“I just wanted to move on. I didn’t want to wallow.”
When It’s A Sin burst onto screens in 2021, everyone was left in floods as the limited series told the story of five friends who have their lives tested as they grow up in the shadow of AIDS.
The series was met with critical acclaim, with many applauding Olly Alexander, Nathaniel Curtis, Omari Douglas, Lydia West and Callum Scott Howells for their deeply moving portrayals of their respective characters.
Since then, there has been talk of a musical version – but creator Russell T Davies isn’t sure that will come to fruition any time soon.
Speaking at the BAFTA: A Life in Pictures event, the Doctor Who showrunner revealed that plenty of industry names had approaching him about turning It’s A Sin into a musical, but he was hesitant to do it because he didn’t want to profit “off something that’s very dark”.
He said: “A lot of people came to me after that, saying, ‘make a musical’ and I just wanted to move on. I didn’t want to wallow. It was very strange, with its success – it was very hard to celebrate, because it was this enormous success and yet such a tragic true story.
“A lot of good names, posh names, said to me, ‘Do a musical’ and I just didn’t want to stay there. I thought ‘I’ve done it’, and I felt like I’d be treading water or trying to repeat a success or almost profiting off something that’s very dark…”
Read more:
- Russell T Davies explains why he almost cut ‘La!’ from the It’s A Sin script
- Russell T Davies reveals It’s A Sin script detail that couldn’t be shown on screen
However, Davies did note he “might go back to it one day”.
Davies is currently at the helm of Doctor Who season 14, in which Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson lead the series as the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday.
The new season is set to come to an end this weekend with the episode Empire of Death, in which the Doctor’s “ageless enemy” will reign supreme, and only one woman can stop him…
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