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Lights Out: Series 4: A Service for Society

A Service for Society

Series 4

BBC Radio 4 - Lights Out, Series 4, A Service for Society

A political scandal, a dead dog and the struggle for gay rights in 1970s Britain.

The year 1978 was to be a landmark year both for Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the Liberal Party, and the struggle for gay rights in the UK.

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Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded that would rock the British political establishment and test those campaigning for gay rights in the United Kingdom.  It resulted in a dead dog, a political career in ruins, a classic comedy sketch and the cause of gay liberation being set back years.  

Through remarkably candid interviews not previously broadcast in this country with Norman Scott (the former model) and Andrew Newton (the suspected hitman), two of the main protagonists in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe (former leader of the Liberal Party), this documentary revisits a very English scandal and gauges its impact on the struggle for gay rights.  

We hear from the human-rights activist Peter Tatchell; a member of the Brixton Faeries, Julian Hows, who staged a satirical play based on the Thorpe case; and Tom Robinson, whose song Glad to be Gay hit the charts in 1978. We also hear from Derek Stimpson, archivist of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and archive of Peter Cook as the 'biased judge'.  

Archive of Norman Scott and Andrew Newton from 'The Jeremy Thorpe Affair' courtesy of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (1978).

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Lights Out: Series 4

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