IT’S A SIN Joy and tragedy of gay life in the 1980s

Russell T. Davies’s compelling drama about the lives of five flatmates – four gay men (including Olly Alexander, below) and their female friend – in London in the 1980s as they become affected by a mysterious new disease: AIDS. At times sexually explicit, for the most part, Davies’s script brilliantly subverts clichés and there are fine performances from the actors – particularly Neil Patrick Harris as the supportive colleague of one of the flatmates and Shaun Dooley as the stern father of another.

All4, available now