In his latest show, Russel T. Davies, a master of screenwriting, has produced his best work to date! ‘It’s A Sin’ teaches a long-lasting lesson that the AIDS epidemic should never be forgotten by presenting scenes of both enviable joy and heartbreak that will leave you grieving for days to come.
Set in 1980s London, ‘It’s A Sin’, follows a group of young friends as they begin their adult lives, embarking on university and new jobs, whilst getting into all kinds of trouble. For Ritchie, Roscoe, Colin and their friends, London offers a riotously fun debut onto the gay scene. The first episode quickly establishes itself as a homage to the fashion, music, and fun of the 1980s, with all the vibrancy and colour that it embodied. However, there is a duality to the lives of these characters. One minute they are navigating hook-ups at clubs, the next they are being kicked out of the family home due to inherent homophobia. Such oppression only continues to intensify as word of a new, mysterious “gay cancer” trickles across the Atlantic Ocean.
Watching Ritchie and his friends shrug away the possibility of this seemingly ridiculous disease that only seems to have an effect on the letter H, “Homosexuals, Haitians and Haemophiliacs”, perfectly sets viewers up for inevitable heartache. As the story of the AIDS epidemic unfolds, the series shows how isolated the gay community was in fighting this battle and it becomes hard to quell strong feelings of anger and resentment. The show demonstrates that the conspiracy theorists and attempted deniers that we see in the current pandemic are not new and can have lasting consequences. Therefore, it is still necessary to this day to continue to debunk the stigma around HIV and AIDS.
In a recent interview with the Guardian, Davies has said that the silence in his work on the disease till this point, has been a purposeful omission. He did not want gay lives to be defined by a disease. Within ‘Its A Sin’, he manages to show that these people did not just die, they lived! This show is a recognition of the fun and the hedonistic freedom that the gay community was all about. It is genius in portraying the characters not just as numbers or victims to this unforgiving virus but as people, both loved and flawed.
‘It’s A Sin’ wakes you up to the homophobia that is deeply entrenched in our country, persisting to this day. It helps to provide the support needed to further the UN’s campaign which aims to eradicate HIV transmission by 2030. With this is mind, this series should certainly be on your watchlist!
Edited by Jemma Snowdon