It's a Sin, 9 pm Channel 4, 22nd Jan CONTAINS SPOILERS **titled edited by MNHQ**

[notawittyname1954]

I keep seeing trailers for this. Anyone else looking forward to it?

I just can't believe how much I cried yesterday after watching the series. The marks certainly did appear to be a "stamp" of HIV. I can't believe Donald wouldn't have noticed his, even if it was on his lower back.
The series did seem to demonstrate how victims went from literally dying alone in a room where food was passed at the door to being on a more comfortable looking ward, even if alone (the man that Jill sat with at the end.)

@CaptainMyCaptain

The mark was in a place he couldn't easily see himself. Maybe he didn't know. I don't know how ill he would feel by the time it got to that stage though.

Yeah I guess so. I remember being told once that when you catch HIV, you're body goes through seroconversion a few weeks later which feels a bit like flu. Some have it worse than others but it can be quite bad and is one of the tall tale signs.

But I suppose none of that was known back the . It just seems weird that Donald got to the point of having KS, but still seemed well and healthy. Henry was in hospital when his started showing.

I think I was confused about Richie and Donald because they appeared to have been seeing each other for a while so I didn't quite get, given the history of sex being quite an instant thing, that suddenly they would wait a while before doing it.

@CherryCherries Do you think they'd always used condoms before and then just decided to risk it because they trusted each other

[quote notawittyname1954]@CherryCherries Do you think they'd always used condoms before and then just decided to risk it because they trusted each other[/quote]
I got the feeling that it was quite a new thing for gay men to use condoms, and that they both felt a bit awkward about it, partly because of the physical annoyance but also because condoms had only become widely used among gay men in response to AIDS.

I'm not sure. Only because when Donald went to put it on he made it seem like a palava and like he'd not done it before? Or at least not often..

What made me sad about the whole thing was how this disease spread amongst gay men, men who had been hiding who they were until they got the opportunity to go somewhere they could all be their true selves. Then this shitty virus spread and fed the homephobic people with the news they wanted.. that being gay was "wrong" and they deserved to get sick and die.
Makes me want to be an activist somehow!

Either Ritchie or Donald suggested they ‘go all the way’ so it was clear they hadn’t had penetrative sex with each other.

cherry It was Donald who suggested it as been said not all gay men have pentatrive sex and at the time condoms were just "new" for safe sex for men

[quote notawittyname1954]@CherryCherries Do you think they'd always used condoms before and then just decided to risk it because they trusted each other[/quote]
I got the impression they were just trying them about because they knew they were supposed to.

@SimonJT

Thank you. I clearly need to watch it all again.

@CherryCherries I agree they were just starting to be themselves and this happened.

This review.

www.vice.com/en/article/v7mq8x/its-a-sin-aids-tv-drama-review

[quote notawittyname1954]This review.

www.vice.com/en/article/v7mq8x/its-a-sin-aids-tv-drama-review[/quote]
Brilliant review - Patrick Strudwick always writes so well.

I often write out of love or anger. Sometimes both. When Vice asked me to review It's A Sin, so much of both poured out: experiences through the AIDS crisis, through HIV and LGBT journalism. Here, then, is my [spoiler filled] review of the whole series:

Patrick Strudwick review
"In Roscoe and Richie, denial fades gradually. We see why. They, like millions of gay men, had only just begun to inhale the first breaths of emancipation when AIDS hit. The threat was annihilating. Too much. Keep going. Which is to say, give the famished a meal and they’ll devour it even as the plate is snatched away. Just one more bite; one more night.

Richie, played with exuberant charm and pathos by Alexander, is flawed and raw and trying to heal. He continues shagging when he knows the danger to others. “I wonder how many I killed,” he says in a quiet paroxysm of shame, as he lies dying in hospital. "

I absolutely love olly Alexander who plays Richie, I’m like years and years biggest fan. I loved the guy that played Roscoe. Extraordinary acting from all the cast. I think the biggest thing for me was seeing how gay people were treated. How richies mum and dad reacted was quite a surprise, each different to how I thought they would. My uncle came out in 2000. I was 12, I could never understand why he had to come out, it was who he was why did he have to tell everyone he liked guys, why couldn’t he just have a bf and that’s it, why did it make a difference. young and naive.... obviously as I got older I saw certain people’s reactions towards him, made me angrier. Even now I don’t understand why people just can’t except you for you. Who cares if your shagging a man or woman, or both .....it’s who you are that counts...

@HomeschooIerRockthemicrophone Agree with your posts. And you sound like a great mum.

Speaing of Reagan..... article about Rock Hudson.

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hollywood-star-who-confronted-aids-silent-epidemic-180965059/

www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisgeidner/nancy-reagan-turned-down-rock-hudsons-plea-for-help-seven-we

The coverage of Rock Hudsons illness and death in the press in the mid 80s was the first information i got about HIV/AIDS as a child.
I had no idea about the way he was treated though until a few years ago and the fact Reagan slashed funding.

Finished watching this last night, was absolutely heartbreaking. I’m born early 90s (So around when the last episode is set) and was shocked things were that way so recently- asking men if they were gay when they went to get a mortgage, fearing losing your job if openly gay, nothing about homosexuality allowed in schools.

Utterly heartbreaking, everything about it. But Colin, oh my goodness, Colin. He tried so hard and when they sacked him was just awful. He never had any loving relationships and it was truly heartbreaking. What a powerful series. Wow. The way they were treated

@Forcedoutoflurking

I was living in London in 1990 to 1992 and as my best friend was gay, I spent lots of time with him in gay nightclubs like Heaven. Like Pebble above, i don't recall HIV and Aids being an issue (obviously knew about it), or worrying about my friend and telling him to practice safe sex. I'm puzzled about this looking back as to why I don't recall being conscious of it. Alas our friendship didn't survive the years so can't ask my friend about it.

When I was 21 or so (approx 1992) I lived in London and one of my best friends was a barmaid at a pub that had a gay bar in the basement with drag acts.

The limit of my interacting with the gay scene was that bar and meeting a few of the drag acts and their boyfriends etc, I did go to the Vauxhall Tavern once but then the people I knew who were gay were more friends of my best friend - she was straight at the time, then became a mother and then 10 years later came out as a lesbian.

As far as I know, a couple of her gay friends did get HIV/AIDS and die from it, no idea if they practised safe sex or not.

I know another primary school friend who came out as gay in his early 20s and was told recently that he slept around a lot but luckily he hasn't caught HIV/AIDS and is now engaged.

It was the flashbacks at the end that got me crying, seeing them all young and healthy and happy. Devastating.

@MercyBooth Thank you for the links about Rock Hudson. I remember him dying of AIDs but never knew the political background.

Not sure if this is strictly allowed on here but I believe 60K has now been raised for THT from sales of this "La." T-shirt www.tht.org.uk/news/t-shirt-inspired-its-sin-raises-ps20000-24-hours

@HIVpos fantastic I've already ordered one

Brilliant, thanks for link HIVpos, although i donated to tht when i lost my friends in the 80s, i havent since, which is bad.. so i've ordered one too.

Also portion of proceeds from Years and Years cover of Its a sin goes to George House Trust