Channel 4 led the gay revolutn TV | Letters | The Guardian

Contents:

• C4 ANNOUNC NEW SEASON, 50 SHAS OF GAY
• CHANNEL 4 LED THE GAY REVOLUTN TV
• CHANNEL 4'S GAY SEASON: A MISSED OPPORTUNY?
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI

C4 ANNOUNC NEW SEASON, 50 SHAS OF GAY

Channel 4 is markg the 50th anniversary of the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy wh a new season of programm: 50 Shas of Gay. In a documentary of the same name, Rupert Everett livers his personal and ank take on the velopments gay life Bra sce crimalisatn. Not Guilty (w/t) shows how gay men ntued to be persecuted long after the 1967 Act began to crimalise homosexualy.

Far om herg an end to prejudice, 1967 unleashed a backlash of homophobia. Epimic [w/t] tells how an unlikely aln of gay mpaigners, Tory policians, and pneerg doctors me together to fight AIDS the 1980s – and changed Bra the procs. Born This Way (w/t) reveals that while mpaigners were battlg Parliament for legal reforms, pop mic was changg hearts and mds, brgg gay culture to the livg rooms of Bra.

And Bra’s Great Gay Buildgs, famo fac such as Simon Callow, Lord Waheed, Anna Richardson and Mary Portas champn the buildgs where extraordary moments Bra’s gay history took place. This film reveals how gay men ntued to be persecuted long after the 1967 Act began to crimalise homosexualy. Far om herg an end to prejudice, 1967 unleashed a backlash of homophobia enforced by the police and the urts, as many aspects of gay life ntued to be illegal.

CHANNEL 4 LED THE GAY REVOLUTN TV

The film tells the stori of some of the 15, 000 men who fell foul of Bra’s homophobic laws durg the past half century - and expos how the jtice ntu today. This landmark film tells the behd-the-scen upliftg story of how an unlikely aln of Tory policians, pneerg doctors and gay men me together to fight a adly disease wh no cure – and how Bra was changed forever by the battle agast AIDS the 1980s. Together they overme a homophobic prs, the ignorance of the medil tablishment, and the outright hostily of Margaret Thatcher, orr to create a mpaign that would change hearts and mds about AIDS – and gay men.

50 Shas of Gay. In this documentary, Rupert Everett livers his personal and ank take on the velopments gay life Bra sce the crimalisatn of homosexualy 50 years ago.

Huge progrs has been ma - but has somethg of the edge and distctivens of gay inty also been lost?

CHANNEL 4'S GAY SEASON: A MISSED OPPORTUNY?

After homosexualy was legalised 50 years ago, this is the story of how was pop mic that won the battle for hearts and mds, and ma OK to be gay. Put simply: was pop mic that ma OK to be gay.

Channel 4 marks this momento anniversary wh the story of the fearls & flamboyant artists– om global ins to hidn hero – who ed pop mic as gay culture’s Trojan Horse, scg all wh a soundtrack to die for. Channel 4's dited short arts strand Random Acts is partnerg wh Tate on s Queer Brish Art 1861-1967 exhibn, which marks the 50th anniversary sce the crimalisatn of male homosexualy the UK. Bra’s Great Gay Buildgs.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

In Bra’s Great Gay Buildgs, prented by Stephen Fry, 7 famo gay fac champn the buildgs that have helped fe Bra’s gay history, revealg the groundbreakg events that happened them and extraordary people who lived and worked them.

The Reverend Richard Cole reviss Heaven Nightclub after many years to reveal s hedonistic past, Mary Portas viss Shibn Hall Yorkshire to disver the secret diari of a Yorkshire heirs, Craig Revel Horwood revels the story of Bra’s drag scene at the Royal Vxhall Tavern, Simon Callow tells the story of Osr Wil’s downfall at the Old Bailey, Rikki Beadle Blair viss the Theatre Royal Haymarket to disver how the Brish public showed their support for Sir John Gielgud after his arrt for ttagg, Liz Carr travels to Bletchley Park to vis the place that fostered one of Bra’s greatt scientists Alan Turg and Lord Waheed Alli tells the story of the Ho of Parliament’s recent battle for gay rights. Owen Jon’s celebratn markg 20 years sce the excellent seri Queer as Folk was first televised (Journal, 28 Febary) suggts that was this groundbreakg programme that transformed gay reprentatn on Brish fact, the radil change happened the 1980s on Channel 4.

And this year is the 30th anniversary of C4’s Out on Tuday (later OUT), the world’s first worked televisn seri aimed at a lbian and gay dience. It ran between 1989 and 1994 and was the culmatn of work done by a lot of lbians and gay men – mpaigners, journalists, dividuals and a very small number of workg televisn – for more posive and more regular reprentatn of on journey towards airg the programm was a bumpy ri – volvg qutns parliament, a mpaign by anti-permissive-society activist Mary Whehoe and tabloid newspaper hysteria – and all unfold as part of the rponse of the gay and lbian muny to the Aids crisis and the dranian sectn 28 anti-gay groundbreakg productns that changed broadstg culture happened across more than a om C4’s ceptn 1982.