It’s A Sin: The boys we lost are calling out across 40 years wanting to be remembered

Russell T Davies
Russell T Davies29 January 2021
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When you launch a TV show into the world, it’s like throwing a chip at a seagull. Flap, whoosh, gone. Maybe it was tasty, maybe not, who cares? It’s over, go home. Last Friday, Channel 4 premiered the first episode of my new drama, It’s A Sin, a five-episode story of a London flat-share with a gang of mates battling their way through the Aids crisis from 1981 to 1991. It transmitted at 9pm. But for the first time in my career, all episodes were simultaneously dropped on All4. I wondered if that would work. At my age, it all felt a bit new-fangled. Would it scatter the reaction? Would episodes fall out of sync with the audience and vanish, flap, whoosh, gone? But the reaction was great. I waited patiently, cynically, for a backlash. But then the joy continued. And continued. And it grew and grew with people watching all five episodes till 2am and, frankly, loving it. It became that fabled demographic, the binge.  

By Saturday morning, Graham Norton was saying on his radio show that this isn’t supposed to happen; the internet hates everything. But not this time. By Saturday night, people were saying they’d watched all five hours again! And thank God for a cold, snowy weekend, as the bingeing went on and on and the reactions soared.

Now, I’ve had a few launches in my time. I’ve thrown Queer as Folk and Doctor Who out there. So I thought this was something of a wave. But  I can see that it’s swelling into a tide. And the important thing is, in many ways, it’s not about the programme at all. A silence has been breached. Voices are calling out. For the boys we’d lost. Those who died from Aids — men and women — only to have their death obscured by shame and fear and ignorance. Suddenly, stories are being told, all those friends and family coming back to life. The photos, the anecdotes, the funny things they said. My phone’s been pinging non-stop with texts, emails and DMs. So many people talking about their lover, their brother, their wife, their grandad.

On Sunday, an old friend told me something remarkable. He had a mate in the mid-Nineties, who was dying aged 34. At the time, this seemed so normal that my friend thought, “He’s had a good innings.” He took him into his home to live out his final weeks. The man’s family moved in to keep vigil. “And then,” said my friend, “I forgot.” He forgot. Not a literal amnesia. But a quiet folding-away of events into a box. Tucked away, with a respectful nod, then moving on, leaving the silence to settle. Now my friend looks back in astonishment. How could he forget?  

And for the younger generation, there’s been a powerful surge of interest. Another friend told me of her teenage son and his boyfriend watching all weekend, and then exploding with questions. How could people die like this, neglected and alone? What did the Government do? Did no one care?  

The series will echo away now but I hope the silence won’t creep back in. Conversations have started. Voices must continue. The lost and forgotten have called across 40 years, wanting to be remembered and celebrated and loved. If a TV show has been a small part of that, then I feel humbled, and determined to continue the fight.

It’s A Sin is on Channel 4 on Fridays at 9pm and streaming on All 4

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