Interview: Russell T. Davies And Olly Alexander Of 'It's A Sin' - NPR

Olly Alexander as Ritchie Tozer in It's a Sin.

Olly Alexander as Ritchie Tozer in It's a Sin.

Sporting a smile that lights up the overcast sky, It's a Sin's Ritchie Tozer can barely contain his excitement.

Ritchie, played by Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander, isn't elated just because he's leaving for college.

Because of years of discrimination, shame and death, the Ritchie Tozers of the world — almost 40 years on — are largely unknown to young queer people today.

"I was the same age as the lead characters," Davies says.

The 57-year-old Welsh creator of 1999's Queer as Folk and former showrunner of 2005's Doctor Who reboot says he doesn't remember exactly when he first heard rumors of the virus we now know to be HIV, but it didn't take long for the Oxford student to realize that virus, and the disease it caused, would change his life forever.

"When I came to write this, I drew from my friends, as then the rumors of this virus became closer, as it became real, as people started falling ill, then, the partying didn't stop, but it became much deeper and richer as lives were at stake.

When I came to write this, I drew from my friends, as then the rumors of this virus became closer, as it became real, as people started falling ill, then, the partying didn't stop, but it became much deeper and richer as lives were at stake.

Olly Alexander, who's 30, has been open about being a victim of anti-gay bullying growing up, says his school experience was definitely influenced by that backlash.

The character of Ritchie Tozer is similar to Alexander, in that both moved to London at a young age with dreams of stardom — but unlike Alexander, Ritchie is brash and overconfident, and that overconfidence leads him down the path of AIDS denialism.

Though Ritchie might be the fiercest denialist in the series, it's clear that at least at the outset, most of It's a Sin's gay characters can't be bothered to stop the party.

Jill is a straight woman living in the Pink Palace with her gay friends, and though we don't learn much about her personal story, she does a lot of the show's emotional labor — whether it's phonebanking, protest organizing or holding the hands of the abandoned and dying — and she does it all with little recognition.

Back then people started falling ill, either they didn't know why or if they did know why it was considered to be shameful," Davies remembers.

Davies says he had friends whose fates still remain a mystery to him

My friend Eddy, I don't know where Eddy is, I don't know if he died, and it's very interesting that I've never gone to look him up because part of me doesn't want to know," he says

It's clear how Davies feels about that time of his life and his friends from back then, and after watching It's a Sin it's hard not to come away feeling just as connected to his characters

Olly Alexander says his generation owes "everything really" to Davies's, and It's a Sin helps crystalize that