#BeMoreJill

The groundbreaking Channel 4 drama 'It’s a Sin' tragedy revealed the traumatic impact of the AIDS pandemic. Jo Henwood talks exclusively to its creator – and the woman whose compassion is a lesson to us all.

Jill Nalder has had more than her 15 minutes of fame. She has tread the boards of London’s stages and toured the world with her own musical theatre company The Westenders.

Jill Nalder wearing a La. T-shirt created by clothing designer Philip Normal to raise money for people with HIV. ‘La’ was an inside jokebetween the characters, encapsulating the love and mutual support withinfriendship groups.

John Burke Photography.

But the woman who won’t be on Facebook, has never Tweeted and has barely got to grips with Instagram, found herself at dizzy social media heights when the hashtag #BeMoreJill started trending.

The inspiration for the caring, campaigning Jill Baxter (played by Lydia West) in Russell T Davies’s groundbreaking drama It’s a Sin, Jill is the only girl in a group of exuberant and theatrical friends living in London in the 1980s.

It's a Sin

Channel 4

Jill is the first to take notice of reports of a ‘gay plague’ in America, first to realise that ill friends go home and never return and the first to sit at the bedside of a man dying of AIDS, disowned by his family.

Russell and Jill have been friends for years – they met first as teenagers at the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre and Jill really lived in a flat in London known amongst her friends as ‘the Pink Palace’. She was not at all surprised that the Channel 4 drama would be a big hit and was thrilled to be offered a cameo role as Jill’s mother Christine Baxter.

“I knew It’s a Sin would be a huge success – I know Russell is brilliant, but I never expected anything like this! “A friend texted me saying: ‘Jill, you’re a meme!’ I’m not even really sure what a meme is. It’s been crazy!” The essence of #BeMoreJill is tolerance, caring, helping. But how exactly do we put ‘being Jill’ into practice?

It's all about equality... why can't someone live the life they want to live?

“It’s all about equality,” says Jill. “Why can’t somebody live the life they want to live if they aren’t harming anyone else? Why should the person you love be a barrier, why should the colour of your skin be a barrier, why should your disability be a barrier – it’s about giving everyone a fair chance. Who would not try to make the life of a fellow human being easier?”

It's a Sin

Channel 4

When Jill talks about what she did to raise funds and awareness at the height of the AIDS crisis in theatreland in the 1980s you can feel the urgency and the fervour even now.

Jill Nalder with Russell T Davies in the 1980s

“It was an emergency response,” she says. “People in the company were dying and we felt inert unless we did something to help.”

Some of the nurses on those wards have become my lifelong friends.

When the curtain came down, Jill and a friend organised cabaret nights to raise funds and she spent days and nights in hospitals with the young men at the end of their lives. But who was there for Jill when times really got tough?

“The community of doctors and nurses were so helpful and supportive. Some of the nurses on those wards have become my lifelong friends,” she says.

“And my family were there – I was lucky to have open minded parents. And my friends. We were all in it together.”

The success of the series has had an unexpected and very positive outcome for family of the young men who died before modern antiretroviral treatments for HIV and AIDS were discovered.

Members of Jill’s late friends’ family feel they can now talk more openly about their brother or their uncle’s death.

“People have got in touch to say that after watching It’s a Sin they now feel proud about who their relative was, rather than feel the stigma because they died of AIDS.”

“That has really touched me,” she said. And like all true performers she quotes a song from the hit musical Hamilton: “You have no control - who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” What a better world it would be if we were all just a bit more Jill.

National AIDS Trust: nat.org.uk Terence Higgins Trust: tht.org.uk

FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT

Mind: mind.org

Mental Health Foundation: mentalhealthfoundation.org.uk