A Positive Life: HIV from Terrence Higgins to Today

A Boy From Wales

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Episode notes

Terrence Higgins was one of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness. But Terry also lived. Sam Smith explores his early life as a young gay man in Wales. In "A Positive Life", singer Sam Smith presents stories of HIV in the UK over the last forty years. They hear from people who remember the earliest years of the AIDS crisis; the grassroots activists and marginalised communities who came together to fight stigma and raise public awareness; and a new generation living with effective treatments for HIV in a radically-changed world. Sam begins our series with the story of someone who's no longer around to tell it themselves. Many people will know the name of Terry Higgins because of the way he died - one of the very first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness, in 1982. After Terry's death, his closest friends set up a charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, in his memory; it's gone on to become one of the longest-running HIV charities in the world. But we almost never hear about Terry's life - and the remarkable person that he was. Sam takes us to Terry Higgins' birthplace in West Wales, as we meet the people who knew him as a young man. As we find out about Terry's character and world, Sam explores what it would have been like to grow up as a young gay man in a small community in the 1950s and 60s - a time when homosexuality was illegal, and conservative attitudes were widespread. An Overcoat Media production for BBC Sounds Producer: Arlie Adlington Assistant Producer: Emma Goswell Executive Producer: Steven Rajam Sound Mixing: Mike Woolley