Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves BBC 4 10pm

Don’t every wipe tears without gloves is in the first shot, of the first scene, of the first episode (this was the second episode) and is  a piece of advice given by a senoir nurse to her more junior partner as they tend to a bedridden youth in a Stockholm hospital in the 1980s.  Both nurses wear protective masks and boots and are amoured against this new virus HIV that is contagious in a way that people don’t really understand. The contagiant in the bed is Rasmus. His condition and how he contracted the virus is juxtaposed with his childhood in a rural village outside the capital. His school graduation ceremony is particulaly painful to watch and is a real squirmfest of a delight. When he leaves rural life to become a student in Stockholm his first stop is a pilgramage to a local hotspot in the station for gay meetings. He meets the droll and delightful Paul who quite understands that he has nineteen years of fucks to catch up on. In a laugh out loud scene Paul invites Benjamin into the boudoir of his home. Paul is Jewish and Benjamin is a Jehova Witness selling Watchtower, Jesus and the end of days, but the real revelation is when Paul asks Benjamin if he knows he’s gay.  Benjamin’s epiphany brings changes. He becomes part of Paul’s loosly-knit family of homos and here Bejamin meets Rasmus. They become boyfriend and boyfriend and move in together. The narratives flits between their childhood, family and the extended family revolving around Paul. Already one or two are debilitated and showing signs of HIV, the real shocker last night was an actor receiving his diagnosis of being HIV positive with real aplomb and signing off in a dramatic way. This is the best thing that has been on the telly for a very long time. Possibly since my old favourites The Killing, or even earlier Wallander.