It's a Sin · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 22 January 2021
S1E1 Episode 1
THE MOMENT Ritchie's first nights in London - the pure, uncomplicated joy of arrival before the decade begins to darken.
Three young men arrive in London from different corners of Britain, full of appetite for the life they have been denied at home. Davies establishes the warmth and freedom of the found family with such precision that when the series begins its long turn toward loss, the audience has already been fully implicated.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
It's a Sin Episode 1 aired January 22, 2021 on Channel 4 and became the most-watched programme on All 4's streaming service at that point. Russell T Davies opens the series in 1981 - three young men arriving in London from different corners of Britain, full of appetite for the freedom the city represents. The premiere establishes the warmth of the found family with such precision and density that its later function as the emotional baseline for grief is fully loaded from the first episode. Den of Geek called the series 'a joyful tribute to lost lives that delivers a seething verdict on ignorance and cruelty' - and the premiere is the episode that builds the joy, the foundation the subsequent cruelty is measured against. Olly Alexander's Ritchie in his first London nights is the image the series returns to repeatedly as the decade darkens.