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?

@SimonJT that picture is devastating, I can't believe how little I knew about this. Although I know gay men who were coming of age in the 80s they just don't really talk about that era. There's a whole decade of silence

@unique1986

Was there really that big a gay scene in London that you could sleep to 100s of men? The same equivalent of certain player types of straight men sleeping with 200 girls in 3 years.

There were almost 7,000,000 people living in London in 1985, around 5% of people are gay. It makes sense that half of those are men. So thats like 170,000 gay men?

Back then the gay community was generally much more self protective compared to today, being gay was dangerous so gay people would typically only socialise with other gay people for safety reasons. London was then the gay capital.

'that picture is devastating, I can't believe how little I knew about this. Although I know gay men who were coming of age in the 80s they just don't really talk about that era. There's a whole decade of silence'

It is, it's just all so utterly harrowing. I can't believe how affected I've been by this drama.

@SimonJT how long was it until the tide turned and patients were treated with respect and dignity do you know?

@Shimmyshimmycocobop I know you feel. I worry about my boy every day (he also has mental health difficulties) but at least we are in a more enlightened age (mostly)

My heart breaks for those who were not

*how

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'that picture is devastating, I can't believe how little I knew about this. Although I know gay men who were coming of age in the 80s they just don't really talk about that era. There's a whole decade of silence'

It is, it's just all so utterly harrowing. I can't believe how affected I've been by this drama.

@SimonJT how long was it until the tide turned and patients were treated with respect and dignity do you know?

I’m not sure how long it took for HIV patients to receive adequate care in the UK.

People generally don’t talk about trauma, but theres also the issue of it still not being safe for a lot of people to talk about it.

A few of the guys at our rugby club lost friends and partners, but that has to be kept a secret from their families so they wouldn’t be disowned.

Just finished episode 3. My heart aches. Colin ❤️

My mum lost two gay friends in the 80s to AIDS. I was only a kid so didn’t really understand it, but this is such a brilliant portrayal of what it must have felt like for gay men (some only boys!) at that time. Terrifying. Got a genuine ache in my chest watching this episode.

@LondonWall
Poor lovely sweet Colin. At least his mum was wonderful and supported him.

@unique1986

I've read a few comments on Twitter asking if any lesbian or bisexual women will enter the series. Obv there isn't. I wasnt expecting any as the series was supposed to be about young guys only really. But maybe a series focused on younger gay women would be good sometime. On Channel 4 Sugar Rush was the only decent fun series. Hardly surprising the RTD only writes about gay men.

There's an interesting article here where Russel T talks about lesbians at the time and how he was sorry he couldn't weave it into the narrative

www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/its-a-sin-russell-t-davies-women-west-end-jill-aids-hiv-b899950.html

'People generally don’t talk about trauma, but theres also the issue of it still not being safe for a lot of people to talk about it.'

There must be such deep seated rage and resentment. I keep saying I can't believe it but I can't. That in these liberal, tolerant times that people don't feel safe to talk about it.

Poor Colin and everyone he represented 💔.

Ah, I’m glad I read this thread. I binge watched it last night and episode 3 was missing and I didn’t realise. I was upset that Colin seemed to have died off camera. I’ve caught up now.

The actress in the kitchen with the squash is Ruth Sheen. She was in Misfits, Prime Suspect, Brassic etc.

You lot need to get IMDB, it’s essential for this sort of thing.

I knew that lesbians did an awful lot as allies from the film Pride. I also knew that the risk to lesbians was fairly low - except for those who contracted HIV because they were either sex workers or used needles.
There was some argument as to how much funding was going towards lesbian groups as they were lower risk overall and there was a case iirc of one ally claiming positive status when they were in fact negative but this also happened with one notable gay activist in the States too.
I have to say I had never heard of lesbians asking gay friends for piv sex? Wouldn't that make both partners bi? I am more than happy to be educated. It neither occurred to me nor did it come up in any research so is it anecdotal/RTD's experience and is it an open secret or just never talked about? Even with semen donation for coparenting between couples I thought it was a chicken baster job. Please forgive my ignorance and preconceptions.

Above is in reference to the Standard interview posted above.

I watched the first episode on Friday then binge watched the rest yesterday. I loved it, it was so well written and I sobbed my way through a lot of it, I was a teenager in the 80s and saw all the AIDS adverts but I had no idea gay men with AIDS were treated so inhumanly and for some to be abandoned by everyone was utterly heartbreaking. I absolutely loved Colin in it but was happy he had such a lovely mum who got him out of that awful hospital. But heartbreaking to think many died alone.

@SusannahSophia

I trawled through imdb to try and find it. Thanks for finding it.

@Turquoisesea glad you found Episode 3 it was vital.

Fantastic series. I am almost of the same age as the characters. I lived in London during that time. Knew about AIDS, but ashamed to say that I didn't know about how men with it were treated.

RTD has written a masterpiece.

@SusannahSophia just been on imdb again and of course she is there in cast list but because her pic was so small and I didn't recognise the name I missed it duh

I really recommend this old edition of Horizon from 1982-83:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z2lbp/horizon-19821983-killer-in-the-village
It's mainly about the situation in New York, but people had just started dying of AIDS in the UK in around 1982 when this was filmed. It's easy to forget that the HIV virus wasn't identified as the cause of AIDS until about 1984, so for a few years they had no idea what was causing it. The doctors and scientists in this Horizon episode are really just fumbling around in the dark for clues.

Oh my. What a programme. I can understand why it took RTD decades to get to the point of writing this and getting it onscreen. The pain, fear, anger, love and grief it portrays.. It just all shines out of this piece of drama.
I have binged my way though it and cried at each episode. Will rewatch more slowly as it is so good. Some characters will stay with me more than others but I think it is a remarkable tribute to the many who were affected by HIV AIDS.

@Rubidium thank you

@IPokeBadgers Totally agree with everything you've said.

Question (and spoiler alert so stop reading if necessary.....)

• when ritchie is back in the IOW and says increasingly dirty stuff to his childhood crush...is he just mirroring what Colin did in his later illness? If so was this conscious do you think, or a manifestation of his illness?

horse who wanted possible further reading.
nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/an-excerpt-from-david-frances-how-to-survive-a-plague.html
France's book and the documentary both on amazon. As is another documentary After 82.
www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/03/aids.simongarfield
Article is 20 years old and the book, which I thought was very well researched is available second-hand, although focused on first wave/written before 96. To that end you also have the book/film And the band played on. There are many archives online from Atwater's collection of medical posters to Hildebrand's documentary collection. ACTUP's oral histories is enlightening as is the art deriving from the period. www.actuporalhistory.org/interviews/index.html
visualaids.org/artists
faceofaids.ki.se/
After Silence (Avram Finkelstein) looks back at the gran fury activism. Douglas Crimp, Paula Treichler and Ed Hooper are also worth reading. Finally, if you are Amazon customers you can use Amazon Smile to give to the Terence Higgins Trust at no extra cost to yourself.

@Youngatheart00

I just saw him trying to grab a chance of reliving his past and feeling alive. Trying to make up for missed opportunities as he saw it. When he did his ballet in front of the car so moving. I don't think he had the dementia.

I think he was just disinhibited because he knew he was dying. I have come across this kind of thing in cancer sufferers

Kind of a "well fuck it if I don't say it now I never will"