The Happiness Patrol

“Have a nice death!” The Happiness Patrol is perhaps one of the most peculiar tales in Doctor Who. The story gradually gained a reputation as a gay rights allegory then, twenty-two years after broadcast, became the focus of press outrage over alleged BBC bias, before being name-dropped by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Easter sermon the following year. So this Black Archive asks: is The Happiness Patrol queer? Is it really political? Why did it take so long for the press to complain? And what does the story really say about happiness?