Free for RSL Members, who can also book one discounted guest ticket for £5. Log in to book or join here. Non-Members can book public tickets through the British Library. 

Russell T. Davies FRSL is joined by his dear friend and author of Love from the Pink Palace, Jill Nalder to discuss their importance in one another’s lives, the importance of literature in their lives, and It’s a Sin with Sabina Dosani and chair Matthew Sweet.  

Just a few days after World AIDS Day on Thursday 1 December, our speakers will discuss depictions of the AIDS crisis in literature, on stage and on screen. They will consider how best to tell your own story and how to celebrate and commemorate those who no longer can. This exclusive event will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  

‘My friends were amazing, but so were the many people who faced this illness. To write about them, I believe, is a way to pay tribute (…) I hope in some way I have managed to do that. We are all part of the same fight.’ Jill Nalder 

Presented in partnership with BBC Radio 3, this event will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking on Thursday 8th December, and available worldwide as the Arts & Ideas podcast on BBC Sounds. 

Russell T. Davies FRSL is a multi-award-winning screenwriter and television producer. He has created several acclaimed, ground-breaking series and revived the classic science fiction series Doctor Who. He adapted A Very English Scandal on BBC 1 for which he won the Rose d’Or Award for Best Limited Series and TV Movie and Broadcast News Award for Drama of the Year 2018. He wrote the 6-part drama Years and Years for BBC One/HBO and more recently, he wrote the acclaimed 5-part series It’s a Sin for Channel 4/HBO MAX which depicts the lives of a group of gay men and their friends who lived during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the UK, which has received numerous awards. In 2021, Russell accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Royal Television Society at the RTS Programme Awards. 

Jill Nalder is originally from Neath, South Wales. She is a successful West End actress and was the inspiration behind Jill Baxter’s character in Russell T. Davies’ Channel 4 programme It’s a Sin. She was also one of the founders and first chairperson of West End Cares, now called Theatre MAD: Make A Difference. To date the charity has raised over £10 million for HIV/AIDS. 

Sabina Dosani is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, writer and Early Career Researcher in Medical Humanities at the University of East Anglia. Sabina is on the New Generation Thinkers scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to showcase new academic research. 

Matthew Sweet is a writer, journalist and broadcaster hosting BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and Sound of Cinema whose books include Operation Chaos, Shepperton Babylon, The West End Front and Inventing the Victorians.