Forum Topic

It's a Sin

Watching another episode of this brilliant series.  The parallels with the Covid deniers are amazing.  Wonder if Covid deniers also think HIV/Aids is all a myth?  Conspiracy theories are just the same.

Claire Moran ● 2097d17 Comments

£400,000,000,000 and the destruction of society to help prevent the NHS being overwhelmed, and using unproven methods - like locking up the healthy? Now there's a conspiracy theory.

Michael Brown ● 2097d

An epidemic or pandemic which many people conveniently choose not to remember!

Philippa Bond ● 2096d

This is a simply brilliant and moving programme that exactly captures the times it is set in. The parallels with the current situation, the ignorance, denial, cruelty, fake news,and the loss of so many lives is hard to ignore. I really cannot be doing with these anti vaxxers and their moronic whining, and I don't care if they want to take chances with their lives, I do care if they want to take chances with mine and my friend's and family's though. Some of the world's most dangerous and virulent diseases have been eradicted completely - and this is due to mass vaccination programmes. And quite honestly if people believe all this tripe about microchips - then they'd all better dump their mobile 'phones.

Vanessa Smith ● 2096d

Agree.The NHS site has interesting pages on vaccines ,the 6 in 1,meningitis B and C , for flu and others.I remember a brother having whooping cough,not pleasant and used to know someone who'd been brain-damaged from meningitis .Many countries have limited access to any vaccines.

Ben Gemmingen ● 2096d

I moved to London at pretty much the time 'It's a Sin' was set. It was a very different place back then (certainly if you were gay). Gay bars (Earl's Court was awash with them) had blacked-out windows to stop people peering in. I remember being forced to get an AIDS test by Abbey National (as it was then) in order to qualify for a mortgage, and being asked all sorts of invasive questions to 'back up' my story. My mum was quite affected by the 'Tombstone' adverts and they led her to believe AIDS would be the end of me.

Gordon McDonald ● 2096d

Excellent program, very moving..........and what about the music.....brilliant sound track

Carol Burge ● 2096d

Another programme that captures a bygone era with incredible detail and a brilliant soundtrack, that is currently available on 4od. Stories that depict the everyday issues that were current for different communities in London with some excellent comic moments interspersed with sadness. The music not only evokes the era so vividly, but the lyrics are tailored to the scenes. And spot the well known faces!

Gina Thomas ● 2096d

If you were around at the time you can re-live the reality here and if you were born after these events then check out the reality at my You Tube 'AIDS Archive'.  I recorded a number of TV programmes between 1985 -87 when I volunteered at the Terrence Higgins TrustHere's a link if the above does't show - https://youtu.be/pZjcWDcqfCI

Martin Weaver ● 2081d

Managed not to binge watch this excellent series, so saw the last episode last night, heartbreaking. Keeley Hawes was just amazing and typified many of the prevailing attitudes served by bigotry and ignorance way back then. A brilliant, brilliant piece of drama.

Vanessa Smith ● 2075d

We also watched the final episode last night.  Very moving and powerful.  I could ramble on at great length about why but it’s the attention to small aspects of personality that make it all so convincing.  For example the revelation that Ritchie had voted for Thatcher and couldn’t bring himself to approve of small kids reading stories involving gay dads.  A lesser writer would have made all the characters paragons of woke virtue!I do think we are living in a golden age for TV drama.  And we used to think we were lucky with our weekly Play for Today!

Alastair Banton ● 2075d

What did people think of JIll's rant at Ritchie's mother? Why is is always the mother to blame and not the father?I didn't know what to make of Jill, come to that. She doesn't seem to be a lesbian but also has no apparent interest in men. Did she hang out exclusively with gay men to avoid having any sexual life of her own?

Susan Kelly ● 2075d

A good point about Jill. Why did she choose to hang out exclusively with gay men and adopt all their struggles? Mrs Tozer's attack on her ( which surely in reality would have been pretty racist as well?) did pose that question briefly, but it was never developed.I think Jill's character was the least convincing in an otherwise very well drawn cast.

David Halliday ● 2075d

Yes, surprising really, as she is based on a real-life woman who, as she was not shagging about, had the time to get very well informed about AIDS and wanted to help these  nice, but rampant, guys

Sarah Vickers ● 2075d

I agree that Jill is a rather underdeveloped character but I think this might be intentional, in order to suggest that any woman might be friendly towards gay men.  Too much exploration of her background or psychology could be skewed to imply that she only likes them because of x, y and z.  Also, I think many women do enjoy the company of gay men because unlike with straight young men they never have to deal with unwanted sexual attention so she’s not unusual.As for the rant at Ritchie’s mother and the question ‘Why is it always the woman?’ I’m not sure.  My hunch (completely unsupported by any empirical research) is that generally mothers are more tolerant and accepting of sons who come out as gay than their fathers.  In this drama, in reverse of my stereotype, it seemed to be the father who was more reconciled and that Jill was accordingly furious ‘If I can accept him why the f..k can’t you as another woman do the same?’  Also the author simply wanted to express rage that it is the intolerance and the creation of shame that creates the terrible problems that It’s a Sin explores.I’d very much like to hear others’ thoughts.

Alastair Banton ● 2075d

As a gay man who lived through those times and was involved in the whole AIDS crisis I learned very quickly that 'rampant' is a not an indication of one's likelihood of getting any sexually transmitted infection, AIDS included.  The character Simon contracted HIV from one encounter & I met many men and women in a similar position.In my experience of training people around sex and sexuality the definition of 'promiscuous' is simply 'anyone who has more sex than I do' - it's purely subjective, amongst other things.The problem is that use of words like that lead to; self inflicted and very quickly to the 'innocent victims' which means that some where, someone is 'guilty' - and that  reinforces and legitimises the prejudice which in turn isolates the many Valeries that there are in the world - and they need help and support as well.I met many Ritchie type gay men as well in my time.  'Its a Sin' is a specific story about a particular group of people and whereas it is true on all its plots and aspects, it just not the 'whole truth' and it couldn't be. I'm sure that the drama 'Mrs America', superb as it was, also had to make short cuts and simplifications in order to get the story across.

Martin Weaver ● 2074d

Sounds as if the definition of 'promiscuous' is similar to that of 'alcoholic', Martin: 'someone who drinks more than I do'.

Susan Kelly ● 2074d

Sarah. Who is/was the real life woman the character of Jill is based on?

David Halliday ● 2074d