Inside the phenomenon of Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin
How Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin became the TV show of the moment
Russell T Davies has never seen anything like it. The response to It’s A Sin, his latest drama for Channel 4, has been overwhelming and unprecedented. And this is the writer who rebooted Doctor Who, and was responsible for the groundbreaking Queer As Folk. In fact, when he launched the latter on an unsuspecting world back in 1999, the writer faced an onslaught of negativity from the press – except for us at heat . We loved it.
Twenty-two years later, almost to the day, It’s A Sin arrived on Channel 4, and the reaction could not have been more different. Davies says it’s like “a wave that is swelling into a tide”. In a time when we’re in a pandemic, somehow a TV drama about a terrifying virus has become everyone’s favourite show.
THE RECEPTION
The five-parter concludes next Friday on “normal TV” (so beware spoilers here), but record numbers of viewers devoured all of it on All 4 as soon as the first episode aired, and many have watched it two or three times already. Like Normal People and I May Destroy You last year, it’s become a word-of-mouth phenomenon. As well as receiving five-star reviews across the board, myriad celebrities have hailed the brilliance of the show. Kathy Burke tweeted, “Watched It’s A Sin – twice! No spoilers, but it’s everything you could hope for. RTD is a genius.” Comedian Tom Allen said it is “the best piece of television I have ever seen”, while
Elton John posted about it on Instagram, saying the series is “a triumph of creativity and humanity.”
So, what’s the secret of the show’s extraordinary impact?
THE ORIGINS
When heat went on the set over a year ago, Davies told us how the idea of writing a drama about the AIDS crisis in Britain in the ’80s had been percolating in his mind for decades. “But I think it’s a good thing that it’s taken this long for me to write it,” he explained. “Because now I can use everything I’ve learned, all the weapons in my arsenal, to show what really happened.”
Consequently, the series has a searing intensity. The stories it tells also happen to be true. Davies shows the bigotry and
homophobia of the time, in what is an education for anyone who didn’t live through it. This was a world where AIDS patients were locked alone in isolation wards, where Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 forbade the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities, and where being LGBTQ was routinely considered shameful. Most of all, Davies says, it was an environment in which “a lot of the families of the men who died could not accept that their sons died of AIDS”.
This massive, tragic prevalence of shame is dramatised in the series finale, possibly the single most powerful hour of TV in many years, when central character Ritchie’s parents are finally forced to face the truth about their son. “It’s easy to write a drama in which homophobia is forgiven. To end in hugs,” Davies says. “But I really wanted to keep a hard spine in this story, because of what happened to friends of mine.”
The final confrontation between Ritchie’s best friend, the heroic Jill (Lydia West), and his mother (Keeley Hawes) has the hardest of spines. But the truth is told.
THE CATHARSIS
The series ends, however, on a note of enduring friendship and love. And this is the key to Russell’s vision. This is a drama that is inevitably full of death and grief, and sometimes of righteous fury, but it is also a joyful and often riotously funny commemoration and celebration of those who passed. We fall in love with these characters within minutes of meeting them – due in no small part to the perfect casting and brilliant performances – and we envy them their close friendship group, where they greet each other with a “La!” (“La” T-shirts are now available) and enjoy some rampant sex along the way.
Despite this being a story predominantly about men – the gay and bisexual men devastated by AIDS, in particular – the final scenes actually belong to Jill, based on a real friend of Davies’ who really has devoted her life to caring for people with AIDS (while also appearing in West End musicals). Jill, who’s now got her own hashtag – #Bemorejill – is the friend we all need. And in so many ways, It’s A Sin is the show we all need. n