Of course we don't have a fucking parrot
#1 : It's A Sin
A five-part drama about the arrival of Aids in Britain and the devastation it wrought was always going to be gut-wrenching viewing. But it was the furious, beautiful joy of the show that took you by surprise, with Russell T Davies serving up a viewing experience that was funny and full of life in a way that was – strange though it sounds to say – genuinely enjoyable to watch. Not only did it make you care deeply about its characters’ lives, it did so with a sense of humour that made the darkest moments all the more heart-rending.
So, we've taken our time about it but my wife and I have finally managed to clear our TV viewing schedules such that we have time to sit down and watch the (allegedly) best telly series from last year together. Unfortunately, a large part of why this is possible is down to Covid because with both girls isolating we've had access to the TV a couple of hours earlier than we normally do - but you have to take these opportunities when they're offered to you (and yes, the irony of a virus being involved is not lost on me)
Given it's #1 and there are only five parts to it, I think we can probably give it an episode-by-episode breakdown (I'll try to avoid spoilers, but let's see how doable that is)
So episode 1 introduces us to some characters I suspect we'll be seeing quite a bit more of - Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Roscoe (Omari Douglas), Colin (Callum Scott Howells), Gregory (David Carlyle), Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) and Jill (Lydia West). The first five are all gay men who have all escaped backgrounds of varying degrees of restriction/unacceptance and found their way to London to set up home in "The Pink Palace" along with the latter and an uncertain number of others (it has to be the largest flat in London - and all for £20 a week!). And they're all introduced as a fun bunch as we get to know them, finishing off the episode with them enthusiastically stating their hopes for the rest of their lives.
But the stand-out performance from this episode for me is Neil Patrick Harris as an older gay man who's been living a "normal" suburban existence with his partner for thirty(ish) years - accepted whilst hidden in plain sight. Offering our main characters a hopeful future, until they both succumb to rare cancers steering us firmly in the direction of mortality that one can only suspect is going to feature heavily in future episodes. In an episode of exuberant, over-the-top performances his understated, wistful, contented character cut through especially well.
Episode 2 focusses on the initial arrival of AIDS and the ignorance, denial and shame surrounding it. I found this episode a bit too pointedly educational for my liking, but it moved the story along nicely and delivered another death for us to cope with - the bonfire of all of the victim's possessions was particularly heart-breaking, basically removing all evidence of their existence.
And episode 3 brought it all much closer to home with the infection and subsequent death of one of the main characters - with the fear and ignorance surrounding the events being beautifully offset by acceptance and love from both expected and unexpected quarters. At the same time, we also see the other characters growing both professionally and personally - although some of the characters' behaviour around their AIDS tests suggests there's still some way to go (but we've got time). One disappointing thing in this episode is that they used cars from the wrong era in one shot - it's ruined for me now, I can tell you.
Episode 4 starts with a beautiful scene where Ritchie's parents switch over in disgust from an AIDS "Don't die of ignorance" "advert" to Michael Barrymore on Strike It Lucky - "Oh yes, we like him!". And later there's a nicely self-referential shot of Ritchie on Dr Who as well. And I think that's all I should really tell you because otherwise it's going to get too spoilerish...
And there's probably even less I should tell you about episode 5 - it's mostly pretty heart-breaking but manages to throw doses of fury, acceptance, joy, ignorance and a million other emotions in there as well. It also focusses more on the parents than other episodes have, which made for interesting viewing to me and rams home the message that it's never too late to change - but not necessarily in the right direction. Without giving things away, I liked the ending - what I saw of it through the tears anyway.
And that's it - we're done! It's a strong slice of TV which I very much enjoyed - it took me back to those times (although my personal experiences were slightly different from those involved) and although I did find it a bit too obviously educational at times, I totally accept that this may not have been the case for those who were either older (or not yet born!) at the time.
It's all very well acted by a strong core cast of young actors - they all take their given moment in the spotlight to pull on your heartstrings well. But special mentions have to go to Olly Alexander (who has a much longer acting CV than I was expecting - going back to 2008) and Lydia West (whose CV goes all the way back to 2019 - coincidentally her first role was in Years And Years). They provide the contrasting heart to the series - Ritchie is carefree and careless, taking love wherever he can whilst Jill is caring and careful, giving love wherever it's needed (all of which makes her moment of cold fury in the final episode even more powerful - it's a really well done scene). They're well written parts but needed quite a lot of nuance and so had to be given to the right actors - and this was certainly the case. I'd also call out Callum Scott Howells as Colin - he conveys the growth of his character well over the series (and he's also surprisingly good looking if you Google him!)
The core cast are very ably supported by some veteran stars - Neil Patrick Harris wins the cameo contest for me (Stephen Fry wasn't really acting - he was just being him!). Keeley Hawes also deserves a mention for fully grasping the opportunity given to her in the final episode and Tracy Ann Oberman has a blast whenever she pops up as well!
However good the acting is, they can only work with what they're given and writing something that covers so many characters over a 10 year period is obviously not a trivial undertaking - luckily Russell T. Davies has a track record in producing stuff which is not too terrible and he obviously wasn't going to let himself down on such a personal project. And he really doesn't here - it must have been a huge amount of work to make sure that everything was accurate and believable.
One thing I would say is that it I'm not sure it was quite negative enough regarding the general homophobia of the times - both overt and implicit. For example, Section 28 is only mentioned for about 30 seconds and there's no "gay-bashing" present, which was very much a thing at the time. This is a minor (and quite possibly unfair) criticism though - you certainly can't accuse him of painting an overly rosy picture of the times.
One other aspect that deserves a mention is the retrospective nature of the series and the long time period that it covers - it must have been a horrendous amount of work to keep everything in period (and I'll let them off the cars in episode 3!). There's also a careful balance to be struck between introducing sufficient interesting points of nostalgia and overwhelming the story and characters with retro hits - and I think they managed it all very well. The music is also expertly chosen - and apparently cost them a fortune!
Wikipedia tells me the series was a very hard sell with Channel 4, BBC and ITV all rejecting it before Channel 4's commissioning editor waited for a change of management before pushing it again, successfully this time. Hearteningly, it also tells me that a sensationalist story in The Sun about the graphical sexual content resulted in a large number of people telling them to just grow up and they even apologised. It also tells me that Jill is based "very loosely" on Jill Nalder, who met Russell T. Davies when they were 14 and they're still friends - and she plays Jill's mum in the series, which is a really nice touch.
Overall, I totally enjoyed this - it was both a heartwarming and heartbreaking watch, beautifully filmed and acted. I'm very pleased that it's been such a phenomenal success for everyone involved and hold out some hope that society has moved on, which is only strengthened when I listen to my daughters' view on other people being different in any way (even though they still have to correct me on my pronoun usage on a regular basis). Thank you to everyone involved for making such a powerful, heartbreaking yet uplifting slice of TV - la!
At the time of writing, the series is available on All 4 and I imagine it's going to be there for some time yet, so if you haven't seen it then you really should check it out. I should probably state that it does feature some scenes of gay sex - but it probably won't overly surprise you to hear that.
#2 - Not for me, I'm afraid
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