It’s A Sin creator Russell T Davies reveals tragic plots for characters Jill and Roscoe that were scrapped from the show
Russell T Davies has revealed the plots he had planned for characters Jill Baxter and Roscoe Babatunde in It’s A Sin, which were later scrapped.
Speaking at Damian Barr’s Literary Salon event earlier this month, the writer, 57, shared how he had planned to have a flashforward in one episode, which showed the two characters in their fifties.
Of Jill (played by Lydia West), he began: ‘She’s still working in mental and sexual health. It’s too long a story to describe, but you get the feeling that she’s trapped in that world, actually.’
More in store: It’s A Sin creator Russell T Davies revealed earlier this month the tragic plots for characters Jill Baxter (L) and Roscoe Babatunde (R) that were scrapped from the show
The episode would have seen Jill return to Ritchie Tozer’s (Olly Alexander) home in the Isle of Wight for the first time since his tragic death, and she would then find and reconnect with his mother Valerie (Keeley Hawes) and sister Lucy.
Davies explained Jill would have discovered Valerie was now in a care home and go there to meet her, and the matriarch would discuss the ‘sexual abuse at the heart of the Tozer household.’
He also explained that Roscoe (Omari Douglas), who did not catch HIV during the AIDs crisis, would instead have contracted it in his middle age.
In a cut storyline, he and Jill were meant to reunite where he’d inform her of his diagnosis, and Davies said: ‘You know, 50 years old and he’s got the virus having escaped it all those years.’
One to watch: It’s A Sin follows a group of friends throughout the eighties as their life of hedonistic partying is infiltrated by the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
Future self: Of Jill (Lydia West), he began: ‘She’s still working in mental and sexual health. It’s too long a story to describe, but you get the feeling that she’s trapped in that world, actually’
It’s A Sin follows a group of friends throughout the eighties as their life of hedonistic partying is infiltrated by the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Olly plays Ritchie, an 18-year-old hailing from an ignorant, unloving household on the Isle of Wight who throws himself headfirst into London life, soon befriending Jill and three others and renting their flat, lovingly dubbed The Pink Palace.
Davies, the writer and producer behind Queer As Folk, the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and Cucumber, loosely based It’s A Sin on his own experiences in the eighties.
Moving: The episode would have also seen Jill return to Ritchie Tozer’s (Olly Alexander) home in the Isle of Wight for the first time since his death, and meet with his mother and sister again
Davies also spent hours in conversation with his childhood friend Jill Nalder, an actor, ally and activist who lived in London during the decade, who Lydia’s character is based on in the drama.
The real-life Jill also appears, playing Lydia’s mother in episodes four and five.
The cast of young talent is supported by a string of veteran screen stars, including Keeley and Shaun Dooley as Ritchie’s parents, Stephen Fry as an MP lover of outrageous flatmate Roscoe, and Neil Patrick Harris as a mentor to another, the quietly observant Colin.
Story: Russell also explained that Roscoe (Omari Douglas, right), who did not catch HIV during the AIDs crisis, would instead have contracted it in his middle age