Note: This review contains spoilers – so if you haven’t seen ‘It’s a Sin’ already, go and watch it NOW!
Russell T Davies has done it again, bringing a hard-hitting drama to Channel 4. ‘It’s a Sin’ has been viewed more than 6.5 million times making it All 4’s most binge-watched show EVER.
Following the lives of three gay men, Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Roscoe (Omari Douglas) and Colin (Callum Scott Howells) move to London at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the United Kingdom. They party, have sex, and form a beautiful chosen family in their home ‘The Pink Palace’. At once vibrant, edgy and hilarious, this show unlocks the true experience of living through a crisis and demonstrates, for perhaps the first time, that it was not all doom and gloom. There was pleasure, there was love, there was DANCING, and as Ritchie puts it poignantly in the last episode: ‘That’s what they will forget – it was so much fun”.
“In true Russell T Davies fashion, this show is both joyous and gut-wrenching, both natural and staged and, of course, most importantly, it is “beautifully gay””
In the past, programmes surrounding the AIDS crisis in the 1980s have neglected to explore the joy of all of it. Young boys living unapologetically in a brand new, bright city, having all the sex that they want and love. In many ways this makes it so much more painful, knowing that love and liberation stole so many boys. It’s rare to come across a show that wakes you up crying in the middle of the night and makes you carry its characters around for the next week, but there is nothing ordinary about ‘It’s a Sin’. In true Russell T Davies fashion, this show is both joyous and gut-wrenching, both natural and staged and, of course, most importantly, it is “beautifully gay”.
Big up Channel 4!
“‘It’s a Sin’ reiterating that AIDS was not ‘dirty’, but used as another form of anti-queer propaganda”
To start with, I want to commend Channel 4 for continuing to be a brave and progressive channel, but in particular to Lee Mason, the Commissioning Editor of Drama, who fought for ‘It’s a Sin’. Davies has been talking to big TV bosses about the series since around 2015, both ITV and BBC One are among the channels who rejected it. Channel 4 has backed Davies since 1999 when they aired ‘Queer as Folk’. Considering that at the time it was illegal to be gay and in the military, and section 28 was still very much in place, this was a bold and important statement from the channel. It is reassuring to see that Channel 4 are still standing up for queer representation and are rewriting the narrative surrounding AIDS. ‘It’s a Sin’ is respectful and honest, reiterating again that this illness was not ‘dirty’, but used as another form of anti-queer propaganda.
IT’S A SIN!
The Pet Shop Boys 1987 hit ‘It’s a Sin’ gave this show its name. The song explores themes of guilt and shame in lines such as “When I look back upon my life / it’s always with a sense of shame / I’ve always been the one to blame”, which is a notion that runs throughout the series.
“It’s a Sin’ shifts the blame back onto the discriminatory and homophobic people who exacerbated the AIDS crisis”
In the last episode, Jill Baxter (Lydia West), delivers a powerful monologue to Ritchie’s homophobic mother Valerie Tozer (Keeley Haws), she says: “I don’t know what happened to you to make that house so loveless. But that’s why Richie grew up so ashamed of himself… The wards are full of men who think they deserve it. They are dying, and a little bit of them thinks, yes, this is right. I brought this on myself. It’s my fault because the sex that I love is killing me.” And that is exactly what the AIDS crisis was and is in many parts of the world.
The AIDS crisis was dealt with slowly, met with suspicion, disdain and cruelty and all of this is rooted in the shame inflicted on queer people. ‘It’s a Sin’ shifts the blame back onto the discriminatory and homophobic people who exacerbated all of it, demonstrating that the true sinners were the families who disowned their children, the media who aggravated public hatred and the fearmongering government who blocked public health warnings.
AIDS Denialism
The tragic consequences of the government blocking public health warnings is displayed in the show through dangerous, wide-spread misunderstandings. For example, in episode one Ritchie’s father gives him condoms to prevent him from “getting some girl pregnant”, Ritchie laughs and tosses, what he believes to be, a heteronormative contraceptive over the edge of the ferry. It is at once a rejection of the straight world he has been shoehorned into and an example of the ignorance that emerges from education under section 28.
Ritchie goes on to become a fervid AIDS denier, embodying all the uncertainty and false news surrounding the epidemic: “They say it’s spread by poppers, they say it came from outer space from a comet, they say that God created it to strike us dead.” All of this false news accumulates and results in, as shown in later scenes, boys with HIV drinking battery acid and various other dangerous concoctions that were dangerously rumoured to prevent HIV from becoming AIDS.
“This show is an important, powerful and individualistic piece of television that continues to promote queer representation”
The cast is ‘Gayer than Gay’
But onto something lighter! The ‘It’s a Sin’ cast is ‘Gayer than Gay’ according to Russell T Davies and actually gives gay parts to (shock horror) gay actors! Featuring ‘Years and Years’ star Olly Alexander, as well as Callum Scott Howells, Omari Douglas, Stephen Fry and Neil Patrick Harris to name a few. This show is an important, powerful and individualistic piece of television that continues to promote queer representation.
Fiona Paterson
Featured image courtesy of Jiroe on Unsplash. Image licence can be found here. No changes were made to this image.