38 - Jonathan Miller

In “Private Eye", 7 September 1962

A contribution from Jonathan Miller, one of the top young satirists of the early ‘60s, to the early “Private Eye”. This piece though was supposed to have been published anonymously. That it appeared so conspicuously under Miller’s byline elicited an angry letter from him in Washington DC where “Beyond the Fringe” was touring. The letter berated the staff of “Private Eye” as “stupid bloody irresponsible cunts”, because Miller thought he could be mistaken as advertising himself and therefore struck off the medical register.

Like much of the early satire in favour of homosexual reform, there is a tendency for rough irony, with gays themselves receiving a comic elbow in the face as the satirist’s arm is drawn back to plunge at the true target of bigotry. The word “poove” has always been enough to provoke a snigger in the pages of “Private Eye”.

John Gordon, already namechecked here, was the vehemently forthright editor an columnist for the “Sunday Express” newspaper.

11 - Beyond the Fringe

“Bollard” by Peter Cook, in “Beyond the Fringe”, 1961

Cameraman: Alan Bennett
Peter Cook
Jonathan Miller
Dudley Moore

If I were slightly more technically adept I would splice these two into one clip. Unfortunately I’m not. So you’ll have to start at 7:23 on the first clip and continue on the second clip until 00:47

For several hundred years, all material performed on the British stage had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain, who could then vet and censor as he felt necessary. Throughout the 1950s, American plays by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and even such a vague, self-contradictory piece like “Tea and Sympathy”, were banned from the British Theatre for their mild homosexual content. The upshot of this, is that any representations of gay people did not appear on the popular stage.
The scripts for the sketches in “Beyond the Fringe” therefore all had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain. The only sketch which was censored was this one, “Bollard”.
The characters were not allowed to call each other, “love”. And even more bizarrely, the stage directions themselves had to be amended at the Lord Chamberlain’s instruction. “Enter two outrageous old queens” had to be changed to “Enter two aesthetic young men”.
Note the use of that THAT hand gesture just before the sketch cuts to black.

“Beyond the Fringe” set the trend for smart, adult-oriented humour. Therefore, most of the cartoons and sketches I can find from this period come from the satire-oriented venues: TV sketch shows like “That Was The Week That Was”, and “Private Eye” magazine. Previously, one couldn't even hint at homosexuals in serious drama. Now, the mention of homosexuality was a part of the new sophisticated comedy, one of the freedoms afforded by a new more liberal contemporary society.
Although, there wasn't the freedom to be homosexual yourself.