This used to be a big thing in the United States too. My late partner Lenny was a bit more than 20 years older than me, meaning he was born during World War II. He was a New Yorker, Manhattan born and bred, a young adult while Stonewall was still many years away.

Among the many stories he told me about queer life in the late '50s and the '60s were stories about "beards" women who dated or married gay men to give them cover in an intensely homophobic society. Of course, it worked both ways, with lesbians dating or marrying men for cover.

In the best situations, a gay man and a lesbian might develop a really special relationship, even if it didn't approach sexuality or romance.

Hollywood was actually full of stories like that, especially if you go back into the earlier days of cinema.