It’s A Sin.

www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/russell-t-davies-its-a-sin-exclusive/

I loved it.
A lot of questions are answered in this interview with Russell T Davis.....https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/russell-t-davies-its-a-sin-exclusive/

I too am starting to find Keeley Hawes irritating trisher.

I think it’s because she pops up all over the place.

It’s A Sin, that Honour programme, that ridiculous Finding Alice (wish they would lose her), she’s soon in some Roald Dahl programme playing Patricia Neal, his wife, also repeats of The Durrells and Line Of Duty.

Too much of a good thing.

Have I missed anything?

MayBee70

I think what upset me was Ritchie saying he’d knowingly possibly infected hundreds of others but that it had been fun and he didn’t regret it. It seemed out of character. I couldn’t really make out what his mother’s reaction was but, even though she was an absolute bitch I didn’t think Jills comment that she was to blame in some way was wrong. Ritchie would still have been promiscuous even if his mother had been accepting/understanding of his sexuality.

I think the shame was what caused him to hide his HIV status MayBee70 so he didn't seek treatment and denied having it. If he had been able to admit to his illness he could have had treatment earlier and he could have limited transmission. It wasn't the sex but the stigma and the shame of the illness.

I thought it was an extremely well written, well acted drama thought provoking, funny and sad in equal parts I thought Jill played a blinder, excellent actress, and a lovely caring part Afraid I didn’t like the mother either but I wasn’t very keen on the promiscuous Richie I felt a lot more empathy for poor little Colin who I wanted to hug better
Had me in tears a few times

A gay friend of mine said the same thing trisher
How can you not like Keeley Hawes?! She is one of my favourites.
Perhaps the fifties housewife thing was to do with the Isle of Wight, the Jill character seemed to blame the island as well as the mother.

A gay friend of mine once said that women put the brake on sex because of pregnancy and other things, when you get men together who want sex with another man things just run wild. I think it's a good explanation,
I thought the girl who played Jill was brilliant. I always find Keeley Hawes irritating. I don't understand why she looked like a 1950s housewife in 1990. People with prejudices looked as up to date as anyone else.

Also, Jill ended up buying the Pink Palace along with Richie, who lied on his mortgage application. Wonder how that worked out after he died?

She was based on a real person though; the woman who played Jills mum in the series.

I watched it and enjoyed it and it was so moving in places, especially when Colin died. I didn't really understand the Jill character though. She had such a huge part in it and was a lovely friend. Just didn't understand why she was living in a house with 4 gay men and why didn't she have any partners of her own?

Agree Cass64. Still a lot of stigma around HIV, even within the gay community itself.

I think what upset me was Ritchie saying he’d knowingly possibly infected hundreds of others but that it had been fun and he didn’t regret it. It seemed out of character. I couldn’t really make out what his mother’s reaction was but, even though she was an absolute bitch I didn’t think Jills comment that she was to blame in some way was wrong. Ritchie would still have been promiscuous even if his mother had been accepting/understanding of his sexuality.

I lived in London from 1981 to 1986, I had a lot of gay friends and can say for definite that the promiscuity was real. My flatmate who was gay used to bring different men home quite often and we were quite used to seeing different men around the breakfast table in the morning.

He also used to tell us stories about what went on in pub toilets. So yes, the promiscuity was definitely there, but it was something my flatmates and I just accepted from him. We were all aware of Aids at the time but it became more widely acknowledged I think when it ‘threatened’ to enter the heterosexual sphere.

I havent seen it, I might watch it when it comes up.

However if people think things have changed think again.
Many people still dont think they can get it. People think if they are careful if they are straight if they are over 50 they cant get it... Wrong!

Then the discrimination. Cant get a mortgage at a bank because you reveal your HIV status , cant get a dentist to do anything more than a basic filling, have the nurse refuse to take a blood sample. Have people refuse to talk to you or let their kids play with yours.
Still get asked 'how did you catch it'? like there are good ways and bad ways so lets judge where you stand....

Yes things are improving but we are a long way from accepting yet.

I thought this series was excellent, I admit to not knowing much about the background other than having lived through the times and remembering how scared everyone was by this new disease.

I thought that Keeley Hawes was excellent too and the scene on the waterfront near the end tied up the whole thing. Her character was unsympathetic and there was no attempt to "save" her by Russell T Grant, we saw how people's reactions could be bad as well as good.

Ritchie's speech near the end about how much fun it had been was also very moving and, for me, explained some of the promiscuity that went on.

Eloethan - I read your post with interest as I too was struck by the apparent level of casual promiscuity. I do not know whether this was an accurate representation of gay relationships at the time, but it did feel like a bit of a stereotype. It occurred to me that it might have been very hard at the time to meet openly and create deeper and more secure relationships.

Maybe the heterosexual scene was/is equally promiscuous - I am an innocent here! Even as a child of the 60s I do not remember there being high levels of casual sex - certainly not amongst my friends.

I was impressed by this series - the acting was superb, and, whilst it did to some extent deal in stereotypes (camp actor for example) the character of Colin was interesting as an antidote to that. And the responses from the parents and how their feelings evolved was well handled. An interesting series.

I was also disappointed with final episode. Just found Keeley Hawes portrayal of the mother not right somehow.
She didn’t seem suitable for the part. Shaun Dooley as the rather bigoted dad was much more realistic to me.

Stunning series, I was in tears during the last episode, writing, casting, acting, the whole production was such high quality.

I was disappointed with the last episode. It didn’t move me the way that the episode about Colin did.

That’s a really interesting article. I was a teen in those times and I remember the fear, but at the same time I was quite removed from it as it didn’t affect any of my gay friends, so there was a sense of looking at it from afar if that makes sense? I can remember, though, people being scared of using public toilets because they thought they could catch it from the seats; and I recall being asked if I’d had a HIV test when doing my mortgage application. Thoroughly enjoyed the series.

I felt a bit uncomfortable watching the sex scenes - not because they involved homosexuality but because of the huge number of sexual encounters the young men portrayed in this series had. I would have felt equally uncomfortable had the participants been heterosexual. It did make me wonder whether this depiction of gay men is typical or whether it is just another stereotype. But it doesn't dispel my feeling that I am not as open minded as I thought I was because why should I be perilously close to being judgmental of someone enjoying a casual but consenting sexual encounter?

I have got as far as episode 4 and I think it is a really brilliant series. All the characters are so well drawn.

I can remember having several heated arguments with various people I knew regarding homosexuality. Even a very pleasant young man who I worked with, someone who abhorred racism, saw homosexuality (or indeed any other sort of sexual activity proscribed by the Church) as "a sin".

In those days, it must have been terrible to have to either live a lie or face constant aggression, discrimination and disrespect. Thatcher had a large part to play in stoking up these fears and creating division. Things are much better now but, as with racism, there is still enough prejudice and discrimination to affect people's day to day lives.

Yes annodomini all of the actors who are playing gay characters are gay themselves.

We bought a new tv but didn’t realise we could only get catchup by having Amazon Prime which we don’t really want. That’s why I’m having to use my iPad. All the other stuff needs my son or SIL to sort it out for us but we haven’t had anyone in the house for almost a year other than a BT engineer who we kept well away from! I don’t even have a smart phone as I was planning to get one earlier last year and then the pandemic kicked in. Thank goodness I’ve got my iPad though.

I've watched most of it on All4 and will finish today. I woke up during the night thinking about it. The quality of the acting was first class, and the depiction of the deterioration experienced by those young men was merciless.
I believe that some have said that only gay actors should depict gay characters and wonder if this is true of this series. I think it would be quite difficult for a straight actor to perform as well as these actors have.

I binge watched it on All4 and found it very moving, both funny and sad. What wonderful young actors.