The interview that kicked started the idea of gay rights

He says: "Up until then the 'homosexual problem' was talked about as a 'social infection'.

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The whole of the debate around gay rights was couched in this idea of a disease which was undermining the social fabric of Britain, and infecting our institutions.

"Even those people who were fighting for reforms to the law didn't like homosexuals very much.

Decriminalised

"They pitied them more than anything and saw them as a pathetic group who were never going to live a normal life, so let's just leave them alone because they're not doing that much harm."

Louise adds: "It really was revolutionary for the Pictorial, at that time, to give four gay men a chance to speak for themselves, and to speak honestly. And it was risky for the men.

"There was no certainty about how the men would be presented and it could easily have been a set-up, especially given how newspapers normally covered the topic.

"It turned out to be the first time gay men were allowed a voice in a national newspaper."

The Pictorial was one of Britain's biggest newspapers, selling more than a million copies a week, and the story changed the way the public saw gay men and propelled the gay rights movement forward.

Just three days later, parliament voted on the recommendations of the Wolfenden report, that homosexuality should be decriminalised for over-21s.

It didn't pass, with 99 in favour to 213 against. But among those who voted yes were some MPs no one had expected, including Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher.

Louise says: "It was defeated in the Commons... because there was still no political appetite to change the law. People just weren't brave enough.