“Director Needs Gays For First ‘Real’ Gay Film.” So ran a headline in Gay News in the mid-1970s. The director in question was Ron Peck, who has died of cancer aged 74, and the film was Nighthawks (1978), which explored with candour and compassion the frustrating life of Jim, a teacher who spends his days among his colleagues and pupils, and his nights scouring London’s clubs and bars in search of sex, love and companionship.
That initial appeal prompted about 250 letters from gay men and lesbians, many of whom Peck met or corresponded with. “My sense of what the gay world was expanded exponentially,” he said.
