological platform, Twitter, a Doctor Who fan contacted me and told me the story of how trans rights activists have been successful in taking James’ name off a major Doctor Who release. I think a lot of people probably missed this piece the first time round, and it’s relevant to what’s happening to JK Rowling at the moment, so I thought I’d republish it.

Take it away, my terfy whovian friend!

October, 2018

James, along with many other LGBT figures including several trans people, sign a letter asking Stonewall to reconsider its hardline, extremist position on transgender policies. The letter called on Stonewall to "acknowledge that there are a range of valid viewpoints around sex, gender and transgender politics...acknowledge specifically the conflict that exists between transgenderism and sex-based women’s rights and commit to fostering an atmosphere of respectful debate, rather than demonising as transphobic those who wish to discuss or dissent from Stonewall’s current policies.":

Nothing controversial there, you might think. But if you are new to this debate, you may not know how vindictive, cruel and homophobic trans rights activists can be for even the slightest digression from their ever-changing orthodoxy.

March, 2019

'Doctor Who: The Home Guard' announced for release in November 2019. This will be James Dreyfus’ second released performance in the role of the Master, following “The Destination Wars”, December 2017. (We stress 'released' because Big Finish record these productions years in advance and we believe there is at least one unreleased episode featuring James as the Master.)

Here are links to social media announcements and Big Finish’s own news item.

Dreyfus is front and centre in their publicity and Big Finish aren’t shy about his participation at all at this stage. The few negative comments about him on these posts don’t provoke any reaction or response from Big Finish either.

Note that the dissent/uproar is fairly muted at this early stage. Gareth Roberts (another gay man) being dropped by the BBC Books anthology hadn’t yet happened. After that, these issues were much more visible to both Doctor Who fandom and also the public at large. It’s certainly what brought me into the conversation. If I read these threads at the time, the word “terf” wouldn’t have even registered with me.

July 2019

Doctor Who: The Psychic Circus announced for release in February 2020. Dreyfus is still being promoted as a selling point by Big Finish. They appear to have completely ignored any of the dissent from their March announcement but the Gareth Roberts debacle has happened since then and trans rights activists really aren’t happy that Big Finish are continuing to work with Dreyfus.  (A lot of this stems from a lack of understanding that most of these recordings were completed months, if not years, beforehand.)
Here’s the Twitter announcement, where Dreyfus himself makes an appearance.

The Facebook announcement, which has much less in the way of outrage in the comments (which probably says a great deal about the type of people who loiter on Twitter vs. Facebook).
I remember there being a great deal of comment on Twitter outside of this actual announcement thread as well, people saying they didn’t feel “safe” buying Big Finish product anymore and the like.
It was in response to this outcry that Big Finish released this statement the following day. It remains their only public statement on the matter.
Big Finish won’t respond any further to demands and enquiries from fans, so after that, it’s tumbleweed for a few months.

November 2019

The Home Guard is released, alongside another title, “Daughter of the Gods”. Big Finish’s website announcement heavily profiles the latter title, along with the artwork, and barely mentions the Dreyfus-starring “The Home Guard”.
Here too is before-and-after cover art for both The Home Guard and The Psychic Circus. While both retain Dreyfus's image, his name has been removed from the guest cast list of the final products in both instances.

Now you see him

Now you don't

And again: now you see him

Now you don't.

So by now, it seems pretty certain that Big Finish isn’t going to be working with James anymore.

December 2019

Big Finish announce January 2021 release for “Masterful” - a celebration of 50 years of the Doctor’s arch-villain starring every living actor to have portrayed the role on TV and in Big Finish audios… except Dreyfus.

That just about completes the story, except to say that “The Psychic Circus” was released as scheduled in February 2020, but with very little fanfare and social media posts avoiding the use of any imagery including Dreyfus. And Dreyfus, having since returned to Twitter after a bit of a break, seems to have confirmed he’ll not be doing any more work with Big Finish.
There will be at least one more title to come at some stage, with James starring alongside Tom Baker. It could be a couple of years before it appears, but it will be worth watching the outrage froth up again from people who don’t understand it’s been in the can for years, and also to watch how they promote it without mentioning him in the publicity.

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Remember this is all because he signed a letter asking Stonewall to "commit to fostering an atmosphere of respectful debate", something they flatly refused to do. If you are shocked by this disgracefully shabby treatment of a gay man, please consider putting your name alongside his on the letter he originally signed.

(Note: I’ve cleaned this up and omitted the alleged involvement of a fellow actor in the story. James tells me the actor contacted him and said he had nothing to do with any of it. I think James is a very generous man.)