Pillion is a gay S&M British biker romance that would have made Mary Whitehouse go up in smoke. Without a doubt, it gives us the oddest couple of the year in Alexander Skarsgård’s Ray and Harry Melling’s Colin. For that, and many other reasons, this fresh, funny and poignant pairing is one to be cherished.
Colin meets Ray at a pub somewhere around Bromley, south London. The former, a bashful traffic warden who doesn’t get out much, is on another date, but there isn’t much spark. He’s more attracted to Ray, a golden god sitting in one corner, half out of biker leathers, keeping himself to himself.
If Ray is interested, he’s good at hiding it, even when he slips Colin a piece of paper, suggesting they meet outside the local Primark on Christmas Day. This is bizarre timing, as Colin’s mum (Lesley Sharp) protests, but Ray has thought things through. No one’s around, so what they get up to in an alleyway – several firsts for Colin, we’re fairly sure – is discreetly al fresco, among some grotty bins.
