In a ground breaking piece of Television in the 1980’s British/South African TV Producer Michael Atwell’s GAY LIFE documentary looks back at what it was like to be a gay man in the 1930’s in London. His guide is Clifford Skinner and his friend Benny who takes Atwell round all the infamous haunts where gay men hung out, and it would seem have a rare old time.
Gifford talks about being in a theatrical clique ……..one of the ways of asking about another man’s sexuality was inquiring if he was ‘Musical’. A favourite pick up joint was the Balcony Gallery of the Trocadero Theatre where unbeknown to the well-heeled patrons downstairs there was no limit to what went on.
Most of these gay men were not interested in having a liaison with another gay man : their target were ‘straight’ men, particular Guardsmen in their crimson red uniforms hanging around Hyde Park at night. For some unexplained reason this was the only sex the soldiers could get and they were very obliging often charging as little as 2 Bob ( 2 shillings) .
The second half of the program is a little more serious as it deals with the police clampdowns in the 1950’s (very similar to The Lavender Scare in the US) . Then in the 1960’s Lord Wolfenden’s Committee officially looking into Homosexuality on behalf of the Government finally accepted that sexologists like Freud didn’t get it all right, Thanks to Wolfenden , homosexuality that had been made illegal under Queen Victoria , was no longer a criminal offence
Michael Attwell, who produced the series for London Weekend Television who screened Gay Life in the Sunday night ‘graveyard’ slot of 11.30pm (London area only), but it attracted a lot of publicity, some of it negative. ‘
Attwell, who was gay, went on to produce Gaytime TV a late night gay themed comedy and lifestyle magazine programme and broadcast on BBC 2 in 1995 in the United Kingdom. It was the first regular BBC television programme to directly to address the gay and lesbian community,
Labels: 2020, gay history, London
