Blog - Chris Creegan

‘It’s A Sin’ was so much more than a TV show — a year on, I carry it in my heart

21/01/2022

In the dead of night over Christmas 1988, I became aware that hardly any of my fingernails had a lunula. I was 27. Until that very moment, their absence had completely passed me by. A lunula is the half-moon shape at the base of your nail, just above the cuticle. The realisation came as I […]

It’s World AIDS Day again and the fight goes on — ‘We must love one another or die.’

01/12/2021

“At the moment I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.” The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Three, 1925–1930 It’s World AIDS Day again. Like any such event, […]

And then there was one

21/10/2021

‘There is a time for the evening under starlight, A time for the evening under lamplight (The evening with the photograph album). Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter.’ T.S. Eliot, East Coker, Four Quartets And then there was one. Ever since I heard you had left us last week, […]

Plagues don’t end unless we care enough to stop them — but we knew that didn’t we?

10/07/2021

I've been thinking of writing again for a while. I said I might, didn't I? I even said I'd let you know how this plague ends. But that looks hopelessly naive now. The way things are going, if I wait until then you could be hanging on a long time. And tonight, it'll be 26 […]

Supernova – love, death and the sound of silence

06/07/2021

Harry Macqueen's new film Supernova portrays the love between two middle-aged gay men. But it is not about sexuality. The word gay is never uttered. When I was asked to review the film for BBC Radio Scotland, I knew little about it except that it starred Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as a gay couple. I had to […]

‘We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’ — and finally our parliament is catching up

08/05/2021

I was in the gym when it happened, about 20k into a 35k ride on a Wattbike. Since my knees started playing havoc in 2018, I have had to make do with two wheels. Outdoors is okay but the indoor version is mind-numbing. I need all the distraction and inspiration I can muster. Yesterday, it […]

‘It’s a Sin’ is dramatic art as redress— it tells our story and gives a voice to those who didn’t make it

04/02/2021

‘The houses are all gone under the sea. The dancers are all gone under the hill.’ East Coker, The four quartetT S Eliot In the beginning, I sobbed. At the denouement, I howled. I cry routinely at the telly. But this was different. These tears came not just from shallow, passing sentiment but deep, permanent […]

The epidemic is a shitstorm — I don’t need the daily news to know it’s there

17/12/2020

“I’ve asked so many people if they know anyone who has had Covid. Hardly anyone. Two people knew someone (not close) who’d died. Without daily news would we even know there was an epidemic?” I don’t know which world Allison Pearson inhabits. I’m sure, once upon a time, it collided with mine as the viewer […]