The gay character of THE french tv series of the 80’s, lived only three episodes.
To compete with the American series Dallas, which was a big hit of 20% of the tv ratings, on french channel TF1 since 1981, Antenne 2 channel produced the Châteauvallon only 4 years later, with every hot ingredient to make a good cocktail : money, love, sex, murder, power, press and politics. The recipe broke audience records. The series’ success is due to its contemporary dialogues, its rather convincing and well-directed cast, and above all, its very French setting, in smalltown notability. A local press owner, right wing and authoritarian, Antonin Berg, would like to nail the little deputy and mayor of Châteauvallon, who has become a state secretary, against a backdrop of corruption on public contracts, a war of succession, shaky couples and murders.
The boldness of the series goes far enough to introduce queer characters, and the handover of power between Antonin Berg, the patriarch, and his daughter Florence, is also a handover of the lead role to a woman, in a big-budget tv show. A role played by Chantal Nobel.
The first queer character in the series is a homosexual named Mr. Condroyer.
The second episode begins to uncover a shady story involving town councillor Philippe Berg, Florence’s cousin, and another councillor, named Condroyer, concerning a municipal development, a public contract, false invoices and bills...
In the third episode, M. Travers, the journalist from La Dépêche, forces his way into the office of Condroyer at the city hall, to access to documents related to the scam.
The journalist’s investigation, coupled with that of the police, eventually leads back to the mayor minister, who himself attempts to unmask the corrupt members of his city council in episode 4.
Philippe Berg and Condroyer end up being threatened by Fournier, the construction magnate who, unbeknownst to the mayor. Fournier threatens to out Councillor Condroyer, and orders him to stop his affair with his overpaid young lover.
Condroyer does indeed have a young lover, who costs him dearly as a protégé, but the young man senses that the tide is turning at Châteauvallon, so he breaks up their relationship, and he doesn’t do it quietly.
The city councillor breaks down, gets scared and wants to confess to the police : he thinks he can take the blame on his own and spare his accomplice Philippe.
The next day, Condroyer’s body is found dead in the river. The autopsy concludes that, with water in his lungs, it was suicide. Indeed, Fournier may have wanted to get rid of the weak link in the scheme, and Philippe Berg may have wanted to eliminate his accomplice.
The treatment of homosexuality with this man in his 40s, buying himself a gigolo is a bit of a cliché of the 80’s, but in the general atmosphere the character is no worse treated than the others: Armand Berg, for example, who has an incestuous desire for his sister, and is banging his sister-in-law. Condroyer is a dishonest man, ill at ease because the mayor and the police are going to nail him, and because journalists André Travers and Florence Berg are also on to him, and because his libido is starting to be known in town, and because his young crush is leaving him. That can be a lot for one man to take, perhaps enough to commit suicide, but the story leaves room for a more plausible explanation. Murder. But gay character Condroyer disappears from the story, while the investigation continues for another body, killed in the very first episode, in a disguised suicide MO.
We will never know the final word on this character played by André Penvern, because a car accident involving lead actress Chantal Nobel, who plays Florence Berg, with his friend singer Sasha Distel, brought the series to an unexpected halt. Unfortunately, the actress took years to recover. This tragedy contributed also to making Châteauvallon a cult series.
Bref, les deux personnages gays de la série française la plus mémorable de la décennie, n’ont pas fait long feu, et n’ont pas apporté de visibilité positive.