Another its a sin thread but no spoilers please

[notawittyname1954]

So I've started this thread as it was suggested one with no spoilers would be a good idea

I’ve just watched the first 2 episodes but number 3 isn’t showing on demand for me! How frustrating. Hopefully it’s just a glitch. Really enjoying it so far.

Love it! Used to work with one of the cast so very excited to watch it for that reason, and also cos I used to love Queer As Folk back in the day!
Think this ones going to be a bit more of a tear jerker though.

Just finished it and it was excellent. Beautifully done

For those of you who have watched it all or more than the first episode there is a separate thread! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/4142596-Its-a-Sin-9-pm-Channel-4-22nd-Jan-CONTAINS-SPOILERS-titled-edited-by-MNHQ

So for those of us watching week by week dont have any spoilers.

But just to say I watched it and I thought this has been done before so often.

I can see that maybe some quite young people might find it all new.

But it is such a cliche. Not all gay men spent or spend their time camping it up.

Would have been really inovated of C4 not to get the same old writer just churning out another version of something he has written before, but found someone who can reflect the wider dimension of gay life.

I know they also do this with lesbian dramas. Always the club scene.

A lot of both lesbians and gay men lead quite ordinary lives.

Does anyone know how accurate the scene of the isolation ward was? ie just one man left on his own with people leaving food at the door (when he didn't look strong enough to get out of bed!).

I do remember the fear that was spread about it being so contagious which was why the whole Princess Diana photographed holding the hand of an aids victim was so important.

Sorry if this post is a bit of a downer. Was hoping for something with a bit more depth.

But surprised to see Keeley Hawkes in what looks like a minor part. I remember other dramas when you would think she would only be in the lead part, and she has taken a supporting role. I think that's really good - and she is.

@stumbledin I see what you're saying actually, there must be lots of gay men who are not/were not behaving in that way.

@KylieKangaroo - I suppose it would make it a bit boring. Get up, have breakfast, go to work, come home, save up for holidays! I suppose its the same when there's a drama about heterosexual young people. Lots of sexual "adventures". But I think I had thought they were going to do something a bit more in depth.

Just watching now

Was good. Loving pink palace

Weird seeing keeley in this then saving Alice

Wow. I just finished the first episode, I can't remember the last time that I watched a TV programme without being online at the same time.

My 16 year old started watching it with me but wandered off before the gritty bits. I'm not sure how suitable it'd be anyway but happy to let them make their own mind up.

Was heavy going, but god it was good. Really looking forward to the next one. I love the bond between them all.
I was 18 in 1982 which was right in the middle of my clubbing days.
The first I remember hearing about AIDS was when Rock Hudson got ill in 86. Very scary to think it was around way before that.

@stumbledin

For those of you who have watched it all or more than the first episode there is a separate thread! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/4142596-Its-a-Sin-9-pm-Channel-4-22nd-Jan-CONTAINS-SPOILERS-titled-edited-by-MNHQ

So for those of us watching week by week dont have any spoilers.

But just to say I watched it and I thought this has been done before so often.

I can see that maybe some quite young people might find it all new.

But it is such a cliche. Not all gay men spent or spend their time camping it up.

Would have been really inovated of C4 not to get the same old writer just churning out another version of something he has written before, but found someone who can reflect the wider dimension of gay life.

I know they also do this with lesbian dramas. Always the club scene.

A lot of both lesbians and gay men lead quite ordinary lives.

Does anyone know how accurate the scene of the isolation ward was? ie just one man left on his own with people leaving food at the door (when he didn't look strong enough to get out of bed!).

I do remember the fear that was spread about it being so contagious which was why the whole Princess Diana photographed holding the hand of an aids victim was so important.

Sorry if this post is a bit of a downer. Was hoping for something with a bit more depth.

But surprised to see Keeley Hawkes in what looks like a minor part. I remember other dramas when you would think she would only be in the lead part, and she has taken a supporting role. I think that's really good - and she is.

The scenes in the hospital were totally right. Have you read any of Paul O’Gradys autobiographies? I thought of them straight away.

No I haven't read the autobiographies. It was just that I knew about the panic, even in hospitals, but somehow hadn't realised that it ended up with what must have been old unused wards having just one patient left on their own in their.

And wonder which was worse, in the early stages not knowing what was wrong with you, or later knowing what it was.

Can’t wait to see, can’t at mo. Another good drama about this time is the Swedish 3 part series en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Ever_Wipe_Tears_Without_Gloves

DH &I are finding this quite thought provoking.
We're 50ish so we're young at this point.
The draconian laws in place @stumbledin corrupted sex & relationships for decades. We're only just managing to shake that off. The limited opportunity for gay people to safely meet and get to know each trapped many in short term promiscuous relationships. I liked the couple in the first episode, along with many of the other older characters, showing how homosexuals were forced to compromise.
It's been a fantastic reminder of why no one was 'out' at school in the 80s & 90s. So pleased that my teens live in a different world.

I remember in the 80s when being gay was a bar to some government jobs.

From talking to other people who were nurses at this time they have said it was accurate. I'm finding it very thought provoking and it must have been terrifying for those poor souls.

This article actually stunned me thetab.com/uk/2021/01/25/32-million-died-in-the-aids-pandemic-but-our-remembrance-is-pitiful-191708

Colin's boss and his partner live a quiet life together.

@Daisy829 for some reason ep 3 does show up on demand on a laptop

Don’t worry it showed up the next day. Must have been a glitch. I’ve watched it all now. I enjoyed it. Very sad the way people reacted.

Thanksnotawittyname - I do remember that period of timebut being in London attitudes towards gay men were fairly liberal among younger people. But do remember the fear of aids being threateningly contagious led to all sorts of strange behaviour. I remember those ads on tv with the threatening music. But to actually see a part of the NHS (as shown in the episode) go to such extremes in terms of isolation and non contact was shocking.

And in fact makes what Princess Diana did quite remarkable.

Also strange to contrast it with today when there is a virus that is much more contagious to anyone just going about the life on a daily basis (rather than being intimate with someon) and very few threatening ads.

I was a medical student in the early 80s in London. Most people I knew gay or straight were quite promiscuous then. Even chlamydia hadn't been properly identified and was just NSU. I remember the early HIV clinics, and the infectious disease ward being mainly full of young men. My childhood best friend went to America to open a gay nightclub and died of Aids in the late 80s. It's depressing watching it. Not sure why the young woman is hanging around so much with gay men rather than getting her own relationship. She does seem to be living through them but its maybe just handy for the plot

Tbh i think its pretty accurate once you are having a good time with your gay friends and only going to gay bars the years pass by. I dont think its like that now.

@EachandEveryone

Tbh i think its pretty accurate once you are having a good time with your gay friends and only going to gay bars the years pass by. I dont think its like that now.

Absolutely. It's where the "fag hag" (sorry gross term) stereotype comes from. I know women who were so involved in the lives of their gay friends that they have never had serious relationships of their own and are now in their 50s. The gay men are now married, but the women never invested in their own relationships and we know how society treats older women, so by the time the clubbing days were over they have found it hard to meet any one. I probably only went into "straight" pubs or clubs a handful of times between the ages of 20-25 - running around Soho was a very seductive, exciting lifestyle, and there was a sense of community too. Nowadays I think young people have far more mixed friendship groups and wider society is more open, so there is probably less of this. Old Compton Street is still very much the centre of gay pubs and bars, but populated by the same people it was 20 - 30 years ago, I still bump into the same faces.

I've just finished episode one. I was at university then, the soundtrack is bringing it all back and I'm feeling quite emotional as I know what's to come.

Not criticisng anyone for their own life style, but students (and we have all heard stories about medical students - old joke I know) may have been promiscuous, but in fact the majority of the country was not behaving like this.

And I think it a shame to yet again let one writer who has effectively told his story a number of times, make out that is how it was for everyone. I know people who were committed (yes worrying) to making their way in the civil service, and not just because they didn't want a reputation to ruin their chances but they just didn't think life was about going and getting smashed out of their head and having random sex. This applies to both lesbians and gay men.

And in a way I think it plays into prejudice that gay men are just wild party animals. As I said up thread I was hoping for something that was a bit more well rounded.

And interestingly on a thread on LGB Alliance facebook page, they point out that we should forget all the people who because of blood transfusions etc., were also infected.

And again the clothes are a bit of a cliche. Its like someone went through the fashion mags and thought everyone dressed like that whereas in fact not many did. If not the civil servant suit, then more likely to be army surplus and something thin and poor looking bought at a jumble sale.

Its like films about hippies, they never get it right!

But I will continue to watch.

Oh yes, and also on the LGB Alliance thread picking up on the comments about "fag hags" there was a commentator talking about how she support gey men with HIV and referred to them as her "darling boys"!