HOLDING BACK THE YEARS (& YEARS)
POP STAR OLLY ALEXANDER GOES BACK IN TIME FOR RUSSELL T DAVIES’S 1980s DRAMA, IT’S A SIN. BY GABRIEL TATE
A GROUP of friends living in a rented house under the shadow of a deadly virus and the growing realisation of how this will impact their lives forever. No, not a modern-day drama, but Russell T Davies’s eagerly awaited new five-part series It’s A Sin.
Never has a series seemed so prescient. Set in the early 1980s when Aids was just a dark rumour on the horizon, it stars Olly Alexander at his heart-wrenching best. Speaking over Zoom from his kitchen, Alexander admits his return to the screen after five years away was a terrifying prospect.
‘I wanted to be involved as soon as I heard Russell was making a new TV show but I was surprised by how scared I was doing sex scenes and being vulnerable in a way
I haven’t been for a while,’ he says. ‘You could have an entire career and never get a job this good so I didn’t want to mess it up.’
It helped that Davies’s breakthrough series, Queer As Folk, was so close to Alexander’s heart. The taboo-busting Manchester drama was a window into a life the young Alexander didn’t yet entirely understand. ‘When I was 14, I remember sneaking into my friend Caz’s bedroom with a couple of friends to watch the episodes in secret,’ he says. ‘I was so scandalised by what I saw, these bums and men kissing each other – it was very powerful for me. I didn’t understand why I felt the way I did but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to understand Russell as a powerful force in terms of queer representation on British TV.’ Alexander, 30, is heartbreakingly good as Ritchie, the fulcrum of the ‘Pink Palace’, the London bedsit where he and his friends Colin (Callum Scott Howells), Roscoe (Omari Douglas) and Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) form a tightknit community with confidante Jill (Lydia West). There is tragedy, of course, but also passion, wild parties and a banging soundtrack.
‘We lost so many people,’ says Alexander. ‘The stories we’re most familiar with are really dark narratives. There’s a good reason for that but there’s a lot of joy and celebration about the era as well, the resistance and the willingness for people to live on. I hope it gets people talking.’
Like Ritchie, Alexander grew up gay in small towns and can relate to his character’s urge to be the life and soul of every party: Ritchie is a budding actor whose urge to perform hides something bleaker.
‘Ritchie likes to be the centre of attention and make people laugh but he’s motivated by fear,’ says Alexander. ‘Fear that his family will find out about his sexuality, that he’ll catch the
virus… Russell described him as always running, which made a lot of sense to me. There’s a lot of internalised shame there and he’s trying to push everything behind him by getting on stage and trying to be the most entertaining and brilliant person.’
Stephen Fry and Keeley Hawes are among supporting players in the story but this is above all a showcase for a bright new generation of actors whose convincing on-screen friendships are rooted in reality.
‘Actors are good at making friends quickly,’ says Alexander, ‘but I was surprised by how quickly we did. We really did fall in love. It became a bit of an issue – we were having too much fun hanging out and forgetting our lines.’
As an actor, Alexander stalked Hannah Murray’s Cassie in Skins, trod the West End boards opposite Judi Dench and rocked a cravat in Great Expectations. He’s also a platinumselling pop star and leading campaigner for mental health and LGBTQ+ rights. Years & Years fans need not despair, either – Alexander has devoted much of the past year to a third Y&Y album.
‘It’s getting there,’ he says. ‘We’ve done some stuff remotely, a lot of it by myself in my flat, then recently we went back into a studio until we locked down again. It’s upbeat euphoria inspired by the ’80s and the spirit of those songs, of the idea of dancing through the pain. It’s what we all need!’
It’s A Sin is on Channel 4 at 9pm on Friday with box set available on All 4