Against the Law
drama / 9.00pm / BBC2
to be gay in 1950s Britain meant living in fear. This single drama follows journalist Peter Wildeblood (Daniel Mays) as his relationship with a man is discovered and he is sent to jail for 18 months following the infamous Montagu Trials of 1954. Probably the most powerful moments of the film, however, are the true-life accounts from men, now in their 70s, 80s and 90s, about those times. How it felt to be considered a criminal, hiding who they really were under the constant threat of imprisonment and of the crude and brutal aversion therapy, designed to ‘cure’ their ‘disease’.