It’s a Sin takes drama back to the shadow of AIDS in the 1980s

Best on the Box highlight for January 22.

You may have been mistaken for thinking we were back in the 1980s today as Channel 4 took its look back to the decade of colour blocks, Brookside and an older looking Carol Vorderman than the 2021 version.

It’s all been part of the run-up to tonight’s drama from Russell T Davies about five friends living and loving in the shadow of AIDS.

It’s a Sin begins in September 1981, and Soft Cell is Number One. Eighteen-year-old Ritchie Tozer (Olly Alexander) is leaving the Isle of Wight to go to university.

In London, Roscoe Babatunde (Omari Douglas) walks out of home after his parents make a shocking discovery. And Colin Morris-Jones (Callum Scott Howells) arrives from Wales, to start a new career on Savile Row.

The three boys meet, and life will never be the same again. As the year unfolds, the boys – along with fellow student Ash (Nathaniel Curtis) and their best friend Jill (Lydia West) – form a gang and move into a flat, christened the Pink Palace.

And there, they start to become who they truly are. But a distant threat on the horizon means that life in the 80s might be all too precious.

The whole series will be available to stream or download for free on All 4 following the transmission of the first episode.

It’s A Sin, Channel 4, 9pm