RELUCTANT HERO

DANIEL MAYS stars as an unsung gay-rights campaigner in a moving docu-drama

FEW PEOPLE WILL recognise the name Peter Wildeblood these days, but in the 1950s the Daily Mail journalist was instrumental in the introduction of a new law that changed the lives of every gay man in the country.

He gave evidence to a toplevel committee chaired by Lord Wolfenden. Its recommendations resulted in the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts in private between men over 21.

ON TRIAL

This week, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Act, the BBC2 docu-drama Against the Law recounts the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Wildeblood, played by Daniel Mays, and features real-life testimony from gay men who recall the time when homosexuals were vilified in the press and persecuted by the criminal justice system.

Wildeblood’s role in the landmark legislation began when he fell in love with army nurse Edward Mcnally. But in the summer of 1953, after attending a private party with Lord Montagu and Michael Pitt-rivers, as well as Mcnally and another RAF serviceman, John Reynolds, Wildeblood was arrested.

In a trial that gripped the nation, Wildeblood, Lord Montagu and Pitt-rivers were charged with ‘conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons’.

Mcnally and Reynolds turned Queen’s Evidence in order to reduce their own punishment. In March 1954, Wildeblood and Pitt-rivers were sentenced to 18 months in prison, and Lord Montagu to 12 months.

‘In the programme, you see

Peter and Edward [played by newcomer Richard Gadd] fall in love, and then the arrests happen,’ says Mays.‘peter was a very private man and for his life to be splashed across all the papers was incredibly damaging for him.’

He was not alone. As many as 1000 men were locked up in Britain’s prisons every year amid a police clampdown on homosexual offences. Undercover officers often posed as gay men soliciting in public places.

‘They were desperate to convict Montagu because he was a peer,’ Mays explains.‘the policy at that time was to convict as many gay men as possible. They were hounded by society.’

ELECTRIC SHOCKS

The programme also shows Peter in a harrowing encounter with a prison psychiatrist played by Sherlock’s Mark Gatiss, who tells him about the appalling aversion therapy ‘cures’ used on gay men, including nausea-inducing chemicals and electric shocks.

‘If you’re locked up and that’s your only choice, I guess you take it,’ says Mays. ‘So many men at that time were desperate, but it’s an horrendous circumstance.

‘Peter goes into that scene with the psychiatrist genuinely wanting to find a “cure”. But when he hears the description of the aversion therapy in all its barbaric detail, it’s the slow beginning of him formulating a plan and trying to gain inner strength.’

CAUSE CÉLÈBRE

Throughout the trial, there was much public sympathy for the men, leading to an inquiry with Peter giving evidence to the committee headed by Lord Wolfenden.

Although Wildeblood became a campaigner for gay rights, his sexuality was something he always struggled with.

‘He genuinely thought he had an affliction – at that time it was rammed down their throats that it was a depraved act, and that there was something mentally wrong with them,’

Mays explains.

The actor has nothing but admiration for Wildeblood, who also wrote about his incarceration in Wormwood Scrubs in the 1955 book Against the Law, from which the docu-drama takes its title.

‘At his lowest ebb, Peter was able to find an inner strength and formulate the argument,’ he says. ‘Peter’s testimony was so important – it helped decriminalise homosexuality. It’s a truly inspirational story.

‘The thing I can’t stop thinking about is that all of this story is born from the emotion of love, and it was deemed a criminal act back then. We should all strive to be in a tolerant, forgiving, collective world. This story really highlights that.’