Okay I finished this already. Couldn't really stop once I started and jfc what a series.

Still a bit sad after that ending but I felt that Colin/Gladys' death was so f**king sad and honestly quite shocking. When they revealed the affair he'd been having with his rent-in family's son I wasn't exactly shocked but still didn't expect this to go down this way. We're led to believe he's still a virgin and then BAM the show goes "f**k you and your feelings we're gonna kill off this sweet boy with this merciless disease". Seriously this is such a heartbreaking but amazing series, well produced and so important too because this time was such a hard time for our community and it's not as long ago as people think. There's also a lot of similarities with how Ritchie treats the disease with how some people treat Covid-19 which I felt was interesting to watch.

10/10.

I think I felt every possible emotion during that first episode. It's a 10/10 for me.

I intended to watch one a week but ended up binge watching the whole series yesterday, once I started I couldn't stop. Absolutely brilliant I laughed, gasped and sobbed throughout it. Hope it get's the recognition it deserves it's entertaining but also gritty as hell. 10/10

Just watched all 5 episodes. #no_spoilers

I will be watching it again. Very soon.

Episode 3 had me in floods. Such a beautiful, powerful and amazing show but wow, it's really hit me hard.

Episode 3 had me in floods. Such a beautiful, powerful and amazing show but wow, it's really hit me hard.

 

Me too, it’s so powerful, I almost don’t want to watch the final episode as I don’t want to put myself through it. :cry:

 

It’s done an amazing job to showcase life then in just 5 episodes, it must have been terrifying.

I watched it all and it was stunning, so powerful and some incredible acting. Jill was played to perfection, especially that last scene with the Mother. I had chills.

Echoing others, this is so powerful, heart-wrenching and beautiful. I finished it all last night and I can't stop thinking about it... it's a masterpiece. From episode 3 onwards I cried so much.

 

The scene Jack mentions in particular was incredibly well written and acted... what Jill said was completely true. I really hope Lydia West wins awards because her delivery in that scene was perfection, and it's certainly one of the most moving scenes I've ever watched on TV.

 

As a gay person it obviously hits close to home, to be reminded that LGBTQ+ people went through something so horrifying, not all that long ago... so many lives cut short, and how they also had to contend with added ignorance and inhumane indignity, including from their own families. Horrendous :(

in that last scene with jill + the mother when she said what she said + it went silent.. i thought i was going to pass out. the emotion.. whew. that scene + episode 3 really were the toughest watches for me.

 

such a hard-hitting drama, a very tough watch but acted so beautifully + made us fall in love with these characters. colin in particular (+ his mum :wub:) was a highlight for me. he was so lovely + i just wanted to cuddle him.

I watched the first 3 episodes yesterday, hoping to finish it this evening but episode 3 was a gut punch. Much as I knew it would happen, it was just really well acted and written.

I finished this last night and I gotta say it's incredible, possibly the best LGBT+ show I've ever seen (besides 'Pose').

 

 

i really like the build up to the virus and the time jumps (though I do think its probably slightly unlikely they would all live together in the same flat for x y z amount of years in London but I suppose it was their safe space). I thought the families were a really interesting point. The Scottish ones who completely erradicated his memory, the sadness that still to this day the character of 'Jill' would never know if he died or not... Colin's story was perhaps the saddest and his mother reminds me very much of my own with her handling of the situation and then of course Ritchie's... I was having a conversation about Ritchie's mother on Twitter as someone said she was a terrible mother and I debate this... she wasn't the open arms character you'd want but she cared so much for her son... she reacted in a way a mother, I think, would... denial... she wanted to nurse him back to health herself, treating him like a child.. that denial did eventually kill him but the undertone is she tried to do what she could under the circumstances of not really understanding her son. I didn't really like Ritchie's behaviour with the straight bar man, but I wasn't sure if that was his symptoms coming through (alike Colin) when they weren't aware of crossing the boundary? Though he seemed to snap out of it quite quickly... I think the narrative of shame in the show was so interesting... Colin, who evidentally didn't experience shame from his mother, only seemed to intercourse with the one guy and when the virus hit, he seemed to stop (the constant jokes about him never having sex etc.). I found that scene of Colin in his room so harrowing.

 

Jill was obviously the highlight of the show and I found it incredibly fascinating that we never saw a love interest for her... she seemed to spend her time educating herself and helping others in the community. A real rock. To think she was based off a real person is also so fantastic.

 

I love the way Jill wasn't the expectedly "fierce" female best friend; the bitchy type. She was multidimensional

I totally echo episode 3 was heart wrenching, episode 5 too of course but there was something especially heartbreaking about episode 3. Jill was amazing but Collin/Gladys was my favourite character such a beautiful soul. I keep thinking about the show and it makes me think how horrendous gay people were treated in my own lifetime. I had a hideous time of it at school but at least I didn’t see the general hate from gay people, it still totally confounds me the ignorance!

Watched this all in one go, I was planning to spread it out a bit more but just had to get through it all, I knew from a little way into the first episode that would be the case! Episodes 3 and 5 were absolute gut punches, but there was so much nuance throughout, it wasn't just depressing doom and gloom. There was always enough comedy, light-heartedness and a rollercoaster of emotions so that you felt so much in a small space of time, but that didn't take away from the gritty, emotionally driven heart.

 

That last scene with Jill and the mother I agree was just incredible, Lydia West deserves every award she's eligible for for that alone to be honest. So powerfully delivered, so needed. It tied everything together perfectly as a snapshot of how it must have felt to be a gay man in that era, the sum of all that stigma, hate and shame from the people who should show you the most love. As much as this was a gay drama, and that was really needed, I think Jill was the heart of it for me and it's really important to show, even in the context of today, that while the community has each other, the power of dedicated allies is so so strong, and unwavering kindness can go such a long way.

 

Colin was my other highlight, what a sweet and precious soul :wub: Wonderful performances all around but Callum Scott Howells really brought that innocent boy experiencing the big wide world for the first time to life.

 

I'd put this up there with Pose too as absolute essential LGBTQ+ viewing done perfectly.

We've just finished this. Well I say just, actually about 45 minutes ago but we had to sit and hug each other for a while after.

 

It was really harrowing at times, I'm not quite old enough to remember all of it from the time as I was blissfully unaware as a primary school kid in the 80s. I've been really shocked at several parts

particularly when the Scottish family burned all of his possessions after he died and the way Colin's mum couldn't find anyone who would hold his funeral :(

- those sort of little details around how awfully everyone was treated made it hit harder for me.

 

I was doing some research around the stories at the time after watching the first couple of parts yesterday and there were some truly horrendous headlines around - I had no idea just how heavily the message that it was a disease sent by God to kill the gays like one of the plagues in the bible. I also saw a tweet about a joke that the Sun published at the time, which essentially said something along the lines of... "a gay man went home to tell his parents, he sat them down and told them he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that he is gay, the good news is that he had AIDS" - it makes me shudder to my core to think I was alive during a period where that sort of thing was deemed acceptable in the national news.

 

Oh and, of course,

COLIN :cry:

 

Watched episode one tonight and it’s really excellent with some great actors but the focus is on the up and coming ones which is great.

 

Agree the music is unreal - a shout out for some not mentioned tunes from episode one - Kelly Marie ‘Feels Like I’m In Love’, Blondie ‘Call Me’ & the best of the lot (for me) The Teardrop Explodes ‘Reward’!

I refuse to join the binge watching craze (I genuinely miss the days of not being given everything all at once!) this time so I'm just watching it on C4 every Friday. I know it's only January but I know now it'll end up as one of the TV highlights of 2021.

It will remain a tv highlight for the rest of the decade.

I’ve just finished this and am in absolute pieces. It was so well written and I was not bored at a single moment. Lydia West was outstanding in this series and I hope that this acts as a stepping stool for her future.

 

I was in bits at the end of episode 3. He was my favourite character and it’s really stuck with me. The final scene with them all taking the pictures in the park was won heartbreaking when you realise that half of them have died.

 

Olly Alexander was brilliant Ik. Actually, they picked a fabulous cast. I do wish that we got a bit more background on Ash at the start.

I was reading that the actor who played Ritchie's boyfriend (the competing actor one) actually is HIV positive and that he caught it after his first experiment with a guy in his teens :(