OHMYGOSSIP — Russell T Davies dreaded getting ‘It’s A Sin’ wrong.
The 58-year-old screenwriter created the acclaimed TV drama series – which focuses on a group of gay men during the HIV crisis in the UK – and admitted he would have been “mortified” if he “upset” people with the “wrong tone” for the sensitive story.
Speaking to Radio Times magazine, he said: “It had been looming in my head for years, almost with a sense of dread.
“Because if I got it wrong, I would have gone to the grave mortified. It doesn’t matter if I get ‘Doctor Who’ wrong. It doesn’t matter if I get ‘Years and Years’ wrong. it doesn’t matter if I get ‘Jeremy Thorpe’ wrong. Who cares? Move on, next drama. If I’d got this wrong – and by wrong I mean if I’d upset people, or just struck the wrong tone, or let down the people we’d lost – that would have been an awful thing. It’s very unusual to approach a project with that heaviness, that sense of dread.”
The 2021 show – which won Best New Drama at the National Television Awards – was rejected by rival broadcasters BBC and ITV, and became the most-watched show on Channel 4, which Russell admits was “thrilling” because it hadn’t been expected.
He added: “The night before transmission, Alex Mahon – who’s the head of Channel 4 – sent me a lovely e-mail saying, ‘It doesn’t matter how many viewers we get tomorrow, we’re really proud of it,’ which was like a kiss of death. I thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re actually expecting zero viewers, right at the very top.’ so the fact that those numbers were so high was thrilling.
“I mean, you only do these things for viewers, you’re just lying if you say you don’t. You do them so that millions of people will come and watch. I mean ‘Cucumber’ [Davies’ 2015 Channel 4 drama exploring 21st century gay life] was getting audiences of about 1 million. Some episodes got less. So I was kind of resigned to that in my head.”
Olly Alexander – who played a leading role in the critically-acclaimed show – described making ‘It’s a Sin’ as “one of the greatest experiences” of his life.
The Years Years star – who plays Ritchie Tozer in the series – said recently: “It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It’s created a conversation that I’m amazed to be a part of. A global conversation.”
Source: VacationHunter.Online