Gay period drama Against The Law lands BAFTA nomination

Gay drama Against The Law has been nominated for a BAFTA television award.

The one-off BBC drama, which starred Daniel Mays, Mark Edel-Hunt and Mark Gatiss, portrayed the famous battle over anti-gay laws which sparked calls to decriminalise homosexuality.

It was today nominated for a BAFTA TV award in the one-off drama category, facing competition from an episode of Netflix anthology series Black Mirror, play adaptation King Charles III, and drama series Murdered for Being Different.

In the 1950s, the founder of the National Motor Museum Lord Montagu was notoriously convicted and later imprisoned for “consensual homosexual offences” along with two others – journalist Peter Wildeblood and Michael Pitt-Rivers.

The case sparked the movement that a decade later finally succeeded in decriminalising homosexuality for consenting adults in England and Wales, in 1967.

The scandal and subsequent gay rights battles led by Wildeblood was the centre of the BBC Two drama.

The drama previously won a Special Award at the 2017 PinkNews Awards.

Speaking to Metro about the drama, Mays said: “It was a massive challenge to take this part on, and it demands lots of focus and concentration.