Subscribe today using voucher code SUMMER22 for an extended free trial

This film is currently unavailable

This film is not rated

I accept this guidance

Title of error

See Help

Lesbians

What is lesbianism? What causes it? ITV's This Week attempts to demystify lesbian sexuality.

Current affairs 1965 26 mins Not rated

Director: John Phillips

Rent for £1.00

Overview

What is lesbianism? What causes it... and can it be cured? This episode of ITV's long-running current affairs strand This Week attempts to answer these questions for a curious 1960s audience. Although homosexuality is defined at the outset as a 'problem', and referenced in alarmist terms, the female interviewees are wonderfully frank about their lives, identities and desires. They refute presenter Bryan Magee's stereotypical assumptions about lesbian women, impressing on him - and viewers - that they're normal human beings like everyone else.

The previous year, This Week had broadcast an episode about male homosexuality (Homosexuals, also available on BFI Player). This was a potentially much thornier subject, as Magee says, because unlike lesbianism it remained illegal in the UK at the time - but this episode stills makes clear the myriad difficulties faced by gay women in the homophobic world of 1960s Britain. One interviewee, Esme Langley, founded the sombrely-named Minorities Research Group to help women deal with this stigma and find access to resources.

Director

John Phillips

Featuring

Bryan Magee

Genres

Current affairs

Certificate

Not rated

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Watch for free

The Important Thing Is Love The Important Thing Is Love

Documentary 1971 50 mins

"I'm no man-hater": lesbian women discuss their lives, relationships and struggles against discrimination in this TV doc

Watch for free

We Who Have Friends We Who Have Friends

Documentary 1969 49 mins Location: London

A fascinating and important film on attitudes towards homosexuality, and what it was like to be gay, shortly after it was partially legalised.

Currently unavailable

Homosexuals Homosexuals

Current affairs 1964 23 mins Director: James Butler

Current affairs series This Week offers a non-judgmental report on homosexuality

Rent for £1.00

Psychopaths Psychopaths

Current affairs 1964 26 mins Silent

Rent for £3.50

The Pass The Pass

Drama 2016 86 mins Director: Ben A. Williams

Russell Tovey stars as a Premier League footballer who shares a fumbled pass (of the sexual kind) with a teammate (Arinzé Kene), changing everything - both on and off the pitch.

Subscribe to watch

The Handmaiden The Handmaiden

Crime 2016 146 mins Director: Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Stoker) channels Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, to create a sumptuous twisty psychological thriller full of erotic intrigue.

Subscribe to watch

Tom of Finland Tom of Finland

Biopic 2017 116 mins Director: Dome Karukoski

The story of a gay icon is brought to life in Dome Karukoski’s handsome biopic of Touko Laaksonen, the artist whose homoerotic drawings gave visual expression to a growing gay culture.

Subscribe to watch

Beach Rats Beach Rats

Drama 2017 98 mins Director: Eliza Hittman

Gripping account of repressed sexual desire in a hyper-masculine environment, with British newcomer Harris Dickinson as a virulently macho Brooklyn teen.