Ismond Rosen interviewed by ITN News on the age of consent and decriminalising homosexuality and discussing the subject on the Kilroy television programme

Film footage of an interview with Ismond Rosen explaining his views on the age of consent and the decriminalisation of homosexuality and part of a recording of the Kilroy programme discussing the same subject, in which Rosen was a participant. The interview cassette is dated 27/1/94.

Content: The first part of the video contains Rosen being interviewed (by an unidentified female interviewer) at his home in Hampstead Hill Gardens (running time approx. 4 mins 57 seconds) followed by nearly 2 minutes of Rosen filmed sitting working at his word processor in his home office. This footage appeared in an ITN News item broadcast 18 Feb 1994 prior to the Parliamentary vote on lowering the age of consent to 16. [Rosen was interviewed on 27 Jan 1994).

The Kilroy programme starts at 6 mins 45 seconds and features MP Edwina Currie in the 'hot seat' in a debate about lowering the age of consent. The recording cuts off a 30 mins, 41 seconds. (Kilroy was a BBC One daytime chat show hosted by Robert Kilroy-Silk that began in 24 November 1986 and finished on 29 January 2004).

In the films Rosen explains that, in his opinion and based on his work and experience, the age of consent for homosexuality should be lowered to 18 and not to 16 (in 1994 Edwina Currie tabled an ammendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill proposing to make the age of consent equal for both heterosexuals and homosexuals). He argues that at age 16 homosexual acts may be construed as adolescent experimentation and that males are at this age too immature and subject to peer pressure to establish their true sexual identity and preference. He also argues that homosexual acts under the age of 18 should not be prosecuted, i.e. that homosexuality should be decriminalised. The age of consent for homosexuality was not lowered to 16 until January 2001, although a subsequent ammendment to Ms. Currie's lowered the age from 21 to 18.

1994

1 video cassette: approx. 30 mins, 41 secs