From screenwriter Russell T Davies comes The Boys, a five-part drama which follows the story of the decade, of the AIDS crisis and of three lads Ricky, Roscoe and Colin.

The drama will be the next project for Davies following the huge success of A Very English Scandal on BBC One which starred Hugh Grant as Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe.

The Boys sees Ricky, Roscoe and Colin, strangers at first, leaving home and heading to London with dreams and ambitions. However those dreams turn sour as they find themselves trapped in a plague that the world is ignoring.

As the mysterious new illness goes from a rumour to a threat and then to a terror, the three find themselves bound together in the fight.

Together they endure the epidemic, while facing the pain and rejection that faced gay men throughout the decade.

Almost twenty years on from Davies’ hit show Queer as Folk which spawned a US version, Channel 4 commissioning editor Lee Mason sees a common thread between the shows. “[The Boys is] an incredibly important project that feels just as landmark, just as uncompromising, and just as heartfelt.”

Davies reflected, ““I lived through those times, and it’s taken me decades to build up to this. And as time marches on, there’s a danger the story will be forgotten. So it’s an honour to write this for the ones we lost, and the ones who survived.”

The show enters production in 2019.