It’s A Sin, the searing new AIDS crisis series from A Very English Scandal writer Russell T Davies, has premiered in stellar fashion for UK broadcaster Channel 4 ahead of the show’s launch on HBO Max next month.
Set in 1980s London, the five-part drama follows a group of young friends as they embrace the capital’s gay scene and tragically confront the terror of AIDS. The cast is led by Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander and features cameos from Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry.
Channel 4 premiered It’s A Sin to an audience of 1.9 million viewers last Friday, making it the broadcaster’s top-rated drama launch since David Tennant-starrer Deadwater Fell last January. It was also Channel 4’s best-performing drama among young people (those aged 16-34) in three years.
Catch-up viewing has already lifted It’s A Sin’s total audience to 2.5M in the past three days, while the series is also going down a storm on Channel 4’s streaming service All 4, where every episode is available to binge. Although the company is keeping actual figures close to its chest, Deadline understands that it is on track to become All 4’s biggest ever drama launch and contributed to a record weekend for the streamer.
Couple this performance with several five-star reviews (in The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and gay magazine Attitude to name a few), and you have a bonafide hit on your hands. This all bodes well for HBO Max, which co-produced with Channel 4 and will premiere the entire series on February 18.
It’s A Sin was produced by Studiocanal-owned Red Production Company and is distributed by All3Media International. Omari Douglas, Nathaniel Curtis, Callum Scott Howells, and Lydia West feature alongside Alexander as occupants of the ‘Pink Palace,’ the London flat around which much of the drama centers.