A Very British Sex Scandal (2007)

This docu-drama may err more on the side of docu than drama but it is nevertheless pertinent, beautifully made and ultimately very moving. Written and directed by Patrick Reams, it tells the story of the famous Lord Montagu trial in the early fifties when a peer of the realm and a well-known British journalist were arrested and tried for gross indecency and buggery.

Shown as part of Channel 4's "40 years out" season of films to make the anniversary of the legalisation of male homosexuality in the UK, this film looks back at a period where a high profile homosexuality trial (the Lord Montague case) was conducted at the same time as a Common's committee was reviewing the legal situation and the possibility of legalisation of the "Huntleys" and their acts when conducted in private with mutual consent. The structure of the film mixed contributions from those involved at the time, a narrator delivering a frame not unlike a documentary, all over a dramatisation of the salient points and sequences.