Ray Gosling
Encyclopedia
Ray Gosling is an English
journalist
, author
, broadcaster
and gay rights activist. In February 2010, he claimed during a local BBC
television programme to have killed a lover, in an act of euthanasia. He was arrested and released on police bail. On 20 August 2010 it was announced that Gosling would be prosecuted for 'wasting police time' in relation to the case as he had fabricated the claim and was not in the UK at the time of the death. On 14 September 2010 he was given a suspended sentence for wasting police time.
in 1939, brought up in Northampton
, and educated at Northampton Grammar School and the University of Leicester
. He moved to Nottingham
and became a detached outreach youth worker in the St Ann's district, and at the age of 23 he wrote an autobiographical account of this work, Sum Total.
Gosling has always maintained a home in Nottingham, while being based in Manchester
for much of his broadcasting work.
he used his distinctively quirky writing style to point up the rich diversity of people and places in Britain. Some of his best-remembered radio programmes were personal portraits of a series of different towns.
In 2000 he returned to television in a series of documentaries about his personal life over recent years. This led to him being taken on by BBC East Midlands
in 2004 as a regular presenter on Inside Out
, where he continues to report in his own individual style. His first film for Inside Out revisited his first TV documentary, Two Town Mad, made for the BBC in 1962. It was a comparison between Leicester
and Nottingham
and Gosling went back to the places and the people in the original film.
Next came films on garden gnomes, statues, bus travel, OAP workers, frugal living, new arts buildings, and windmills. His film on Joe Orton
was part of a programme which won the RTS
Midlands Best Regional programme in 2008.
His BBC Four
documentary Ray Gosling OAP concerned his decision to move into sheltered accommodation. It won the Jonathan Gili Award For Most Entertaining Documentary Award at Grierson 2007 over tough competition from Alan Sugar
's The Apprentice. It followed the highly acclaimed BBC Four
documentaries Bankrupt and Pensioned Off. Recent radio contributions have included items on BBC Radio 4
's You and Yours
in 2008 and 2009.
He has also been involved in the work of young film maker Leila Newton-Fox, as his house was used as a location for her short film 'Stalemate'. Also he has done some narration for another short film by Leila that is currently in development about a blind man who was led down the stairs of the twin towers and brought to safety by his guide dog during 9 11.
The value of Gosling's work was recognised by Nottingham Trent University
in 2005, when it stepped in to save "an amazing treasure trove of groundbreaking TV and radio work which was in danger of being lost forever". The veteran broadcaster's archive, which includes films, tapes, scripts, cuttings and background notes providing a fascinating perspective on 40 years of social history, is now safely preserved within the School of Arts and Humanities.
(CHE). Horsfall and Gosling now run a website called Gay Monitor which is partly a history of CHE and partly an account of more recent cases of discrimination against gay men.
Gosling's background in grass-roots activism chimed in with CHE's stated attempt to forge a democratic mass movement in which gay people were encouraged to take control of their own lives and fight for their rights, in contrast to much pre-1967 work by, in particular, the London-based Homosexual Law Reform Society
, seen as "top-down", metropolitan and somewhat elitist and not run by gay people themselves (or not ostensibly so: in fact, HLRS founder A.E. Dyson and long-time HLRS Secretary Antony Grey were/are both gay, but never said so at the time).
Thus, at a CHE rally in Trafalgar Square
, London, on 23 November 1975, Gosling said: "Last time it was done by an elite, who did it by stealth ... This time it has to be done by us, brothers and sisters".
on 15 February 2010 in an uncorroborated confession, he stated that he had used a pillow to suffocate a former lover. He said he had made a pact with the man, because he was dying from AIDS
and in "terrible, terrible pain". The act is murder under English law, but Gosling has not been charged. He described how he said to the doctor: "Leave me, just for a bit." When the doctor had gone: "I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead. The doctor came back and I said: 'He's gone.' Nothing more was ever said." On 16 February, The Daily Telegraph
reported that officers from the Nottinghamshire Constabulary were to investigate. He was arrested on suspicion of murder on 17 February 2010, and released on police bail the following day without being charged. On 20 August 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service
announced that Ray Gosling would be prosecuted because he had allegedly "...caused wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making...a false report tending to show that an offence had been committed." On 14 September 2010, Gosling was given a 90-day suspended sentence at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and gay rights activist. In February 2010, he claimed during a local BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television programme to have killed a lover, in an act of euthanasia. He was arrested and released on police bail. On 20 August 2010 it was announced that Gosling would be prosecuted for 'wasting police time' in relation to the case as he had fabricated the claim and was not in the UK at the time of the death. On 14 September 2010 he was given a suspended sentence for wasting police time.
Early life
Gosling was born in ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
in 1939, brought up in Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, and educated at Northampton Grammar School and the University of Leicester
University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
. He moved to Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
and became a detached outreach youth worker in the St Ann's district, and at the age of 23 he wrote an autobiographical account of this work, Sum Total.
Gosling has always maintained a home in Nottingham, while being based in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
for much of his broadcasting work.
Broadcasting career
Over the years Gosling has written and presented more than a hundred television documentaries, as well as several hundred radio documentaries. In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the best known faces in television documentary programming. In this period he also hosted a weekly North-West regional programme on Granada TV, On Site, in which members of the public, in a different town each week, confronted officialdom with their concerns and complaints. In many of his documentaries on BBC RadioBBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
he used his distinctively quirky writing style to point up the rich diversity of people and places in Britain. Some of his best-remembered radio programmes were personal portraits of a series of different towns.
In 2000 he returned to television in a series of documentaries about his personal life over recent years. This led to him being taken on by BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands
BBC East Midlands is the BBC English Region covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, south Nottinghamshire, South Kesteven and Rutland.-Television:...
in 2004 as a regular presenter on Inside Out
Inside Out (BBC TV series)
Inside Out is the brand name for a number of regional television programmes in England broadcast on BBC One. Each series, made by a BBC region, focuses on stories from the local area...
, where he continues to report in his own individual style. His first film for Inside Out revisited his first TV documentary, Two Town Mad, made for the BBC in 1962. It was a comparison between Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
and Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
and Gosling went back to the places and the people in the original film.
Next came films on garden gnomes, statues, bus travel, OAP workers, frugal living, new arts buildings, and windmills. His film on Joe Orton
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
was part of a programme which won the RTS
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Midlands Best Regional programme in 2008.
His BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
documentary Ray Gosling OAP concerned his decision to move into sheltered accommodation. It won the Jonathan Gili Award For Most Entertaining Documentary Award at Grierson 2007 over tough competition from Alan Sugar
Alan Sugar
Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar is a British entrepreneur, media personality and political advisor. From humble origins in the East End of London, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £770m , and was ranked 89th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011...
's The Apprentice. It followed the highly acclaimed BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
documentaries Bankrupt and Pensioned Off. Recent radio contributions have included items on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's You and Yours
You and Yours
You and Yours is a British radio consumer affairs programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4.-History:It began broadcasting in October 1970, its first presenter was Joan York. In the great rescheduling of April 1998 it was increased from a 25 minute programme to 55 minutes. In the 1980s it briefly ran...
in 2008 and 2009.
He has also been involved in the work of young film maker Leila Newton-Fox, as his house was used as a location for her short film 'Stalemate'. Also he has done some narration for another short film by Leila that is currently in development about a blind man who was led down the stairs of the twin towers and brought to safety by his guide dog during 9 11.
The value of Gosling's work was recognised by Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...
in 2005, when it stepped in to save "an amazing treasure trove of groundbreaking TV and radio work which was in danger of being lost forever". The veteran broadcaster's archive, which includes films, tapes, scripts, cuttings and background notes providing a fascinating perspective on 40 years of social history, is now safely preserved within the School of Arts and Humanities.
Gay rights
Gosling was an early pioneer of the modern British gay rights movement, working with Allan Horsfall in the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee of the late 1960s, which later became the Campaign for Homosexual EqualityCampaign for Homosexual Equality
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality is one of the oldest gay rights organisations in the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation which aims to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales...
(CHE). Horsfall and Gosling now run a website called Gay Monitor which is partly a history of CHE and partly an account of more recent cases of discrimination against gay men.
Gosling's background in grass-roots activism chimed in with CHE's stated attempt to forge a democratic mass movement in which gay people were encouraged to take control of their own lives and fight for their rights, in contrast to much pre-1967 work by, in particular, the London-based Homosexual Law Reform Society
Homosexual Law Reform Society
The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes in the laws that criminalised homosexual relations between men.- History :...
, seen as "top-down", metropolitan and somewhat elitist and not run by gay people themselves (or not ostensibly so: in fact, HLRS founder A.E. Dyson and long-time HLRS Secretary Antony Grey were/are both gay, but never said so at the time).
Thus, at a CHE rally in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
, London, on 23 November 1975, Gosling said: "Last time it was done by an elite, who did it by stealth ... This time it has to be done by us, brothers and sisters".
Confession
On Inside OutInside Out (BBC TV series)
Inside Out is the brand name for a number of regional television programmes in England broadcast on BBC One. Each series, made by a BBC region, focuses on stories from the local area...
on 15 February 2010 in an uncorroborated confession, he stated that he had used a pillow to suffocate a former lover. He said he had made a pact with the man, because he was dying from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and in "terrible, terrible pain". The act is murder under English law, but Gosling has not been charged. He described how he said to the doctor: "Leave me, just for a bit." When the doctor had gone: "I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead. The doctor came back and I said: 'He's gone.' Nothing more was ever said." On 16 February, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
reported that officers from the Nottinghamshire Constabulary were to investigate. He was arrested on suspicion of murder on 17 February 2010, and released on police bail the following day without being charged. On 20 August 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
announced that Ray Gosling would be prosecuted because he had allegedly "...caused wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making...a false report tending to show that an offence had been committed." On 14 September 2010, Gosling was given a 90-day suspended sentence at Nottingham Magistrates' Court.
Publications
- 1960: Dream Boy. New Left Review, 3:30-34
- 1961: Lady Albemarle's Boys. London: Fabian Society (story of a youth club in Leicester)
- 1963: Sum Total. London: Faber. (Republished by Pomona in 2004 ISBN 1904590055)
- 1967: Saint Ann's. Nottingham Civic Society
- 1980: Personal Copy: a memoir of the sixties. London: Faber ISBN 0571115748