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?

Like other posters I was early teens and was absolutely scared and frightened of the tomb stone adverts. They really could have done much better at getting the information that was needed out there

I was a fan of Erasure, PSB and Jimmy Somerville at the time (still am) this is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs I’ve heard

Going against the grain of thread but I thought Keeley hawes was amazing in this! I could totally understand her character. They both obviously idolised Ritchie(hence the sisters resentment) then she had to cope with finding out he was both gay and had this horrible,terrifying disease that people still didn't fully understand.
Of course her feelings would be rage and she didn't have anyone to vent that on except his friends. She was perfectly expressed in her clothes,hair and make up which were very old fashioned even for the 80s.
We are looking at it now from a position where in most western countries it is at least acknowledged if not acceptable to be gay. I didn't even know what a homosexual was in the 80s!
Will rewatch for sure.

@Ontheboardwalk
Even before I clicked on the link, I knew it was For a Friend. Beautiful song. Bronski Beat and the Communards were my introduction if you like to gay rights through their lyrics.

I read somewhere Richard Coles and Jimmy Sommerville fell out when RC caught shingles, and for some reason which to this day he can't explain told JS it was because he had AIDS. JS couldn't forgive him when the truth came out he was lying about AIDS.

@MrsBerthaRochester I agree Hawkes was great in the role, but I had little sympathy for the character!

I saw The Communards at the Albert Hall back in the day. They took the seats out and it was like a massive disco. Glorious.

I didn't even know what a homosexual was in the 80s!

Shameful admission .... when I watched 4 Weddings in 1994, I thought Gareth and Matthew were bezzie mates. 🙄

I did cop onto myself, and knew my DB was gay many years before he actually came out.

@23PissOffAvenueWF

I didn't even know what a homosexual was in the 80s!

Shameful admission .... when I watched 4 Weddings in 1994, I thought Gareth and Matthew were bezzie mates. 🙄

I did cop onto myself, and knew my DB was gay many years before he actually came out.

Same here re Gareth and Matthew . It wasn’t until Matthew’s reaction at the funeral and Charles saying how they were all trying to get married and never noticed that two of them were as good as married that the penny finally dropped

Glad I wasn’t the only one @SydneyCarton

Spidey66 yeah I’ve heard the Richard Cole pretend AIDS story, very strange

@23PissOffAvenueWF I think if they’d been younger and/or camper, more like the It’s A Sin characters, I would probably have copped on sooner, because up until then I had only seen either the screaming queen sort of character or the sexless gay best friend on TV/film. A normal stable relationship with a slightly older couple wasn’t something I’d really seen portrayed before

Just realised I called Keeley Dawes by wrong name....anyway Ritchies mum

And it took me till Gareth's funeral in FWAAF to realise him and Matthew were gay even though by that stage in my life I'd met many g at peoplr

Oh god I cried my eyes out. I can't believe how Ritchies mum handled that.

I feel for all of the Jills taking care of their friends and not knowing who would be next. Having no control over who would use projection etc

Read an interview with Russell Davies which in one of the episodes which was never made a present day Jill meets up with an elderly Valerie again.

I missed this but apparently it was hinted at in the last episode when Valerie was ranting about 'randy boys and their secrets' she then goes on to tell Ritchie that he didn't know his grandfather but ' he was a terrible man.'

The episode would have shown Valerie confirming she was abused and perhaps go some way to explain her attitude.

Still awful though

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.denofgeek.com/tv/its-a-sin-the-single-line-that-hints-at-a-tragic-unspoken-backstory/%3famp

And if you listen closely, you can hear how trapped Valerie is, how she’s carried shame all her life. She says men are randy, she says boys like having secrets. Where’s she got that from? Well, in her last scene with her son, she asks Ritchie if he remembers his grandad, her father. Yes, says Ritchie. And she then says, simply, “He was a terrible man.” And never mentions him again. And I think she’ll go to the grave without saying what that means. But we can guess. It’s very clear. Jill guesses, she says, “I don’t know what happened in that house to make you so loveless.” She’s halfway there by sheer intuition. Valerie is carrying her own burden, which she visits upon her son. But Ritchie, at the end, refuses to carry that forward, and is happy.

Full article from Radio Times

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/russell-t-davies-its-a-sin-exclusive/amp/

Just steeled myself to watch the last episode. Omg, cried and cried, couldn't sleep, cried some more this morning. What an incredible, important series this was. Very powerful and so sad.

@Ohwhataprogramme

Just steeled myself to watch the last episode. Omg, cried and cried, couldn't sleep, cried some more this morning. What an incredible, important series this was. Very powerful and so sad.

I agree a very important series. I hope it is having the same impact in those other countries where it has been broadcast. The writing and the cast were superb. I loved how brave Ritchie was really. And it broke my heart that no one was there when he died. When Ash and he said they loved each other in the hospital bed it was so emotional.

Still can't stop thinking about it constantly. I've been reading so much about it over the last couple of days. Fgs I was 20 in 1985 how come I wasn't totally aware of what was going on? It's made me question a whole period of my life. This thread has been fantastic, thank you to all the wonderful contributors. I've had PSB's playing full blast in the car too x

I’m still numb.

When the nurse (loved her Mandy and in this) said that the chap was lying there dying of shame.

It should never have been like that.

I wish things had been different for my friends who knew how hard it was.

We can all be prisoners of shame if we let it. We can all make ourselves lonely because of shame.

Being ill should never have been a reason to be ashamed. And it should never have been a reason to die alone.

That comment broke my heart.

Still thinking about it and the agonies people suffered - oh to be able to make it better somehow . I have my La! badge on hoping to cheer up a few folk

if anyone is interested this is going on 11 pm our time tonight on youtube.

www.amfar.org/itsasin/

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/adam-wagner-covid-lockdown-law-democracy-essay

Instead of amending the bill, however, the government decided to impose lockdown through secondary legislation—regulations made by ministerial decree—under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Although little known, it had a troubling history: a scene in Russell T Davies’s recent television show It’s a Sin shows a young Aids sufferer in the 1980s being detained under regulations made using the same law. By 2020, the Public Health Act had become a different, and potentially fiercer, beast

I just watched the first three episodes of this series last night on Netlix. Wow! I've been just blown away by the story and the acting.

I was 12 years old in '84 so I went through my teens in the '80s. I remember hearing about AIDS and seeing the ads on TV and hearing about Princess Diana shaking hands with an AIDS patient and watching Gay Byrne (conservative Irish broadcaster) putting a condom on a banana to show people how to use one. But it didn't impact on me or my life in any way. I didn't know anyone who was gay. I didn't know anyone who caught AIDS, let alone died from it. Homosexuality was only decriminalised here in Ireland in 1993! Homophobia was rife. I grew up in a tough, working class area and I was familiar with the insult 'queer' long before I actually understood what it meant. (That said, I was a bit sheltered and didn't know what fuck meant until I was maybe in my late teens). Nobody in my year came out as gay although the statistics would suggest that there must have been a percentage of pupils who were gay - I went to a mixed school. I'm sure there was a lot of queer bashing. I suspect a lot of gay people emigrated to the UK or the US where they could live more freely and pursue relationships without the fear of being found out or convicted.

At college there was a lot of talk about condoms and condoms were distributed at freshers week and other college events. It was all seen as a bit of a joke. Around this time there was an exhibition of memorial quilts in Dublin - I don't know if anyone remembers these? www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history A few prominent Irish people died from AIDS including the DJ/presenter Vincent Hanley (died in '87) and street artist Thom McGinty better known as The Diceman (died in '95).

At some point AIDS just seemed to slip off the agenda and the hysteria about it died down.

Anyway, I've rambled on a bit but I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that even though I lived through that era, AIDS was something distant, which affected other people. So it was fascinating (if tragic) to see it up close and personal and see how it ripped through so many lives. The acting is incredible and I love the diverse characters. I agree with those of you who said that Jill was a little one dimensional. At some point I thought, "Hang on a sec, does she just hang around these guys all the time? Hasn't she got any female friends? Does she never go out on dates herself? Did she ever have a boyfriend?"

Also, I was struck by how hard it was to find information back in the '80s. If it happened now, Jill would have been straight onto Google. And would have been able to access newspaper or medical journal articles from the US. But of course, as we know only too well, there can be a lot of misinformation and false news on the internet too. Also, Jill (who wasn't gay herself and didn't appear to be having sex) was the only person who sought out information. The characters who were most at risk didn't seem remotely concerned and, in Ritchie's case, was in denial.

The scene where the agent informed Ritchie that he'd got the part (intended for Don) was interesting. She said that Don had gone home and that lots of young men were going home. She clearly understood the significance of this but didn't spell it out. It's like there was a secret code.

Also, it was very poignant when Colin's Mum was planning his funeral and the funeral home (who had arranged the funerals for her other family members) didn't want to deal with it. She had to look further afield and found a funeral home in Cardiff but they would only hold the funeral late at night. The stigma, shame and fear around deaths from AIDS must have made a difficult situation so much harder.

I wondered if the friends ever found out that Gloria had died? His family hardly told them. Did Jill eventually open up and tell them that he had it? I haven't seen the last two episodes, so I'm not sure if they ever refer to him again.

The music was amazing and made me rather nostalgic for the '80s.

Thanks for those of you who recommended books - I'll check them out. And thanks to @Graphista for sharing her experiences of nursing AIDS patients.

Great post @Taytocrisps it's such an amazing series. I watched it a second time a few months after it came out. Excellent viewing from both an educational & entertainment view.