Plot introduction
Daniel Mays (Line Of Duty, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Public Enemies) stars in BBC Two#39;s powerful factual drama as Peter Wildeblood, a thoughtful and private gay journalist whose lover Eddie McNally (played by newer to television, Richard Gadd), under pressure from the authorities, turned Queen#39;s evidence against him in one of the most explosive court cases of the 1950s - the infamous Montagu Trial.
More than ten years before the 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.
Daniel says: 「I#39;m incredibly proud to be part of a drama that tells such an important real-life story. Peter Wildeblood is a fascinating, plex, yet flawed character from a time when being a gay man in Britain was incredibly difficult - I can#39;t wait to bring his tale to life for the BBC Two audience.」
Patrick Holland, Channel Editor, BBC Two, said: 「50 years ago, it was a crime to be a gay man in the UK. Against The Law is a stunning piece that melds drama and documentary testimony to tell the story of one man, and his wider generation, as they struggled to make society accept their sexuality as non-criminal. It is brilliant to have a film that brings the authorship of Brian Fillis, the vision of director Fergus O#39;Brien, and the outstanding talent of Daniel Mays and cast to this important subject」
The drama also features Mark Gatiss (Taboo, Sherlock) as Wildeblood#39;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 quot;conditionquot;. 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.
expand all
