Editor: Graham Taylor – Episode One

Director: Mark Henderson

9.30pm BBC 2

Wall to Wall Media

AIDS: The Unheard Tapes uses personal testimonies to tell the story of the HIV epidemic in the UK from the early 1980s until the mid 1990s as experienced by the UK’s gay community, tracking a similar time period to the award-winning 2021 Channel 4 drama series It’s a Sin. Alongside new filmed interviews, each one-hour episode forefronts testimony from the British Library’s oral history collections recorded in the 1980s and 1990s. The documentary uses the audio from the archived interviews with each narrator’s voice lip-synched for television by an actor. Sadly, many of the interviewees whose powerful testimony features in this series have since died.

When asked bout working on the series, Graham Taylor said ‘I’m very proud of this bold and important project, weaving archive and interviews around lip synced audio archive from those directly impacted as AIDS arrived on these shores. I’ve used this before but this technique is still pretty pioneering, especially when used to this effect and with such a powerful subject matter. The Director Mark Henderson and Wall To Wall along with DOP Tom Swindell and myself, created something magical in reimagining such a devastating, yet incredibly life affirming issue.”

The Sun is predicting it will be “The most powerful documentary you are likely to see this year” and The Times has given it ‘Critics Choice’. Closer Magazine call’s it “unique and compelling” and the Sunday Telegraph says it’s a “poignant reminder of just how devastating the AIDS epidemic was” – “an effective way to bring the visceral experience of this disease into the present day”

Graham Taylor edited Episode one which premieres tonight 9.30. All three episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer.