It's A Sin - Channel 4

[SophSpinsSillyStories]

I think the most heartbreaking thing for me was the acknowledgment that AIDS wiped out entire communities. So sad.

 

[SarahGard83]

So I finally got around to watching this. I binge-watch all 5 episodes yesterday then decided to binge-watch it all again today because its just *that* brilliant!

I have one question though (and forgive me if its already been asked I can't be bother reading all 23 pages of this thread) Why did Gregory Finch's parents burn all of his belongings after he died? I can understand the reasoning behind burning his clothes but they burnt his baby pictures and childhood toys as well. I found that strange .

I think it was the shame of who he was. Almost as if burning everything would erase all memory of him. I don't think they could cope with his homosexuality and how he died

 

[Woolmercardington]

Can someone explain why colins boss was trying to wash him in episode 1?

He was an old letch. Any excuse for him to try and get him to take his shirt off and get his hands on him.

 

[Imainlylurk]

O

On Apple Music and Spotify smash hits have made a playlist!

A week on and I’m still thinking about it.

I was tellin a friend about it and how upsetting it was seein these boys dieing alone and she said well what about now with covid! Least now they have the doctors n nurses caring for them and can have contact with family. These poor boys were left alone and locked away especially at that start.! I was wasting my time tryin to explain the difference to her.

I think there are some differences. Like you say, now they can have contact with family because technology is so much more advanced and hopefully there is also more awareness of the importance of facilitating that - I saw footage from a busy London hospital ward where a member of staff was going around to patients' beds with an Ipad so they could speak to loved ones. Secondly, as shit as it is, with COVID it's based on the science of how the disease works. We know that close social interactions transmit the disease. With HIV it was based on fear and ignorance.

I do hope we have learnt some lessons about the importance of dignity and humanity from the Aids crisis.

 

[LittleMy]

I felt so sad for Colin’s mum after she received the parcel of shit through the letterbox. That poor, poor woman. Her son was dying in hospital and she was being harassed by neighbours at a time when as a community they would’ve ordinarily pulled together to help her through something so terrible. She was such a lovely mother too, very accepting of her son and his friends. The stigma around sexuality and AIDS in general was so bad. I’m glad we are a less ignorant society today.

 

[Tiredbones]

I think Colin went back home to Wales so I’m guessing that was the local hospital for them both? I may be wrong though

He came back to London after the solicitor got involved. I'd imagine all aids patients were kept pretty contained in certain hospitals

 

[Twopenniesworth]

I think it was consentual, howver i dont think there was any desire/lust/love on the part of the landladys son. He got involved purely for his own gratification and i suppose thats what got me. Colin had only been sexually active with one person. Reading between the lines yer man was closeted and in denial and took it out of Colin. There was no affection, come to think of it i dont think they ever kissed on screen?!

No just a forceful blowie and sex while he was calling him a dirty faggot broke my heart as you could tell Colin wanted to have sex with him by the way he was checking when the parents would be out but it hurts my heart that the football shirt guy was his only experience which didn’t really reflect how sex should be! Poor Colin

He came back to London after the solicitor got involved. I'd imagine all aids patients were kept pretty contained in certain hospitals

Aaah this makes sense

 

[StrattyNeet]

They were frightening times. A lot of misinformation fear and ignorance. The medical community didn’t understand the disease. So were unable to give advice.
An already stigmatised group were being judged and punished for having sex. Men were outed as they became ill. Families friends and lovers tried to navigate the loss of loved ones with little support. They were dark times. But it was the orgaanisation within the community , political agitation and ultimately medical breakthroughs that helped people to live with the disease and lift the stigma.
We have to know our history to understand our present

 

[Cocobaby09]

When Gloria died and his family were burning his things in the garden, were they burning everything, even the pictures of him as a small child to wipe away the memory of him?

That broke me

I was 12 when I first became aware of HIV/AIDS, when Rock Hudson died. There had been an uproar because he had an onscreen kiss with Linda Evans in Dynasty and she had to get a test if memory serves. So little was known about it. A strong memory I have was the Sun running a headline "GAY PLAGUE"

I think Colin's death affected me most, he was such a lovely character and when he said to his mum (she was a wee diamond) that he was dirty I was sobbing

 

[DCICassieStuart]

Same here. I came on this thread the first week, but had to go off again because I was watching in real time and had already seen one spoiler.
Colin's death was the one that had me in tears too, and his lovely Mum

Such a fantastic programme.

 

[Baabaablacksheep]

I though it was an absolute Masterpiece; I don’t think it will ever leave me. My children are only little but I will watch it with them when they are old enough.

The actress who played Jill mentioned on Instagram that she spent hours looking through The AIDS Memorial Instagram Page. My god it breaks your heart xx

 

[Badabing101]

I watched the whole series last weekend and have been thinking about it ever since, like everyone on this thread. I don’t really have anything to add that hasn’t already been said and I’m definitely going to watch again. I was around 7 at the time of the tombstone adverts and can remember vividly the doom and scaremongering - it terrified me and definitely affected my anxiety around health as I went into my teens and twenties. There was so much stigma and shame surrounding AIDS & HIV and I remember when I got my first mortgage at 24 being asked if I had ever had an HIV test as it would go against you ... as far as I’m aware that doesn’t happen now? I’ve had a fair few HIV tests as I’ve had babies and donated breast milk so they test you then.
It was just horrific what happened to so many of these young men and this programme will stay with me forever, heartbreaking. It’s made me more determined to call out discrimination of any form.

The acting and writing is superb, all the performances are fantastic. A special shout out to Keeley Hawes, she’s such a great actor. The hospital scene where she’s pacing up and down and getting her head around it (or not) - as a mother I think she felt hugely guilty for not being there for Ritchie... she knew something was going on and there was this wedge between them, but she didn’t have the courage or sensitivity to reach him. She always held back, which makes it fitting the way it ended with Jill I think... she realised too late that she didn’t know her son at all. Devastating, but very human I think... La x

 

[Shutterbug99]

Not sure if this was mentioned as I've not RTFT, the actor who played Ritchie's BF Donald is actually HIV positive IRL.

I read his story after you posted this here. He contracted HIV the very first time he had sex, aged sixteen.

‘I’ve vowed to keep on telling my story’ – Nathaniel Hall on First Time and tackling HIV stigma

In Nathaniel Hall’s hilarious and heartbreaking solo show First Time – a hit at Edinburgh Fringe 2019 and on its UK tour, and now available in print – the theatre-maker and activist draw…

nickhernbooksblog.com

 

[~vix~83~]

There are so mañy TV dramas on nowadays that I can't be bothered to watch beyond the first episode as they don't grip but this is different I will watch all of it. The little Welsh guy is so sweet in his suit and I really liked Mr Coltrane a kind and very funny man.

Collin is so sweet, just gets on with everything, his like a little fish in the big sea. Wales to London is a big change

 

[Girlinabubble]

You should totally go to Pride! You have every reason to go, it’s such a fun, amazing, important time. My little middle England town held its first Pride in 2019. I’m a straight woman with kids. I’ve no idea what their future holds, but Pride shows them that they can be free to love whoever they choose.

Absolutely - we go to the London Pride and it’s a wonderful, uplifting fun day. We are so grateful that our son is able to live openly as a gay man. I was once privileged to nurse an elderly gay man as he died and during a quiet night shift he told me about his life - he was an active campaigner when it was a prisonable offence to be gay and did serve time in prison. I was able to thank him because it’s due to his courage that my son can live the life he does! I’m proud of how much British society has changed in my lifetime.

 

[Molsdol]

I've binged. It was really good. Episode 3 4 and 5 made me sob. I was a teen in the 80s. Some nostalgia with the music and club scene but tg we are in more equal times.

 

[Twopenniesworth]

Yea but did Mrs Thatcher drink any of Roscoe's special tea though, or did Stephen Fry get there in time to stop her

As well as the ambiguity over whether Colin consented to his encounters with the guy in the house he was lodging in (to me it looked like he maybe didn't fully consent, but was lost in the naivety of moving away from home etc to know what to do so he went along with it), I thought that moment with Stephen Fry saying he wasn't gay but every so often needed to be down in the dirt in order to lift his head up or however exactly he charmingly put it - was thought provoking as well.

Also not sure if I missed something, after all every little tiny detail in this seemed to mean something, such as the tailor's shop boss being caught cottaging - but how/why did Colin's landlady turn up at the hospital?

Her son was also ill - she was seen saying ‘he’s not one of them’ or something to that effect so he had aids too and was dying the same time as Colin

 

[~vix~83~]

My Facebook memory today is it’s a sin based, it was Collins episode
Then today I was out early n this young guy was opening a shop up, made me feel think of Collin and his keys

 

[Twopenniesworth]

I’ve watched this twice now, Gloria’s episode haunted me, especially at the end, burning every last memory of him, even his baby photos. The relationship between Ritchie and his sister was interesting as well, was that her crying with his friends in the B and B at the very end?

Every episode devastated me, made me feel empty and a little bit lost. I could never ever treat someone badly like that. If anyone here ever needs a Jill, I will be your Jill. No judgements, just hugs and a whole lot of love.

Yeah it was the sister. I think it was highlighting how loveless their family home was and she was getting support and comfort from Ritchies friends. I may be wrong but that’s how I took it.

 

[ChampagneBox]

I’ve recorded it to watch over the weekend! I have a question though, I wasn’t born then but I’m just wondering...the fear around AIDS, was it something that everyone was scared of in the beginning? Like I know there was mass panic to begin with, was the fear felt by people comparable to the fear felt in this pandemic or not? Hopefully this doesn’t come across as ignorant, I’m genuinely curious