Olly Alexander: 'Its a Sin' is a really important part of our queer history

It`s A Sin cast

The globally acclaimed series is available for streaming from today, 4th February onwards. Its a Sin is set in the early '80s and '90s centers around the HIV crisis that happened in the United Kingdom. The 5 episodic series tells the tale of five gay friends whose lives intersect in a flat and how they form a friendship group in the rapidly spreading aids crisis. The series explores themes like freedom & expressing oneself freely without any hesitation. The internationally acclaimed series has been It's a Sin features Olly Alexander, Nathaniel Curtis, Shaun Dooley in lead roles and is helmed by Peter Hoar.

Here are the excerpts from an interview with Olly Alexander, who plays Ritchie Tozer in 'Its a Sin'

Tell us a little about your character, Ritchie

Richie is born and raised on the Isle of Wight. He's one of those kids who wants to get out of his small town and escape to London as soon as he can. He's very ambitious, likes to be the centre of attention and the life of the party.

It's been a while since you last acted, what was it about It's A Sin that drew you back to acting?

Hearing that Russell was making something new, was enough for me to want to be involved. Russell's such an iconic voice in British storytelling and especially queer storytelling, and I would have done anything to work with him. And that was before I'd even read the script. Once I read the script I was like, "oh, holy shit, this is amazing". And then when I read Ritchie, I just really fell in love with him, and how complicated he is, and how moving the story was. I thought, "Wow, I would be so so so lucky to get a chance to be a part of this".

The drama is set almost 40 years ago - what do you think young people today might be able to take from It's A Sin?

At its heart, the story is so universal. Anyone that's ever experienced growing up or falling in love, having their heartbroken, can empathize with what all these characters go through. Also, I personally have realized how many people are unaware of this specific moment of history and how people were treated, the lives that were impacted, and how those lives were impacted. I think it's going to be quite eye-opening for a lot of people. Just speaking as a gay man, it's a really important part of our queer history, and we share it. And I think it's really helpful to understand some of the ways in which homophobia has persisted and the ways in which the AIDS crisis really, really impacted such a huge community. And in many ways, the legacy still remains today, and I think it helps shed some light on a really complicated issue that doesn't get spoken about very much. And it does that by telling a really moving and beautiful story about real people that I think anyone can relate to.