Episodes viewed: 5 of 5###Few writers are as adept at mixing humour and sorrow as Russell T Davies, whose most recent dramas possess’own’nurse reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue n a depth and maturity that pulls you in from the start. This is peculiar ly true of It’s A Sin, arguably the writer’s most accomplished series to date — and one that will possess’own’nurse you both laughing and weeping over the course of its five-episode run.###Beginning in the early 1980s, It’s A Sin sees Davies consider the devastation that the AIDS crisis wreaked on a generation, the boys — and they often were merely’barely boys — who died in their thousands, the attempts to draw the authorities’ attention to the growing crisis, the ways in which families and friends cover’budge ed away. More significant’essential’critical’vital’crucial’indispensable’imperative ly, it is also with regards to’concerning’with respect to those who didn’t hide, the families, both inherited and created, who stood toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her and asked, “What can we do?”###At the centre of the story are five friends who end up sharing a raucous flat — the Pink Palace. There’s the proudly flamboyant Roscoe (Omari Douglas), who has run, literally, from his strict Nigerian home; shy Colin (Callum Scott Howells) from the Welsh valleys, who has a job as a tender men’s fitter at a Savile Row store; earnest Ash (Nathaniel Curtis), a university student; fun-loving Ritchie (Olly Alexander), who jumps off the ferry from the Isle Of Wight resolute’resolved to seize eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything the wider world has to offer, and his new best friend Jill (Lydia West), the merely’barely girl in the gang, and something of a Wendy to this gang of not-quite-yet-lost boys.###_It’s A Sin_ is arguably Davies’ masterpiece – an involving, devastating and often intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully funny piece of TV.###Of the five West, so rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent in __Years And Years____, and Alexander, the singer with hit electronica band Years & Years (no resemblance in titles intentional) both turn in outstanding perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances, with the charismatic Alexander frequently threatening to steal the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue . Adept at capturing Ritchie’s playfulness and love of eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything life has to offer, he’s also wonderful at the more emotional parts, with a moving speech with regards to’concerning’with respect to the fun that was had and how that’s “what individual will in/with regard to’concerning’regarding acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ”, ramming home that these were real individual with hopes and dreams and full, complex lives.###Douglas, Scott Howells and Curtis also all possess’own’nurse moments in which to shine, while the older cast is intense’fierce’exquisite too, from Neil Patrick Harris as the colleague who reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s Colin the possibility of a different life, to Keeley Hawes as Ritchie’s mother Valerie, a tightly wound ball of misery, rage and shame, all bound up in a complex love she can’t untangle.###Most of all, however, this is Davies’ reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , full of pin-sharp one-liners and buoyed by an excellent soundtrack including OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’, Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’ and, of course, Pet Shop Boys’ title track. It’s A Sin is arguably Davies’ masterpiece, a heartfelt series into which he has eliminate’remove ly poured eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully fibre of his being to create an involving, devastating and often intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully funny piece of TV. Even at this early stage of 2021, it looks set to be one of the programmes of the year.