a Sin arrived complete with ready-made culture row, creator Russell T Davies having done a little stoking by saying heâd like gay men to be played by gay actors. Cue huffing in predictable quarters, chiefly along these lines: would Hannibal Lecter need to then be played by a convicted cannibal? An argument I normally like to consign to the category âtechnically valid, but you might want to grow up a bit and have a wee word with yourselvesâ. And to let this particular tower of babble overshadow any of the subsequent creation would indeed be a sin.
It is, on the evidence of the first episode (of five), mainly a joyous, gleeful, rambunctious watch, shot through with historical experience and period perfection, even if Manchesterâs Clampdown Records is, last time I looked, rather far from Savile Row. So Ritchie, Roscoe, Welsh Colin and Glaswegian Gloria, all, to a greater or far lesser extent, flamboyant and fleeing homes mired in stultifying early 80s orthodoxy and shame, congregate in a generally happy, wild London flat and generally wild, happy London pubs on the cusp of love in the time of Aids.