Russell T. Davies returns to roots with series It’s a Sin

Award winning tv show creator Russell T. Davies is back with a new limited series this time following a group of gay men who move to London in 1981. The five-episode series premieres in the UK on January 22 and will feature a stellar cast including Years & Years singer Olly Alexander, Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Fry, Keeley Hawkes and Lydia West (who was previously in Davies’ recent future themed series, Years and Years).

Davies has been working on the series since 2015, wanting to capture the 1980s gay London he and his friends knew so well. It was a time of Margret Thatcher ruling the country with an iron fist, a time of great British music and clubbing, a period of growing freedom for the queer community in London, and sadly the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the UK.

The show begins in September 1981 in a London flat where five friends have come together. Olly plays Ritchie, wants to be an actor, along with his friend Jill, but Ritchie has not come out to his family (with parents played by Keeley Hawkes and Shaun Dooley). Colin (played by Callum Scott Howells) is a sales assistant at a Saville Row tailor where he makes friends with Henry Coltrane (Neil Patrick Harris). And Roscoe (Omari Douglas) has run away, fearing his father will send him back to Nigeria.

In a style Davies has used before, most recently with Years and Years (no relation to Olly’s band), the five episode series takes the viewer from 1981 to 1991, and a changing Britain. Knowing Davies’ powerful writing style, and willingness to kill off beloved characters in past series (Cucumber), you can expect to immediately fall in love with the characters and have a lot of emotions stirred up later (keep tissues ready).

It’s a Sin premieres in the UK on Channel 4, and their on demand platform. It is expected in US later this year on HBO.