Mandelson: A Homosexual History–Episode One

Mandelson: A Homosexual History–Episode One

From Bad Gays by Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

April 29, 2026 · 53 min · Season 10 · Episode 136

About this episode

This episode explores Peter Mandelson's political career and its implications for British politics and homosexuality.

Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to hear Episode Two of Mandelson: A Homosexual History now, and to stay a week ahead as the miniseries continues. They call him the Prince of Darkness. Peter Mandelson's decades-long political career is a skeleton key to everything that's gone wrong in Western politics in the last forty years. He's a spin doctor, a sometime minister, and a networker whose downfall through the Epstein files now threatens the survival of the British government. This miniseries examines his gay life and times, tracing the collapse of mass politics, the emergence of neoliberalism, and the political history of homosexuality in the UK, from decriminalisation to Section 28, from Sleaze to Gay Marriage. A Faustian story, Mandelson: A Homosexual History plays out on a world-historical scale, but at its heart is driven by the failures and compromises of greed and lust. In Episode One, we trace the emergence of Mandleson’s career in the Labour Party, and the formation of the networks of power that would help hollow out British social democracy in the years of Thatcher and Blair.

People in this episode

Hosts: Huw Lemmey, Ben Miller

Topics covered

  • political history
  • homosexuality
  • neoliberalism
  • Labour Party
  • British social democracy
  • Peter Mandelson

Keywords

  • Mandelson
  • homosexual history
  • politics
  • Labour Party
  • neoliberalism
  • British government
  • gay marriage
  • Section 28

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Labour Party, British government, Apple Podcasts, Patreon

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