THEGAYUK

Tag: Gay Britannia

Gay Britannia is the BBC’s season of programming celebrating LGBT+ life in the UK, broadcasting in 2017 It marks the 50th year of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.

  • TV REVIEW | Against The Law

    As part of their Gay Britannia season, the BBC commissioned Against The Law, a docudrama of some of the events leading up the Wolfenden report, which paved the way to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.

    TV REVIEW | Against The Law

    Against The Law is a docudrama by filmmaker Fergus O’Brien, based on the true story of Peter Wildeblood played by Daniel Mays, a writer and journalist for the Daily Mail, who was charged and imprisoned for homosexual acts in 1954, following an affair with a military man (Richard Gadd). At the time, gay men were being arrested in their droves, police raids were regular and the shaming of men for their lifestyle was rife.

    The punishment for those found guilty was prison time and gay cures offered, by professional medical staff, to those who wished to drive the gay out of them. The cures offered included electrical and chemical aversion therapies.

    The law made it almost impossible for gay men to lead honest, open relationships with each other as demonstrated in Wildeblood’s story. His personal love letters to his boyfriend were used against him in evidence of his so-called crimes.

    After his incarceration, he was the only openly gay man to testify in front of the Wolfenden committee, the committee that was, eventually, instrumental in the decriminalising of homosexuality in the UK.

    Interspersed with the drama were the true life stories from men caught up in the cruelty of the British legal system. They share their heartbreaking stories of fear, longing for acceptance and reclamation of their stolen lives.

    Utterly captivating and desperately sad, Against The Law, is a history lesson everybody in the LGBT+ community needs to learn.

     

  • What time is Man In the Orange Shirt on BBC 2

    In his first screen drama, best-selling British novelist Patrick Gale tells two gay love stories, 60 years apart – stories linked by family, and by a painting that holds a secret that echoes down the generations.

    What time is Man In the Orange Shirt on BBC 2

    As part of the BBC’s Gay Britannia season, it will be showing the mini series Man In The Orange Shirt on BBC 2. The show features a cast which includes Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, David Gyasi, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and James McArdle.

    It will be shown tonight at 9 PM on BBC 2

    What is Man In An Orange About?

    Man in an Orange Shirt charts the challenges and huge changes to gay lives from the Second World War to the present: In 1944, British Army Captain Michael Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) meets war artist Thomas March (James McArdle) in Southern Italy while chaos reigns all around them. Despite having a young fiancé, Flora (Joanna Vanderham), waiting at home for him, straight-laced Michael finds himself falling for Thomas’ bohemian charms. In 2017, an ageing Flora (Redgrave) looks on as her grandson, Adam (Julian Morris), tentatively forms a relationship with his client Steve (David Gyasi) in a more accepting world. But while the external obstacles have fallen away, a minefield of internalised issues and dangerous temptations still line the road to happiness.

    When will Man In An Orange show on BBC 2?

    The first of two episodes of Man In An Orange Shirt will be broadcast on BBC 2 on July 31 at 9 pm. It will be available shortly after on BBC’s iPlayer.

    The show was commissioned by the BBC to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

     

  • What times is Against The Law on BBC 2 and what is it about?

    To mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, BBC 2 will be broadcasting Against The Law tonight.

    What times is Against The Law on BBC 2 and what is it about?

    As part of their “Gay Britannia” season, the BBC will be broadcasting one of their flagship productions, Against The Law.

    Daniel Mays (Line Of Duty, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Public Enemies) stars in BBC Two’s powerful factual drama as Peter Wildeblood, a thoughtful and private gay journalist whose lover Eddie McNally (played by newcomer to television, Richard Gadd), under pressure from the authorities, turned Queen’s evidence against him in one of the most explosive court cases of the 1950s – the infamous Montagu Trial.

    When does Against The Law air on BBC 2?

    BBC 2 will be broadcasting the show tonight from 9 PM. The show is 1 hour and 20 minutes and will be available to stream from the BBC iPlayer after the broadcast.

    What is Against The Law about?

    More than ten years before the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in 1967, Peter Wildeblood, and his friends Lord Montagu (Mark Edel-Hunt) and Michael Pitt-Rivers, were found guilty of homosexual offences and jailed.

    With his career in tatters and his private life painfully exposed, Wildeblood began his sentence a broken man, but he emerged from Wormwood Scrubs a year later determined to do all he could to change the way these draconian laws against homosexuality impacted on the lives of men like him.

    The drama also features Mark Gatiss (Taboo, Sherlock) as Wildeblood’s prison psychiatrist, Doctor Landers and Charlie Creed-Miles (Ripper Street, Peaky Blinders) as Superintendent Jones.

    Woven through this powerful drama is real-life testimony from a chorus of men who lived through those dark days, when homosexuals were routinely imprisoned or forced to undergo chemical aversion therapy in an attempt to cure them of their “condition”. There is also testimony from a retired police officer whose job it was to enforce these laws, and a former psychiatric nurse who administered the so-called cures. All of these accounts serve to amplify the themes of the drama and help to immerse us in the reality of a dark chapter in our recent past, a past still within the reach of living memory.

    Who stars in Against The Law?

    The show stars Sherlock’s Mark Gatiss, as well as Charlie Creed-Miles who starred in Ripper Street. The show also has Daniel Mays and Richard Gadd.

     

  • When will BBC 2 broadcast Man In the Orange Shirt?

    In his first screen drama, best-selling British novelist Patrick Gale tells two gay love stories, 60 years apart – stories linked by family, and by a painting that holds a secret that echoes down the generations.

    As part of the BBC’s Gay Britannia season, it will be showing the mini series Man In The Orange Shirt on BBC 2. The show features a cast which includes Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, David Gyasi, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and James McArdle.

    What is Man In An Orange About?

    Man in an Orange Shirt charts the challenges and huge changes to gay lives from the Second World War to the present: In 1944, British Army Captain Michael Berryman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) meets war artist Thomas March (James McArdle) in Southern Italy while chaos reigns all around them. Despite having a young fiancé, Flora (Joanna Vanderham), waiting at home for him, straight-laced Michael finds himself falling for Thomas’ bohemian charms. In 2017, an ageing Flora (Redgrave) looks on as her grandson, Adam (Julian Morris), tentatively forms a relationship with his client Steve (David Gyasi) in a more accepting world. But while the external obstacles have fallen away, a minefield of internalised issues and dangerous temptations still line the road to happiness.

    When will Man In An Orange show on BBC 2?

    The first of two episodes of Man In An Orange Shirt will be broadcast on BBC 2 on July 31 at 9 pm. It will be available shortly after on BBC’s iPlayer.

    The show was commissioned by the BBC to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

     

  • Ben Whishaw, Russell Tovey and Alan Cumming join stellar cast for Gay Britannia

    A stellar cast is to appear in BBC Four’s Queers. Ben Whishaw, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Front, Russell Tovey, Gemma Whelan, Ian Gelder, Kadiff Kirwan and Fionn Whitehead will star in eight 15 minute monologues.

    Curated and directed by Mark Gatiss, Queers sees eight new and established writers respond to the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act which partially decriminalised homosexual acts between men. The series will be broadcast as part of the BBC’s Gay Britannia season this summer.

    Taking in 1957’s Wolfenden Report, the HIV crisis and the 1967 Sexual Offence Act itself, the monologues will explore some of the most poignant, funny, tragic and riotous moments of British gay history and the very personal rites-of-passage of British gay men through the last one hundred years.

    In ‘The Man on the Platform’, Ben Whishaw (London Spy, Spectre) returns from the trenches of the First World War, whilst a hundred years later, Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) reflects on gay marriage in ‘Something Borrowed’.

    ‘More Anger’ finds Russell Tovey (Him & Her, Being Human) playing a gay actor in the 1980s, and Rebecca Front (War and Peace, Humans) contemplates her very particular marriage in ‘Missing Alice’.

    Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, Decline and Fall), Kadiff Kirwan (Black Mirror, Chewing Gum), Ian Gelder (Snatch, Game of Thrones) and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk, HIM) appear respectively in ‘A Perfect Gentleman’, ‘Safest Spot in Town’, ‘I Miss the War’ and ‘A Grand Day Out’, each examining the very different attitudes and social changes in gay men’s lives over the century.

    The plays are written by Matthew Baldwin, Jon Bradfield, Michael Dennis, Keith Jarrett, and Gareth McLean, who are writing for television for the first time, alongside established screenwriters Jackie Clune, Brian Fillis and Gatiss himself.

    The 8×15 mins series was commissioned by Cassian Harrison and Mark Bell, Head of Commissioning, Arts and is made by BBC Studios. The Executive Producer is Pauline Law.

    Queers is being produced in partnership with The Old Vic theatre who will stage all eight of the monologues in July, in the run up to the television transmission. Tickets for the live staging are on sale now, with casting to be announced.

  • Gay Britannia to rule the airwaves as BBC announces a raft of LGBT programming

    The BBC have announced that they are to broadcast a season of programming to mark the 50 years since homosexuality was partially decriminalised in the UK.

    CREDIT: BBC

    Led by programming on BBC Two and Four, with other content across BBC radio and online, the Gay Britannia season will feature bold and provocative stories, celebrating the LGBTQ community as well as challenging existing preconceptions and prejudices. The season will also cast a fresh light on the history of gay Britain, as well as highlighting just what it means to be gay in Britain today. Contributors announced today include Andrew Scott, Val McDermid, Olly Alexander, Sandi Toksvig, Susan Calman, Stephen K Amos, and Simon Callow.

    On BBC Two, the season ranges from the compelling dramas Against the Law, starring Daniel Mays as journalist Peter Wildeblood who was found guilty of homosexuality in the 1950s in the explosive Montagu Trial and the first screen drama from best-selling British novelist Patrick Gale: Man in an Orange Shirt starring Vanessa Redgrave to important and timely documentaries such as Is It Safe to be Gay in the UK? which uses testimony and found footage to explore the rise of attacks on lesbian, gay and transgender people.

    What Gay Did for Art celebrates the contribution lesbian and gay people have made to popular culture, the visual arts, literature, theatre and film on BBC Two whilst Prejudice and Pride: The People’s History of LGBTQ Britain, presented by Susan Calman and Stephen K Amos on BBC Four, reveals the precious mementos and memorabilia that have the changed the lives of LGBTQ people over the last 50 years. Also on BBC Four, Gluck charts the modern British history of female homosexuality and its representation in culture, literature, fashion and art through the untold story of the celebrated artist Gluck who defied the gender and sexuality definitions of her time; and Mark Gatiss offers his and other writers’ responses to the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act in Queers.

    On BBC Three, Olly Alexander, lead singer of Years and Years and a powerful voice on LGBTQ rights, explores why the gay community is more vulnerable to mental health issues, as he opens up about his own long-term battles with depression in Olly Alexander: Growing Up Gay.

    Highlights on BBC Radio include Val McDermid presenting Queer Britain on Radio 4, exploring the many ways that the LGBTQ community was accepted, tolerated, despised and ostracised and how this was reflected across culture, society and politics. On Radio 2, a two-part series will celebrate out and proud LGBTQ performers who utilised their sexuality to push boundaries, defining the sound of their generation. On Radio 3, the drama Victim will trace the bravery behind the 1961 film of the same name that was the first English language film to use the word ‘homosexual’.

    Patrick Holland, BBC Two Channel Controller, says

    “This is a rich and compelling set of programmes that challenge us all. From the heart-breaking testimony of the men who lived through the years before partial decriminalisation in Against the Law and Patrick Gale’s intensely personal Man in an Orange Shirt to a documentary revealing the experience of people facing discrimination in the UK today, this season is a powerful examination of how far we have come whilst also exploring how much further we have to travel.”

  • RADIO | Crimes Of Passion, BBC Radio 3

    Crimes Of Passion

    Broadcaster: BBC Radio 3

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Crimes of Passion, a double-bill of Joe Orton plays (The Erpingham Camp and The Ruffian on the Stair) will be recorded in front of an audience in the Radio Theatre to mark the 50th anniversary of Orton’s death.

  • RADIO | Victim, BBC Radio 3

    Victim

    Broadcaster: BBC Radio 3

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Victim traces the bravery and pragmatism behind the development of the eponymous 1961 British film, which was the first to seriously address homosexuality. The film was written by a woman (Janet Green), made by refugees from Ealing Studios and starred matinee idol Dirk Bogarde in the gamble of his career. It is often credited with helping to break the taboo and change public attitudes to the law.

  • RADIO | Coming Out From The Shadows, BBC Radio 4

    Coming Out From The Shadows

    Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    On the 50th Anniversary of the groundbreaking 1967 Sexual Offences Act, the campaigner Peter Tatchell takes a sceptical look at its impact on Britain’s gay communities.  Although it was a major staging post in the long and tortuous fight for the decriminalisation of male homosexual behaviour in Britain, Peter will show that in the years immediately were far from friendly towards homosexuality: for example, convictions of men for same-sex offences increased dramatically. Peter will go on to examine discrimination against homosexuals in areas such as employment and housing in the 1970s, and he revisits the fierce battles in the 1990s for the reduction of the age of consent for homosexuals from 21 to 16.

    Drawing on extensive archive from the last fifty years, Peter will chronicle the continuing struggle for equal rights for Britain’s LGBTQ communities – a story that takes us right up to 2017.

  • RADIO | Queer Britain, BBC Radio 4

    Queer Britain

    Broadcast Date: TBC

    Val McDermid presents the story of British homosexuality running up to the landmark Sexual Offences Act of 1967.  Using ground-breaking work from a new wave of young historians, this series brings a new perspective to the history of homosexuality, exploring the many ways that the LGBTQ community was accepted, tolerated, despised and ostracised, and how this was reflected across culture, society and politics.

  • RADIO | Queer Icons, BBC Radio 4

    BBC Radio Four presents: Queer Icons

    Broadcast date: TBC

    Front Row is marking the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation with a landmark project, Queer Icons. 50 leading figures will choose an LGBTQ artwork that is special to them.  

    From the ancient Greek poetry of Sappho to the Oscar-winning film Moonlight, from the music of George Michael to the plays of Oscar Wilde, they will explore the works of art throughout history that have expressed what it is to be gay or queer. 

    These short pieces will be broadcast on Front Row and on other Radio 4 programmes in July, and will be collected together online.