logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2017
50m 36s

When Homosexuality Was a Crime

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Comedian and broadcaster Pete Price speaks about being subjected to horrific aversion therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality in 1960s Britain. Plus the 99-year-old former aide to the Chinese nationalist leader, Chiang Kai Shek, a radical new approach to housing in the former USSR, the perils of deep sea commercial diving in the North Sea and how the Welsh fought for recognition of their language.

Photo: Pete Price (private collection)

Up next
Jul 5
Dancing in the Street and Ai Weiwei
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes including the story behind Mick Jagger and David Bowie's duet for Live Aid in 1985 and the Chinese artist who was jailed for his art inspired by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. He speaks to music journalist ... Show More
50m 53s
Jun 28
Robert Kennedy's funeral train and the opening of the Medellin Metro
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service, all related to trains and journeys which have helped to shape our world.Our guest Nicky Gardner, travel writer and co-author of Europe by Rail: the Definitive Guide, discusses t ... Show More
50m 58s
Jun 21
Jaws and the Charleston church shooting
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive language.It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Ou ... Show More
51m 7s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
Polari: The Secret Language of Gay Men
It's a credit to the resilience of the gay community that when society tried to outlaw and silence them, they just created a language of their own to keep conversation (and gossip) alive.  The language, polari, was born out of prejudice, and while it's now classified as endangere ... Show More
32m 14s
Aug 2021
Gay activism in 1990s India
In the early 1990s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in India, a group of gay men and lesbian women set up the Counsel Club in the city of Kolkata. It was one of the first queer support groups in India. Their first meetings took place in secret at the home of one o ... Show More
8m 57s
Nov 2023
Section 28: The Anti-Gay Law That Sparked A Movement
The 1980s have a lot to answer for - spandex, for one. It also saw the first new anti-gay law in Britain for over a century. Against the backdrop of the HIV epidemic, and increasing homophobia across the media and politics, the law Section 28 was passed in 1988, which stopped the ... Show More
38m 44s
Apr 2024
439. Disco: Sex and Race in Seventies America
Music for sex, dancing, and watching the straight world go by… The explosion of Disco provides an extraordinary window into the tumultuous world of the 1970s, with its themes of sex, drugs, race and sexuality. By the start of the 1970s, America was a nation of dystopian gloom. Th ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 2021
China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages'
LGBT people in China sometimes arrange fake marriages to hide their sexuality. Homosexuality is not illegal in China but there is discrimination against LGBT people. In 2005 Lin Hai set up a website to allow lesbians and gay men to get in touch with each other. He came up with th ... Show More
8m 58s
Feb 2023
Jeremy Thorpe | The Go-Between | 2
Jeremy Thorpe's political career is on the up. But his personal life is threatening to bring him down. He is one of the brightest stars in Westminster. Perhaps even a future PM. But rumours about his sexuality are swirling. And in 1960s Britain, homosexuality is illegal. Now his ... Show More
51m 19s
Dec 2021
Homosexuality & Ancient Greece
Frederick the Great, Marie Antoinette and Oscar Wilde. Each of them have talked about, or been talked about in terms of, Ancient Greek ideas of homosexual love. From men taking on young apprentices, to Sappho’s yearning poetry, the Ancient Greek traditions have long been called u ... Show More
47m 59s
May 2021
Repeat After Me
One night in 1952, a Coloradan businessman hypnotized a local housewife. Under his spell, she began to recount her past life as a 19th-century Irish woman. He caught it on tape. The story of her reincarnation tore out of their Colorado town and across the world. It spawned major ... Show More
47m 22s
Jun 2023
Oscar Wilde | The Peer and The Poet | 2
Oscar Wilde is making waves in London’s literary scene, but he’s heading for disaster. He's been publicly outed by his gay lover’s father, Lord Queensberry. Homosexuality is illegal and Wilde is facing private and public ruin. So he has to make a life-changing choice: fight, or f ... Show More
49m 29s
Apr 2024
441. Lord Byron: Scandal, Sex and Celebrity (Part 2)
By 1809, Lord Byron found himself untethered and debt-ridden. Disenchanted with politics, frustrated by his literary career and haunted by his illicit homosexuality, he abandoned an oppressive England and set out upon his legendary Eastern adventure. First plunging into a Europe ... Show More
1 h