''Intimate Contact'' is a 1987 British television drama starring Daniel Massey,

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...

, David Phelan and

Abigail Cruttenden Abigail Lucy Cruttenden (born 23 March 1968) is an English actress. Cruttenden played opposite Sean Bean as his character Richard Sharpe's wife Jane in several episodes of the TV series '' Sharpe.'' In 2007, Cruttenden joined the cast from the ...

, which deals with the issue of the

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

virus. Written by

Alma Cullen Alma Cullen (10 May 1938 - 7 August 2021) was a screenwriter and playwright, creating scripts for well-known British television dramas ''Inspector Morse'' and ''A Touch of Frost''. Early life Alma Cullen was born in Prescot, Merseyside of wor ...

and directed by

Waris Hussein Waris Hussein ('' né'' Habibullah; born 9 December 1938) is a British-Indian television and film director. At the beginning of his career he was employed by the BBC as its youngest drama director. He directed early episodes of '' Doctor Who'', i ...

, the series was produced for Central Television, and aired on the ITV network in three hour-long episodes in March 1987. In the United States, it was later shown in two 90-minute episodes on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

channel. Massey and Bloom were both nominated in the Best Actor categories at the 1989

CableACE Award The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Amer ...

s. Massey subsequently won the accolade.

Plot summary

Daniel Massey stars as Clive Gregory, a businessman who contracts AIDS during a business trip to New York, where he has sex with a prostitute. The disease is diagnosed 18 months after the trip when he is hospitalized with

viral pneumonia Viral pneumonia is a pneumonia caused by a virus. Pneumonia is an infection that causes inflammation in one or both of the lungs. The pulmonary alveoli fill with fluid or pus making it difficult to breathe. Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, vir ...

. Clive's wife, Ruth (played by Bloom) is devastated by the news, and as the nature of Clive's condition becomes public knowledge the Gregorys face hostility and ignorance from friends, colleagues and those in the local community. As Clive's health deteriorates, Ruth campaigns for AIDS awareness. Clive also meets other people whose lives have been affected by HIV and AIDS.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* 1987 British television series debuts 1987 British television series endings 1980s British drama television series ITV television dramas HIV/AIDS in British films Television series by ITV Studios English-language television shows Television shows produced by Central Independent Television HIV/AIDS in television {{UK-tv-prog-stub