AGAINST THE LAW, BBC2, 9pm
IN the 1950s it was still illegal to be gay, and if your suspiciously all-male party was raided the guests faced the shame of having their names and addresses printed in the paper.
This drama documentary takes us back to smoky 1950s London, an era of sleek elegance and horrible prejudice, and looks at the infamous trial of gay journalist Peter Wildeblood, his RAF lover and his friend, Lord Montague, who were tried for “gross indecency”.
The trial was so controversial it eventually caused an outcry and prompted the government to consider whether it was time to legalise homosexuality.
Popping up throughout the drama are elderly men who speak to the camera about the reality of being gay in dour, 1950s Britain, although one, with a glint in his eye, says the need to evade the police gave life a certain spice: “I had to say, it made it even more exciting.”
HYPER EVOLUTION: THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS, BBC4, 9pm
“WE are witnessing the birth of a robot,” says the presenter, but we’re just looking at a whirring machine churning out metal objects. There are no cards and teddies and helium balloons.
However, that doesn’t stop us trying to make robots that look, sound and feel just like us.
We go to Japan to meet Erica, “the most beautiful robot ever created”.
“Oh she’s so soft!” says the presenter when he touches her, and when he sits down to have a chat with Erica he notes that he can’t help looking into her eyes. Logic tells him it’s not human but he can’t help responding to her as though she is.
What has taken us millennia, the robots have achieved in just decades. So what else have they got up their metallic sleeves? Are they going to steal our jobs and leave us useless, bored and confused?
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