Having a Gay Old Time

To watch a documentary like this is to be reminded of how far we’ve come. The plainly named South London Gays is a social club which seems to function as a surrogate family for mature gay people who have, for whatever reason, lost touch with their own kin. And many of the members’ stories are casually remarkable.

It soon becomes clear that gay people of a certain age are, in some ways, a generational oddity, having lived half of their lives illegally. One man here was forced to relocate to London from Sheffield after his neighbour got wind of his sexuality and got him sacked from his teaching job.

In fact, this slight but charming film prompts the thought that one of the major TV networks should probably commission a major series on the journey of British LGBT people from darkness into light while those able to share these memories are still with us.