Why HIV as it’s shown in Tip Toe should be your view of HIV today

Five years ago, I wrote something for Big Issue that kind of popped off: Don’t let the AIDS of It’s a Sin be your view of HIV today.

My friends read it without me sending it to them. It’s a Sin’s lead actor, Olly Alexander, shared it on Instagram as ‘an important read’. It even made it onto my sister’s radar a couple of days after giving birth.

Now I’m back again because the far-more-talented-writer-than-me, Russell T Davies, is also back. This time with five-part thriller Tip Toe – set in present-day Manchester and focusing on two feuding neighbours.

Read more:

• Tip Toe creator Russell T Davies: ‘The search for equality has no endgame’
• Russell T Davies on Nolly, It’s a Sin and bringing Kate Winslet back for Dark Season reunion
• From Queer as Folk to Doctor Who: How Russell T Davies gave voice to a generation of queer people

This time around my advice is completely different: please do let the HIV shown in Tip Toe be your view of HIV today.

Because, in Tip Toe, we see Alan Cumming’s character Leo living well with HIV more than 30 years after his diagnosis. He takes just one pill a day. This protects his immune system from damage and means he can’t pass HIV on to his sexual partners, even without a condom.

That certainly wasn’t the case in It’s a Sin.

Because It’s a Sin beautifully depicted the lives of a group of gay men and their friends before and then during the AIDS crisis. The fun and hedonism of the early 1980s, and then the slow creep of fear and death.

But the credits rolled for the final time before any good news came. When a HIV diagnosis was still a terminal one. Before any treatments were available to save lives.

Which is why I came to be writing for Big Issue on a Saturday morning in the Omicron phase of Covid lockdown. I work at Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV charity, and we were worried that It’s a Sin was going to further entrench outdated views about HIV and undo all of the progress that had been made.  

We mobilised before episode one aired to write comment pieces in the media. We did a Twitter thread about all the progress made since the 1980s. We pestered Channel 4. We emailed the production team. Annoyed the PR people.  

But we needn’t have worried. Especially as It’s a Sin coincidentally aired during that year’s National HIV Testing Week when we focus on how quick and easy it is to get tested and know your status.

We had a record-breaking first day with 8,207 people ordering a free HIV test – eclipsing our previous best of 2,709. It was bolstered by a video message from Olly Alexander, which he shared across his socials.

The show also led to a sharp increase in HIV-related Google searches, with viewers hungry for more information about HIV today. Following the first episode, there was a 3,100% jump in searches for ‘Why was AIDS so deadly in the 80s?’ and a 2,150% rise for ‘Can women get AIDS?’.

While Terrence Higgins Trust’s helpline THT Direct also saw a 30% increase in calls the day after the first episode of It’s a Sin aired. Not to mention the generosity of so many who gave their hard-earned cash to support people living with and affected by HIV, including through buying It’s a Sin themed T-shirts, hoodies, jewellery and prints.

Oh, and It’s a Sin became Channel 4’s most watched drama ever.

And – completely contrary to what we feared – it engaged and reengaged millions in our fight against HIV. It showed the younger generation how lucky they are to live at a time when there are highly effective ways to prevent, test for and treat HIV.

That their friends and lovers aren’t getting ill and dying. That HIV isn’t an historic issue. That we truly can end new HIV cases in the UK by 2030. That we all have a part to play in tackling the abhorrent stigma still surrounding the virus.

Davies has described Tip Toe as a natural legacy of It’s a Sin, saying: “There wasn’t the time in [It’s a Sin] to show the long-term story, that medications were found which saved so many lives. So this feels like a right and proper continuation.”

Adding he’s often been asked to “show modern day characters who are HIV+ and living straightforward, happy lives, so it’s an honour to do so in Tip Toe”.

So here’s to people living with HIV leading straightforward, happy lives – until they start feuding with their neighbour, that is.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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