A new stage play, The BBC's First Homosexual, is bringing to life the original script of the BBC's first programme on male homosexuality, broadcast in a heavily edited form in 1957. The play, which tours England in February as part of LGBT+ History Month, draws on rediscovered archive materials to explore the homophobic attitudes of the 1950s and their contemporary echoes.
The original 1954 radio programme, titled The Homosexual Condition, featured contributors including Lord Hailsham, who described homosexuals as 'extremely eager, like alcoholics, to spread the disease from which they suffer'. Another participant, a Church of England moralist, warned of 'transitory attachments, disillusionment and loneliness in old age', while John Wolfenden recommended 'a healthy and normal' home life as a 'prophylactic against all sorts of troubles of this kind'.
Historian Marcus Collins, who rediscovered the script, said the BBC sought to provide a 'voice of balance and authority' amid public debates over homosexuality, which was then a criminal offence. The play's writer, Stephen M Hornby, noted that the script revealed either 'naked, foaming-at-the-mouth homophobia' or liberal voices advocating conversion therapy and abstinence.
The only gay perspective in the broadcast came from an anonymous 'reformed homosexual' who believed in 'sheer will power'. The play also features Mary Whitehouse, who later became a noted campaigner against 'filth', but declined to participate in the original programme. The BBC's director general initially shelved the programme, with debates over whether it might increase homophobia or violate a policy of not discussing sex.
After the edited version aired in 1957, backlash led BBC bosses to decide against further programmes on the subject 'except for special purposes'. The play, premiering in Salford before a tour, includes post-show Q&A sessions and aims to highlight themes such as conversion practices, which remain relevant today.
