Just finished "it's a sin"

[ThatFraggle]

Sobbing. I don't have anyone to tell in real life but I just wanted to say how much it moved me.

I watched it when it came out and like others still think about it now. One of the best and most moving things I’ve watched.

Saying 'I would like to kill the cunt with my bare hands ' (the mum) is a bit.... terrifying? She wasn't nice, but that was the general attitude at the time unfortunately.

Oh god I watched that ages ago but it still sticks with me and I think about it sometimes. Don’t think I could ever watch it again!

Omg how did you manage? I purposely waited a year after birth and it was still too much for me 🙈

I agree but I think it’s almost inappropriate. I think Jill really did dedicate her lives to them, whether it’s right or wrong. People will complain about anything.

I was a newly qualified doctor at the time and we had patients dying from AIDS on the surgical ward I worked on, not because it was the right place for them really, but because there was nowhere better. The consultant I worked for was one of the few surgeons in the city who operated on patients who were HIV positive, and the terrifying imposing but caring Sister in the ward was very defensive of these poor men so it is unsurprising that they wanted to come back to our ward for other treatments.
Watching It's A Sin brought it all back to me. It was truly appalling how these men were treated, there's no excuse for it, but at the same time I remember how terrifying it was. There was not a lot understood about it, even within the hospital - I used to find certain colleagues being reluctant to sit with me in the canteen when they knew I had been taking blood from a patient with AIDS for example - but understanding in the general public was almost non existent with all kinds of tall tales about how you could become infected. It was a bit like the initial fear of Covid but with far more added moral judgements.
I thought the programme was good and very moving but a bit limited. It was about a core group of characters so obviously couldn't tell everyone's story in detail, but my criticism would be that the supporting characters were all a bit one dimensional. Everything was a touch too black and white. It's a while since I watched it so I may have forgotten, but the only scene I remember that clearly showed any conflict within Jill was one where she is frantically scrubbing a cup after one of the HIV positive characters has used it. I think there was a lot more of those kind of feelings - compassion tinged with great fear - and I'm not sure the programme showed that clearly enough, almost everyone outside the men's group is either a saintly ally or a complete baddie. I think it was a lot more nuanced than that in reality.

I was coming on to say this! I found it a really interesting read as Jill talks a lot about the West End musical theatre scene in the 80s and her Boys - clearly her two great loves.

And I cried for all the dear friends she lost - you can hear the love and pain and loss shine through in her writing. Gone but not forgotten.

One word…. Colin 😭

I've just bought love In the pink palace on Audible will be my bed time listening.

Holly Johnson from Frankie goes to Hollywood, is trying to get a biopic up and running qnd the actor to play Holly Is the guy who was Colin!

I listened to it as an audiobook and her love and affection for her friends really shines through.

I was surprised how promiscuous many were. Not judging, but surely other STDs must have been rampant without HIV adding to it.

The way those who were positive were shunned by some families was awful but the widespread fear and the way they were isolated in hospital unable to see loved ones isn't a million miles away from what we've just experienced with the pandemic. The tombstone ads not dissimilar to the 'look them in the eyes' ad we had with covid.

I wonder if lifestyles have changed or with the availability of antiretrovirals promiscuity and not using protection are still common? You'd hope not.

I've watched it 3 times. I love it but it's so sad and awful at how those young men were treated.

It's also brings it home how we were happy to allow people to die alone through covid. Shows humanity's true colours.

'It's also brings it home how we were happy to allow people to die alone through covid. Shows humanity's true colours.'

I don't think anyone was happy about it, rather when there is a pandemic reducing contact is necessary so it wasn't any different 30yrs ago than it was 3yrs ago.

I can't understand what your talking about. Jill had a huge part and she was very multifaceted. She was a best friend she wanted to be there for them and showed her humanity by sticking by them when she could have run. And she was following her dreams being an actress and getting flat etc.

And the real Jill was friends with Russell T and spent a lot of time together at the Pink Palace. Although many of the characters are fictional, they are based on real people who were friends of both Russell and Jill at that time. My wife was in the West Glamorgan Youth theatre with both Russell and Jill. Michael Sheen at the name time too, but he was a couple of years younger than Russell and Jill I think.

Yes happy is not the right word. My apologies

It was allowed is better

Covid still showed that times haven't changed at all.

I'm looking forward to it.

I loved this when it was first on, and it has stayed with me. May have to re-watch now. Will probably cry even more.
Poor poor Colin 🥲 and everyone who lived through these times

I was surprised how promiscuous many were. Not judging, but surely other STDs must have been rampant without HIV adding to it.

They sort of touch on that on the ferry ride over - Dad gives Richie a box of condoms. Obviously as contraception, rather than protection from STDs.

He throws them into the sea, knowing he’ll never need them. I got the impression young men, invincible in their own minds, thought they had literally nothing to worry about, unlike hetero men.

It's the only TV series I've ever watched twice in quick succession. Absolutely sobbed through the whole series twice too. Incredibly powerful drama. I was 20 in 1985 and can clearly remember sitting in the tea room at work and seeing Rock Hudson on all the front pages as he'd just died. Just horrendous 😢

I don't think there was the education around gay sex then. When I was younger all the sex Ed was about heterosexual, PIV sex.

Even when they were talking about STDs, the prevention of them and how you got them was all centred around heterosexual sex.

I'm sure the information existed somewhere but it wasn't part of the general education.

I was a kid in the 80s living provincially at the arse end of the planet - far away from any excitement, or really any sort of socially progressive views.

A young girl and her family moved to our area in the mid-80s. She’d been born prematurely and given blood transfusions. She contracted AIDS as a baby, and was so ostracised from her community in Australia, she and her family left the country and moved overseas when she was four. That’s how bad things were back then. Even small children were shunned.

Luckily she was welcomed with open arms into the new community, and lived a relatively normal life until she died aged 11. I remember genuinely thinking she was going to be OK and love a more so life. But of course that was impossible then.

In a way, I don’t blame people for panicking when a new deadly disease emerges. It is human nature. It’s scary. I think it’s easy to look back with hindsight and say we’d never behave like that. Maybe we wouldn’t - but plenty of people would. COVID (pre-vaccine) was bad enough, as it is very contagious. But it’s not all that deadly (albeit plenty of people did die in the early days (and stop do)). But AIDS - while less contagious - was a literal death sentence. That’s terrifying.

As others upthread have said, what Diana did was genuinely monumental. It turned the tied. Recognition where it’s due - what she did was historical.

The AIDS epidemic was tragic but very recently people have died frightened and alone in hospital with no contact with the outside world because of fear of a virus. Mourners weren’t able to comfort each other at the tiny funerals which they were allowed to attend. I don’t think we have mentally moved on at all since the 1980s. On a more prosaic note, Ritchie was really irritating, but I think he was meant to be.

Love RTD and everything he does, so this was always going to be a hit for me, but even in those parameters IaS was unparalleled genius.

There's a great mega thread of companion pieces on Reddit that the sub mods have put together if anyone's interested in learning more about that time in history. The whole sub is interesting but this particular list of resources is well worth the read. Be warned though, it's a total rabbit hole, so make sure you only click on the link when you've got time to dedicate to it!