Highlight of the week A important lesson
Tthree-part documentary series tells the story of the British AIDS crisis as it’s never been told before. Forty years ago, a mysterious disease first appeared in Britain’s gay community. A deadly and complex virus with no known cure, the ‘gay plague’ arrived at a time when homophobia and discrimination were commonplace.
Few could talk openly about their experiences - or their illness.
As the crisis grew, a small group of pioneering researchers began recording audio interviews with infected gay men and their friends. These interviews - a frank, intimate and sometimes humorous account of life at the heart of the AIDS epidemic - were archived in the British Library and have never been broadcast before.
The series brings them to life with young actors who lip-sync to the original voice recordings.
AIDS: The Unheard Tapes combines these lip-synced historical testimonies with modern interviews from British activists, scientists, doctors and nurses who lived, worked and
AIDS: The Unheard Tapes BBC Two, Monday, 9.30pm
campaigned throughout the crisis. Starting with the death of Heaven barman Terry Higgins in 1982, and ending in 1996 with the emergence of the first successful drug combinations, the series explores how pioneering medics and the gay community
worked together raise awareness, fight prejudice, and ultimately find ways to treat the devastating virus.
London, 1982. Thirteen years post the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, the largest gay club in Europe opens its doors - and Heaven is packed. Whispers begin to circulate of a mysterious new disease, a ‘gay cancer’ from New York, and Terry Higgins becomes one of the first people in Britain to die from what will become known as an ‘AIDS-related disease’.