Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2021
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
# Warning: This programme contains scenes of drug use #
In 1955, a British member of parliament, Christopher Mayhew, took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline and had his experience filmed by the BBC. The drug was legal at the time and the experiment was supervised by the pyschiatrist Dr Humphry Osmond. The film was part of a wider public debate about psychedelic drugs following the publication of The Doors of Perception by the writer Aldous Huxley. But the film of the experiment was never broadcast and years later mescaline was put on the banned list of drugs in the UK because of fears of its potential impact on mental health.. Photo: Christopher Mayhew (right) preparing to start the experiment, watched by Dr Humphry Osmond (left), December 1955. (BBC)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:30.9 | Hello and |
| 0:35.0 | welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last. |
| 0:40.0 | And today we go back to 1955 and a strange and controversial TV experiment |
| 0:46.2 | when a British MP |
| 0:48.1 | volunteered to take the hallucinogenic drug |
| 0:50.6 | masculine and have his experience filmed by the BBC and a warning as you'd |
| 0:56.5 | expect this episode contains descriptions of drug use |
| 1:02.3 | Well um here I am in my home use. |
| 1:03.0 | Well, here I am in my home, and before I take the drug, |
| 1:07.0 | Dr. Osmond's got one or two quite unrehearsed questions. |
| 1:10.0 | I have no idea what they are to put to me. |
| 1:13.0 | Right, Christopher. |
| 1:14.0 | Carry on. |
| 1:15.0 | Could you tell me the date today, please? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.