A slightly bizarre documentary about the story behind the Wolfenden Comittee on 4oD... it's entertaining and, given that it's channel 4, it could be much worse. But seriously, you'd think that channel 4 had enough money to maybe phone a historian when they script something like this. Or maybe just google.
Because stating that the Wildeblood trial was the first scandal of its kind in Britain ist just blatantly untrue and a bit embarrassing. Ever since the printed mass media opened up a dialogue with the public there have been reports about sex scandals, police investigation and courtroom drama. What's true today was just as true 130 years ago: if it's about sex, it's definitely in the papers. And as the whole documentary is arranged around the subject of decriminalising male homosexuality, you'd really think they'd had a look at some of the easily accessible databases documenting criminalisation, such as the Old Baily Online. Needless to say, the documentary is pretty whiggish, making it seem like a fast and inevitable course of events from the Wildeblood trial *pling* to the Wolfenden Comittee *pling* to a change in law *pling*.
Dear channel 4: you tried. Try again, and keep the cast. They're hot.
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