The idea that David Peel had to part company with Hammer, and, indeed, the acting profession itself, because of being known to be a homosexual seems to me rather unrealistic. At that time, as always, many of Britain's most popular actors and entertainers were not only well known by the public to be homosexual, they did little or nothing to hide it. This was the era of flamboyant freaks such as Quentin Crisp, or, a personal favorite of mine, author Simon Raven.

I believe (although I am no expert on the subject) that in order to go to prison you had to do somewhat more than just lisp and carry poodles around. You probably needed 1) enemies, and 2) to be caught in the act. For high-profile individuals, probably even that was not sufficient. My guess is mainly male prostitutes and the less distinguished of their customers were actually convicted.