The launch of new 2021 series 'It's A Sin' featuring Olly Alexander
It explores the lives of three young gay men affected by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s
Last updated 2nd Nov 2021
Brand new series It’s A Sin launched on Friday 22nd January 2021 on Channel 4 and stars Olly Alexander from Years and Years.
The drama, which was written by Doctor Who’s Russell T Davies, explored the lives of three young people affected by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
A trailer, which was released late last year, showed the group of 18-year-olds Ritchie, Roscoe and Callum move into a flat (nicknamed ‘The Pink Palace’) in London in 1981. As the crisis looms, we see how each character reacts differently to the developing situation and rumours.
Another clip shows Ritchie, played by Olly Alexander, listing his theories surrounding HIV and AIDS.
Omari Douglas plays Roscoe and Callum Scott Howells is third friend Colin. Also starring in the show are Keeley Hawes, Stephen Fry and Neil Patrick Harris.
The five-part series is loosely based on writer Davies’ own life and his experiences, as just like the characters in the show, he was an 18-year-old gay man in 1981.
In a press Q and A, he said, “This series fits my life literally. I was 18 in 1981 and I went to university. A lot of my friends went to live in London, all my gay friends all went to London, and they moved into a big flat in Hampstead I think it was, and they called it the Pink Palace.
“A lot of the dialogue has got their jokes and their rhythms and stuff like that. There will be a few friends who I haven’t seen for years who’ll be watching it going, ‘This is slightly familiar. I lived in the Pink Palace once.’
“Some of them, of course, are no longer with us, they passed away because HIV came along and claimed a lot of their lives. So it’s nice to pay testament, it’s nice to remember them, I’m very lucky in my job that I can do this.”
In a statement, Channel 4 said, "Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin are young lads, strangers at first, leaving home at 18 and heading off to London in 1981 with hope and ambition and joy… and walking straight into a plague that most of the world ignores.
"Year by year, episode by episode, their lives change, as the mystery of a new virus starts as a rumour, then a threat, then a terror, and then something that binds them together in the fight.
"It’s the story of their friends, lovers and families too, especially Jill, the girl who loves them and helps them, and galvanises them in the battles to come. Together they will endure the horror of the epidemic, the pain of rejection and the prejudices that gay men faced throughout the decade."
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