It’s A Sin review – tissues at the ready

A good metric for quality television is the amount of noise produced whilst watching; there should be laughs, gasps, sobs and sighs. The Channel 4 show It’s A Sin has all this and more, expect so much guttural sobbing, you might have to turn the volume up.

Written by Russell T Davies, the show explores the AIDS epidemic through the lens of a group of young gay men living life to the absolute fullest in eighties London. The series met insane success and has already had 6.5 million views on All 4, making it the streaming services’ most binged new series ever.

The group, led by Richie (Olly Alexander), his best friend and female guardian angel of the group Jill (Lydia West), party-animal Roscoe (Omari Douglas), doting Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) and the quietly endearing Colin (Callum Scott Howells), escape the confines of their hometowns and head to the Capital for university, embracing their sexuality away from the judgement of religion, parents and small-town politics. They move into a rundown apartment nicknamed “the pink palace”, chase a thread of temporary jobs and throw themselves into the pursuit of pleasure head-on. Before long, a mystery “gay” virus begins to elbow its way into the narrative; first through the whispers of the conspiracists and the anxious, then seeping into the media. The friendship group largely ignores it, the misunderstanding around the illness being so extreme and the likelihood of a virus only impacting homosexuals seeming so convenient for the many homophobic people in the country at the time. “Like there’s a disease which just targets the letter ‘h’,” says Richie, breaking the fourth wall to address the audience, “who’s it going to get next? People from Hartlepool?”

Then, before they know it, HIV and AIDS become too close to home to ignore.

Davies, who bought us Queer as Folk, Years and Years and the revival of Doctor Who, started writing the drama in 2015. Despite being responsible for many of the greatest gay characters on the British small-screen, Davies had shied away from addressing the extent of the AIDS epidemic in his work before, not wanting a virus that had defined many of his younger years to also define his work. After struggling to find the right home for the show, Channel 4 finally picked it up and filming took place at the beginning of 2020. Little did they know, a different virus was about to takeover over present day, giving the show newfound significance.

There are both similarities between the two viruses (denial, spread of misinformation, fear of contagion) and, of course, glaring differences fed by homophobia. In an interview with Esquire, Davies said, “Coronavirus wouldn’t be as talked about if it was transmitted intimately because we wouldn’t feel free to talk to our children about it — wrongly.” Most of us can only imagine the fear of dying from a disease you were scared to admit to having. Hundreds of people died alone in hospitals, shamed by their families and referred to as having died from Pneumonia or cancer to this day. The film’s title is taken from the Pet Shop Boys eighties hit of the same name and sin is a running theme of the show; the stigma around gay sex led to so many refusing to get tested or talk about symptoms, and the continued spread HIV as a result.

The script is both devastating and brilliant, with the characters and scenes based on stolen snapshots from Davies’ real life, and the life of his best friend Jill who lived in the real pink palace in her twenties (the real Jill plays the fictional Jill’s mum within the series). But it is the acting which stays with you – scenes replaying in your head, grieving the characters like real people and instantly wanting the watch the whole thing again. To some controversy, Davies gave all 40-50 speaking parts of gay characters to gay actors (Stephen Fry and Neil Patrick-Harris both have cameos). It is an all-star (Keeley Hawes and Shaun Dooley play Richie’s parents) and soon to-be-stars cast. Thirty-year-old Olly Alexander who plays Richie (and is lead singer of the pop-trio Years and Years), is beyond charismatic and plays the slow journey of overcoming the denial of AIDS existence brilliantly. Lydia West, who plays Jill, is a rising British star whose career will be one to watch, pulling off intense scenes with the formidable Keeley Hawes with steely talent. It was Callum Scott Howells portrayal of Colin, though, that truly stole my heart. A meek Welsh boy who is blissfully delighted to be part of the “cool kids” of the pink palace, he is one of the most endearing characters I have ever seen on screen. I could gush about all of the young actors all day, but my compliments are no replacement for experiencing It’s A Sin yourself.

You will laugh, you will cry (oh, so much), and for those of us who were born before it, or who’s memories of it were from the other side, you will learn a lot. You can’t ask for much more than that from tv.

All episodes of It’s A Sin are available to stream now on All 4.