Mark Gatiss: "Don’t be fooled, the fight for equality isn’t over"

“Part of the reason you fight for anything is to give people the freedom to be indifferent,” He began. “It’s about not telling people what to do. All you can do is try to encourage people to know a bit more and to see where we’ve come from, and to keep watchful because it would only take a bit of legislation to undo everything.

“There is a general perception that because of equal consent and gay marriage that everything’s absolutely fine - but it absolutely isn’t.”

Mark also spoke about the importance of being involved in a project like BBC’s Against The Law - as part of their Gay Britannia season.

“It’s a very interesting piece because it’s actually got interview footage with people from the time. The men now who went through it and it’s a balance of actuality and a reconstruction of the drama. It’s a history lesson and a warning.”

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England, the BBC has curated Gay Britannia, a series of specially commissioned programming to shed light on the experiences of the LGBT community throughout history. The various programmes shed light on how far we’ve come, and sadly how far we still have to go.

Mark Gatiss’ ‘Queers’ is one of these programmes. Consisting of eight 15 minute monologues, these intimate encounters with members of the LGBT community span the last 100 years: from World War 1, the ‘67 Sexual Offences Act, the AIDS epidemic and same-sex marriage.

You can read our exclusive reviews and interviews for 'Queer Britannia' and watch Queers, Against The Law and all of Gay Britannia on BBC iPlayer now.