The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Review
WHAT TO WATCH IT’S A SIN
Channel 4, 9pm
The second episode of Russell T Davies’s period drama about the early
Aids crisis continues in much the same vein as the first. We are treated to more montages of the fancy-free gay young things clubbing and having oodles of sex in London to a backdrop of Eighties pop hits, and not a whole lot of dialogue.
These early moments feel more like a nostalgia trip for Davies than realistic drama; one can only assume he wants to show us the footloose fun gay kids were having before the grim reality hit. But it will, soon enough, dig deeper into his protagonists and explore the social climate in which they live. Tonight,
Ritchie (Olly Alexander) breaks the fourth wall – in a segment staged like a pop video – to tell us that there’s no such thing as Aids. Like today’s Covid deniers, he’ll likely come to regret those words. Meanwhile, the gang’s lone female, Jill (Lydia West), covertly begins investigating the disease. Davies, who revamped Doctor Who, and penned A Very English Scandal and the criminally underrated Cucumber, has a knack for dialogue that fleshes out his characters. And, with the decades-spanning Years and Years, he proved he can handle complex storylines.
For those who can’t wait, the rest of the series is on All 4. Vicki Power team explore one of the lockdown’s few silver linings: the benefit to wildlife from decreased human interaction. Tonight, he and his stepdaughter Megan report for the last time from the New Forest. Roll on, Springwatch.