Popular reviews

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  Review by Graham Williamson ★★★½

  Part of Consenting Adults: Fifty Years of British Pride.

  When I read New Scientist its letters page had a jokey fascination with what it calls "nominative determinism"; the sense that some people's lives are decided by their name. There may be no more poetic example of this than Peter Wildeblood. His surname spells out his destiny, that he would continue the legacy of Oscar Wilde into the twentieth century. Whereas Wilde's trial spelled the brutal end of the dream of queer liberation in nineteenth century England, though, Wildeblood's trial was the catalyst for a new era of tolerance.

  Wildeblood was a journalist who was tried in 1954 for his affair with an RAF serviceman. His defiance on the stand was…

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★★

  Those testimonies from gay men who lived through the pre-Wolfenden era really are heartbreaking. I could have watched a film just of those tbh.

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  Review by loureviews ★★★★

  I didn't feel this added a great deal to the last drama-documentary of the case which was shown in 2007, but the importance of Peter Wildeblood, his 1950s conviction for gross indecency, and his subsequent fight to influence change through his writing, campaigning, and testimony to the Wolfenden committee was of direct importance to the eventual legalisation of homosexuality in 1967.

  Daniel Mays plays Wildeblood in this, very much as an innocent who grows through injustice to fight the cause. The fact his lover, an officer in the RAF, basically shopped him and his friends to the police to save his own skin leaves a sour taste even now, but the secret underworld (and the thrill of the risks involved) is well portrayed in both drama and in the talking heads of elderly gay men.

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★★

  This drama documentary is the flagship of the BBC's current season commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Wolfenden report, which argued that what occurred privately between 'consenting adults' was no longer illegal and helped bring about the overall legalisation of homosexuality here in the UK.

  It goes without saying that it is of course astonishing and inconceivable that being gay was, in living memory, a crime that people were sent to prison for, but what was really astonishing was to see, in the opening credits, the language used, both in the parliament and the press regarding homosexuality; dehumanising. loaded terms such as 'infestation' and 'evil' were par for the course, and even an article headlined 'How to Spot a Homo'…

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  Review by 🍄🫧aj✨🦋 ★★★

  enriched my understanding of queer history. i enjoyed the interviews much more than the dramatization. they did work in tandem quite well though. i know more united states history and i’m so glad i was able to learn more. although a pivotal moment in history, the critique of it is necessary as pedophiles were linked in the same group and more effeminate folks were seen as less than. 

  i also had a very large smile on my face when the last interviewee had his husband come on and when all of the interviewees got to describe themselves. both heartbreaking and heartwarming content there.

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  Review by sobotka ★★★★

  Recuerdo esa escena de Crimen Perfecto de Hitchcock en la que el inspector del caso (John Williams) le dice socarronamente a un policía que si sale a la calle con el bolso de la sospechosa puesto le detendrían.
  Un poco "¿Dónde va usted así, loco?".

  Es el Londres de los años 50 de Against the Law, que mezcla drama y testimonios reales dentro de la celebración de la BBC de los 60 años del Informe Wolfenden, donde un comité recomendó que "el comportamiento homosexual en privado y entre adultos que consintieran no debía seguir siendo un delito" (wikipedia).
  Tuvo que pasar una década para que se tradujera en una nueva ley que por lo leído (lo digo porque no tenía…

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  Review by libby4890 ★★★½

  I liked the mix of documentary and drama and thought they enriched each other

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  Review by Dave Evans ★★★½

  I'm not a big fan of blending drama and "talking heads," so I found Against the Law an odd mix at times. Just when I was beginning to engage with one style, it would switch to the other. Yet, both offered different insights and enriched the piece. Maybe it would have been better as a drama, but then I would've missed the heart-breaking story of the repercussions of one seaman's difficult choice and the delight in finding out that one couple lasted 66 years together.

  My favorite part was the first fifteen minutes, as Peter and the RAF man feel in love and enjoyed a relationship together. The kissing and sex scene were so romantic and filled me with desire.…

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  Review by Ruth Scouller ★★½

  The documentary talking head bits from those who lived the era are stronger than the more middling historical drama (although I liked that Daniel Mays has a lot of pricklier stuff to work with situated as a more discrete posh defendant protagonist than his Hopper-esque lonely man initially suggests). A reminder that whilst the postwar Allies weren't exactly stoning their gays or carting them off sterilised to concentration camps, it was still pretty hostile and rotten with full decriminalisation of consenting adult men in private still a fair way off, let alone all else and the social ostracism beyond the legal. Deals in some complex contextual questions for those navigating the times and exploring their self as best they can, both sensitive and heartbreaking, and the decision to truth tell from the mouths of elderly survivors is an enhancement.

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  Review by Jamie ★★★

  I dig a good true story. I dig a good documentary. It was jarring to unexpectedly find myself watching an odd hybrid of the two. However after accustomed to the format, I will say the interviews add nice contextual layers to the story, and the interviewees' smiling faces at the end do provide a feeling of uplift and hopefulness.

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  Review by MEV ⛰ ★★★½

  Sounds medieval but this really did happen in England. I feel like the interviews should’ve been cut and made into a short documentary as a double bill with the movie when it aired, the movie itself has great production values with a top-tier Daniel Mays as Peter Wildeblood and a superb supporting performance from the lesser-known Dillane brother Richard.

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  Review by Andi ★★★½

  I don't know why but I really enjoy these sort of docudramas intercut with talking heads interviews. It's not common but I find it weirdly enjoyable.

  I admittedly knew very little—possibly nothing—about Peter Wildeblood before this so a lot of it was new to me. As such, some of it, particularly toward the end, felt a little vague to me but I thought it was all very well acted and like Daniel Mays in the lead role a whole lot. (Even after all these years I still think of him most as Jim Keats in Ashes to Ashes).

  Anyway, the interviews with all of the men who were alive at the time were so incredibly moving. It was all I…