Russell T Davies would have made 'It's A Sin' "sooner" if he'd known people were clueless about the Aids crisis.
Russell T Davies
The creator of the Channel 4 drama - which follows a group of gay men who lived during the crisis in the UK - admitted he didn't expect the general audience to be so "shocked" by the story playing out on screen.
Speaking during a Royal Television Society writing masterclass, he said: "If I could go back in time and pitch the show knowing what the audience reaction would be, we'd have got it made sooner.
"Now I'd go into an office and say, 'People will be shocked by this, discover things they didn't know.
"'People died [from Aids] and their deaths were hidden and young generations don't know this.' "
Russell, 57, recently admitted the passion project - which turned into a huge hit for C4 - could have been made a decade earlier, but he was instead focused on 'Doctor Who', which he brought back in 2005 after a 16-year absence.
He explained: "My whole career got sidelined for 10 years by 'Doctor Who'.
"If it wasn't for that we'd be doing 'It's a Sin' 10 years earlier."
The programme proved to be a huge hit with viewers when it launched in January, even though Russell expected it to flop.
He added: "Over Christmas we were going, 'Oh my God, we're in the middle of a pandemic and here we are launching a drama about a virus.'
"I thought it was the death knell. Its success has been an enormous surprise."
Russell previously admitted that Aids felt like something "very distant" at the beginning of the health crisis.
He recalled: "It did start like a strange rumour on the horizon. It started as something American. We felt very distant. It literally felt like it got closer and closer and closer, until it was on your doorstep, until it was taking away people you loved.
"Eventually, simply - it must have been around the mid- to late-80s - you know someone who's got it and dies."
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