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Raymond Arthur Gosling (5 May 1939 – 19 November 2013) was an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and
gay rights activist.
He wrote and presented several hundred television and radio documentaries and regional programmes for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
and
Granada Television from the 1960s to 1980s on quirky aspects of life in different British towns and cities. His later documentaries focused on his personal life and his emergence as a gay activist. He was described as "one of the most uniquely talented figures in the history of British broadcasting."
In February 2010, he claimed during a local
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television programme to have killed a lover in an act of
euthanasia. He was briefly arrested,
[Robert Boot]
"Ray Gosling arrested on suspicion of murder after televised revelations"
''The Guardian'', 17 February 2010 but the claims were false and he was later given a suspended sentence for wasting police time.
Early life
Gosling was born in
Northampton in 1939.
[Robert Chalmers, "Ray Gosling: The outcast", ''The Independent'', 30 September 2012](_blank)
Retrieved 20 November 2013 He was educated at
Northampton Grammar School
Northampton School for Boys (NSB) is a secondary school in Northampton, England. It was founded as Northampton Town and County Grammar School in 1541 by Thomas Chipsey, Mayor of Northampton. Years 7 to 11 are boys-only, while Sixth Form classes ...
and the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_lab ...
, and also briefly worked as a railway signalman, before
dropping out
Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves.
Canada
In Canada, most ind ...
to become the manager of a band, and then working in a factory in London and as a youth worker in
Leicester.
He moved to
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
while in his twenties, and became a detached outreach youth worker in the
St Ann's district.
At the age of 23 he wrote an autobiographical account of this work, ''Sum Total'', which was later republished.
Gosling always maintained a home in Nottingham, whilst being based in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
for much of his broadcasting work.
Broadcasting career
He first worked in radio when he was interviewed as a campaigner for tenants' rights in Nottingham. He was then commissioned to record a series of talks, mostly interviews with what were called "ordinary people", broadcast during intermissions of classical musical recitals on
BBC radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
.
Over the years Gosling wrote 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
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...
, ''On Site'', in which members of the public, in a different town each week, confronted officialdom with their concerns and complaints. His 1974 Granada series ''Gosling's Travels'' was praised by the ''
Sunday Telegraph'' and compared to documentaries by
John Betjeman and
Ian Nairn
Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised criti ...
. He specialised in "the sideways look at such eclectic and quintessentially British institutions as the working classes... and faded seaside towns, the minutiae of life."
[ "Ray Gosling – Obituary", ''The Telegraph'', 20 November 2013](_blank)
Retrieved 21 November 2013
In many of his documentaries on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
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 1982 he wrote and narrated an episode of the television series ''
Great Little Railways'' for the BBC, featuring northern
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. His television documentaries also included
Granada TV
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...
's ''The Human Jigsaw'' in 1984, and a series about football supporters, ''The People's Game'', which he narrated.
[Manchester Television, Film, Media & Broadcasting: Ray Gosling]
. Retrieved 20 November 2013
In 2000 he returned to television in a series of documentaries about his personal life over recent years, including his bankruptcy.
This led to him being taken on by
BBC East Midlands in 2004 as a regular presenter on
''Inside Out'', where he reported 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
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
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
RTS may refer to:
Medicine
* Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim
* Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma
* Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...
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
Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar (born 24 March 1947) is a British business magnate, media personality, author, politician and political adviser. In 1968, he started what would later become his largest business venture, consumer electronics com ...
's ''The Apprentice''. It followed the highly acclaimed
BBC Four documentaries ''Bankrupt'' and ''Pensioned Off''. Other radio contributions included items on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
You and Yours
''You and Yours'' is a British radio consumer affairs programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and produced by BBC News.
History
''You and Yours'' began broadcasting in October 1970, when its first presenter was Joan York. In the 1980s it briefly ra ...
'' in 2008 and 2009.
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 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, first becoming involved in the 1950s, and working with
Allan Horsfall
Allan Horsfall (20 October 1927 – 27 August 2012) was a British gay rights campaigner and founder of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. Horsfall was also the co-founder and leader of the North-Western Homosexual Law Reform Committee (NWHL ...
in the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee of the late 1960s, which later became the
Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).
Horsfall and Gosling ran a website together 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 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. This was in contrast to much pre-1967 work by, in particular, the London-based
Homosexual Law Reform Society, which was 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
Anthony Edward Dyson, aka Tony Dyson (28 November 1928 – 30 July 2002) was a British literary critic, university lecturer, educational activist and gay rights campaigner.
Biography
Educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, his academic career ...
and long-time HLRS Secretary
Antony Grey
Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright (6 October 1927 – 30 April 2010), better known by his pseudonym Antony Grey, was an English LGBT rights activist. Grey was credited by Lord Arran to have "done more than any single man to bring this social proble ...
were both gay, but never said so at the time). Thus, at a CHE rally in
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...
, 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".
Personal life
During the 1990s, his professional fortunes waned, and his long-term partner Bryn Allsopp was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer. Gosling nursed him until his death in November 1999.
[ He was declared bankrupt in 2000,]LeftLion
''LeftLion'' is a printed and online culture and listings magazine which covers Nottingham.
It was originally set up by three childhood friends, Jared Wilson, Alan Gilby and Tim Bates, and launched as a website on 1 September 2003. The first ...
'' magazine in August 2013 Gosling stated that he had planned on writing his memoirs for a few years but had never quite got round to doing it. "Life is for living, not for writing," he said. He also talked about his lifelong relationship with alcohol: "I've been drinking since I was twelve. I drink brandy and wine now. In those days I drank ten pints a night. There were fifty pubs in my St Anns. I'd have a drink in every one."
False confession
On '' Inside Out'' on 15 February 2010, Gosling said he had used a pillow to suffocate a former lover. Gosling said that the "young chap" was dying from AIDS and in "terrible, terrible pain", and did not say whether this had been agreed beforehand.[BBC man Ray Gosling admits killing Aids-suffering lover](_blank)
BBC website, 16 February 2010 On 16 February, ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' 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.
Gosling was found to have fabricated the claim and had not been in the UK at the time of the death.[Robert Boot]
"Ray Gosling released on police bail in murder inquiry"
''The Guardian'', 18 February 2010 On 20 August 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...
announced that Ray Gosling would be prosecuted because he had "...caused wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making ... a false report tending to show that an offence had been committed".
Death
Gosling died, aged 74, at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham on 19 November 2013.[Ben Quinn, "Ray Gosling, broadcaster and gay rights activist, dies aged 74", ''The Guardian'', 19 November 2013](_blank)
Retrieved 20 November 2013
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 )
* 1967: ''Saint Ann's''. Nottingham Civic Society
* 1980: ''Personal Copy: a memoir of the sixties''. London: Faber ; re-published 2010 Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications
Notes
References
External links
*
Ray Gosling Available Light
Interview with Ray Gosling
by James Walker in LeftLion Magazine
Website for Works of Ray Gosling
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosling, Ray
1939 births
2013 deaths
20th-century English non-fiction writers
Alumni of the University of Leicester
English criminals
English male journalists
English radio presenters
British gay writers
English LGBT writers
English LGBT rights activists
People from Northampton
BBC television presenters
BBC radio presenters
British LGBT journalists