This is another first for Queerguru. We are publishing TWO reviews for one very exceptional production. Russell T Davies’ IT’S A SIN is nothing less than a queer masterpiece, so we asked Andrew Hebden one of London based Contributing Editors to give us his own take on it too.
If at this stage of the Covid pandemic, with social distancing and the closure of anything that has a sniff of fun associated with it, you are not gagging for a bit of sin then you may want to move on from the queerguru website. There are more wholesome and less fun publications out there. Perhaps Christian Mingle?
We know our audience has its finger on the pulse. Among other things. So you almost certainly will have heard the much louder than a whisper news that Russell T Davies, creator of Queer as Folk, has finally done a drama that covers AIDS.
What we want to make clear, during these trying times, is that it is based on the premise that for every death from AIDS there was a glorious, amazing life that preceded it.
Set in 1980s London the soundtrack covers a hot new wave of music as a hot new generation of gays comes of age. Ritchie (Olly Alexander) has fled the Isle of Wight (the anti Ibiza) and a suffocating future in law to become a drama student and aspiring actor. Roscoe (Omari Douglas) is an escapee from the zealotry of a traditional Nigerian christian background dipping their toe into drag. Colin (Callum Scott Howells) is, well, from Wales, which is actually quite pleasant, if a little wet.
In the days before social media when secrets were actually a thing, a useful and sometimes necessary thing, the three friends become adopted family as they embrace the novelty of a vibrant but very underground gay culture. Surrounded by assorted other disenfranchised allies they set up camp (very camp) in a shared flat they call the Pink Palace. They run hard at life. Joyful, silly and luminous.
Whilst the partying is hard there are shadows where the disco lights don’t reach. At first its whispers of strange deaths of gay men in San Francisco. Then there is an older generation that seems to be fading fast from a range of ailments that had been historically rare. Neil Patrick Harris has a touching first episode cameo as mentor to Colin who slips away into the abyss of ignorance and rumor.
This is life though, not death. Life in its entirety. The life that makes you hungry for more. Davies makes it wonderfully sexy, clumsy, painful, and passionate. His fun is not trivial in the face of fear. There are no surplus smiles in a pandemic. Each one is valuable. If pandemics must happen, then so must stories like It’s a Sin.
N.B. It’s A Sin is currently streaming FREE in the UK on Channel 4, later this year it will also be available in the US on HBO MAX
Review by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
