A Very English Scandal

[horseshoes]

Would the word gay have been used at that time? (In the context of homosexuality).

[Jackdaw33]

The crime of attempted suicide was abolished in 1961.

[horseshoes]

We used to sing a song in infant school circa 1959...

Robin and Richard were two pretty men
Who stayed in bed 'til the clock struck ten.....
etc etc

I don't think that would be sung now!

[zebo]

Thinking of words changing or having different meanings, in my first year of teaching, in Leeds, there was a bus strike planned for Friday and my form were wondering how they would get in. I told them Leg it, won't harm you for once. They looked surprised, Can we really Miss?.
It was only later that I found that leg it, in Leeds means truant, where I was brought, Bolton area, it meant walk!

[ichkeria]

I’m sure ‘gay’ was used in the news coverage at the time,
The thing was so comprehensively researches it seems unlikely they’d slip up there
Re the ‘dog’ apparently it was a simulation, and the writer did say they’d get far more complaints about that than anything else.

[Jackdaw33]

I have always understood 'Leg it' on Tyneside to mean 'get lost', or 'out of here'.

[Jackdaw33]

The thing which I thought was wrong was when he went to the police with the letters. As I remember the case, the story broke because Scott was up in front of the bench for a minor social security fraud when he blurted out that he was being hounded because of his relationship with Thorpe.

[Soomdar]

Among gay men themselves, yes. Noël Coward used the word in that context as far back as the 1940s; but it had already been in use since the 19th Century to mean sexually licentious.

[Soomdar]

Zebo and jackdaw33, of course "leg it" *does* mean walk.

In the sense meaning truant, it means to walk out of school early; and in the sense of "Get lost!", it means get walking out of my sight.

[tamborine]

Here horseshoes

[horseshoes]

Thanks Tambo. It creases me up.

[tamborine]

First I learned of homo’s was Stephen Ward & Christine Keeler, Profumo affair. Their used our local Italian bistro in Wimpole Street. I wished I was older to share the action ;)

[andy-hughes]

ich - // Re the ‘dog’ apparently it was a simulation, and the writer did say they’d get far more complaints about that than anything else. //

I haven't watched it ye, but I think we could all take that as a given - don't you?

People shooting dogs dead in the interests of dramatic effect don't tend to get very far in terms of getting dramas written, commissioned and broadcast!