Channel 4’s hit series It’s A Sin is an urgent must-watch. Sometimes uplifting, but often completely devastating in its depiction of the AIDS epidemic of the Eighties and Nineties, it should be mandatory viewing. But it would be nothing without the moving performances of its young and largely unknown cast. The first episode introduced us to Ritchie, Colin, Roscoe, Jill and Ash, and while they’re all phenomenal, it’s Ritchie who might seem the most familiar thanks to the dynamic career of Olly Alexander.
Olly, thirty years old and born in Harrogate, can be found onTwitter and Instagram. But where else have you seen him before It's A Sin took over TV? Most likely, you know Olly’s voice as well as his face – Ritchie’s brief ‘La’ is the tip of the iceberg – thanks to his successful three-piece Years and Years, responsible for euphoric electropop bangers like Shine, King and If You’re Over Me. He also fronted Growing Up Gay, a BBC documentary broadcast in 2017. It's still on iPlayer here, and is an incredible watch.
That said, he’s also something of a veteran in the acting world. After making his debut in TV film Summerhill in 2008, he had a very busy few years. He starred in literary biopic Bright Star, playing the brother of Ben Whishaw’s John Keats, and also appeared in Great Expectations, Le Week-End, Skins and Gulliver’s Travels with Emily Blunt and Jack Black. His highest profile role before now, though, was arguably in The Riot Club, the film adaptation of the play, Posh. He was one of the ethically dubious members of the classist Oxford University club, starring with Max Irons and Douglas Booth.
‘Doing an acting job where you have to turn up every day is really challenging’, Olly told The Guardian earlier this year. ‘I was so used to my musician lifestyle, which is usually: get up late, get in a car, get driven to an airport, get on a plane, fall asleep, arrive somewhere, get driven to the venue, roll out of the car and do the show. It was too much like hard work every day. I thought I’d got past this!’
If there’s any justice, Olly and the rest of the It’s A Sin cast will be inundated with awards very soon. And if you haven’t seen it yet? Get on it.
READ MORE: Meet Lydia West, One Of It's A Sin's Breakout Stars