The real-life Jill from It’s A Sin shares her emotional story
"I lost three of my best friends in 18 months"
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Channel 4
The woman who inspired the angelic Jill character in hit series It’s A Sin has shared her memories of the onslaught of the HIV/Aids crisis in the 80s.
Jill Nalder [below centre], a friend of the show’s writer Russell T Davies, is played by actress Lydia Bright [below left] on the show.
In a nice bit of synchronicity, Nalder plays the role of Jill’s mother, while Steve Toussaint [below, right] plays Jill’s sad.
“I became like a dictionary of Aids-related infections”
Speaking in a new interview with the BBC, Jill said: “Boys would go home and sort of disappear. I lost three of my best friends in 18 months. Nobody really knew anything but we heard it was killing young, fit, healthy gay men. Then it started to creep into our lives. The first one I remember was someone I knew in college.”
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Jill’s character has become a fan favourite on the show, as she is seen nursing poorly friends and strangers.
Nalder continued: “The two things I relate to the most is frantically searching for information about the virus. I became like a dictionary of Aids-related infections.
“And the hospital visits. Walking down the corridors and looking into the rooms and in each one seeing people around my age dying with Aids. Seeing people with the kaposi sarcoma, the black marks on the skin, for the first time.”
On moving into the ‘Pink Palace’ in London at the age of 18, Jill said: “It was fantastic. Most of it was pink. Pink curtains, a big pink dralon sofa and even a massive pink drain. It had three big chandeliers and silver service cutlery everywhere.”
It’s A Sin, which stars Years and Years front man Olly Alexander and features the likes of Stephen Fry and Neil Patrick Harris in supporting roles, is All 4’s most-binged show ever.
Channel 4 this week revealed the five-parter has been watched over 6 million times since its debut last month.
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