Starring Olly Alexander, Omari Douglas and Callum Scott Howells and set against the backdrop of 1980’s London at the very start of the AIDS epidemic, It’s A Sin follows four best friends as they embark on their new, exciting lives in London. However, the group arrive as reports of a new disease are slowly trickling into UK news from across the pond. The story starts to come together by the end of the last episode with much of it focusing on the characters’ themselves and their relationships with one another. The show is a warm reminder of Davies greatest gift, creating incredibly real (but not without their flaws) characters whilst making it obvious what they have to lose in the least pretentious way possible.
Viewers would perhaps consider Ritchie (Olly Alexander) to be one of the more self indulgent in the series alongside Roscoe (Omari Douglas) with Ritchie having left his loving yet unthinkably homophobic home on the Isle of Wight to pursue a career in drama and Roscoe having escaped an extremely religious family who were intent on driving out the homosexuality out of him even if it meant returning to their native Nigeria. Colin has travelled to London from the Welsh Valleys and is much quieter than both Roscoe and Ritchie. He is seemingly thrilled with his new job at a tailors and befriended by older colleague Henry (Neil Patrick Harris) who reveals to Colin that he has been living with his partner Pablo for thirty years.
All seems fine, that is until Henry and Pablo both fall ill at the same time with a mystery illness – no one really knows what it is but Pablo’s mother whisks him away back to Portugal leaving Henry incredibly isolated on a hospital ward. The characters all have differing approaches to this brand new disease, with Ritchie favouring denial, Jill, having a slight distance from what was seen by a large percentage as ‘the gay disease’ has armed herself with all the knowledge she possibly can. It’s possible for audiences now to identify with endless and seemingly mindless joys coming to a tender halt and perhaps, in episodes to come, the wrestling with a distressingly inept and insufficient government.
As we get further into the series, it moves through the decades and the subject matter, as expected, darkens but It’s A Sin never loses its funniness or briskness. Some may argue that this is no way to go about presenting such a serious period in Britain’s history but it’s without these things that it would become incredibly difficult to portray the depth of the disaster that was about to unfold in 1980’s Britain.