How the AIDS Crisis Shaped Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry

Writer and actor, Nathaniel Hall was 16 years old when he was told he had tested positive for HIV after his first sexual experience. He was told that he’d have a shorter life expectancy and would likely die at the age of 60.  

The nineties and early noughties were already a hard enough time for gay men – recovering from the AIDS epidemic and still with so much casual discrimination around. Let alone, facing the fact that you’ll die earlier than most of your peers because of it too. Speaking exclusively with Blimey, he recalled to us the attitude of the time – “That was the message. Don’t be gay because you will get AIDS and die.” 

The AIDS crisis of the 1980s created an intense stigma and unspeakable levels of discrimination for gay men around the world. At the time, the media were responsible for spreading a lot of misinformation about the illness. It was labelled ‘the gay disease’ and was thought to be punishment from God. Now years later – and 40 years after the first HIV test was made available – how far have the media and entertainment come in repairing their mistakes? 

The first reported case of AIDS was in 1981. Between then and 1996 – when it was realised that a combination of antiretroviral drugs could be effective – thousands of people died in the UK alone.  

40 years after the crisis, Welsh screenwriter and producer Russell T. Davies decided to write a TV show about the epidemic. It’s A Sin (2021) follows a group of young gay men and their friends, living in London at the time when the crisis first starts developing. As a young gay man himself during this time, Davies is able to paint a very real and human picture of what life was like for LGBTQ people. 

The show has had a major impact on viewers: according to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the first National HIV testing week after It’s a Sin aired saw a huge surge in HIV test orders – 8207 compared to the previous record of 2709. On top of this, there was a surge in Google searches around HIV and calls received by the trust to their helpline. 

Hall, who plays character Donald Bassett in the show (one of the lead’s partners), is a screenwriter and performer, and also an HIV activist. His Edinburgh Fringe success ‘First Time’ was a play he wrote about his experience contracting HIV, and the 15 years it took him to finally come out to his family. In his show, he wanted to paint a picture of what life is like for people with HIV in the 21st Century. 

“And I also asked myself the question, is this the story we really need right now? Do we really need to be reminded that sometimes it's sh*t and that life's tough? Or do we just need to be uplifted?” 

As a performer and writer, Hall is very passionate about why he thinks entertainment is the ideal way to allow people to learn and understand more about massive topics like AIDS, through looking at individual characters and being able to associate with them.  

Speaking with Blimey, George Severs, historian of modern Britain, activism, sexuality and religion, told us, “There's a very famous story that was printed in The Sun newspaper of a Church of England vicar who threatened that he would shoot his son if his son came home and told him he was HIV positive. And not only that, that story should be horrific enough, but they then got the vicar and his son to pose for a picture where the vicar is pointing a shotgun at his son's face.” 

Even today, there is still a lack of public education on a topic so sensitive and important. In a recent survey conducted by Blimey, 41% of participants said they first found out the AIDS crisis through entertainment. We also found that 74% did not believe that the crisis has been discussed enough within media. 

We asked Severs about why entertainment could be a good resource, “I think it's something that is, for people who study this or people who lived through it … a very pertinent way that people find to talk about their experiences of AIDS.”  

According to Blimey’s survey, 44% of people believed that TV and film is the most favourable way to educate the public about something as serious as the crisis. 

In 1989, Princess Diana paid a visit to the first AIDS hospice in the country - Mildmay Hospital in Tower Hamlets. She was photographed going around the hospice, meeting patients that were dying with AIDS – a disease still so feared at this point in time – and treating them with respect. 

 “It broke down barriers. That whole myth that you could catch AIDS just by touching something, and she came in and she shook hands and she hugged patients,” Geoff Coleman told us. As current chief executive officer of Mildmay, Coleman talked to Blimey about Princess Diana and the impact that her actions had on the world.  

 “Instantly those pictures went out around the world, and people were taken aback. They knew who she was; she was iconic. ‘What on earth is she doing? Oh, perhaps it is OK. Perhaps you can't catch AIDS just from touching someone.’" 

It was a moment that shocked the world and was a monumental milestone in helping people understand the condition. Now, Mildmay’s work through the AIDS crisis has even earned them so much recognition that they have now become the namesake for one of London’s overground lines. 

“You empathise with a character or with a story, and it sits with you for much, much longer than if someone just gives you a load of information,” Hall said. His passion, like that of Davies and even Diana, is clear, “If I can do things that help in some way, through storytelling, through activism, through education, then that's what I'm going to do.”