William Nicholson Remembers... Sweet as You Are

Acclaimed screenwriter William Nicholson – the man who helped turn Russell Crowe’s Gladiator into one of cinema’s most successful films of all time – looks back on the BBC drama he still considers one of his finest achievements, 1988's As Sweet as You Are.

Starring Liam Neeson and Miranda Richardson, the film broke new ground by looking at the impact of Aids on a married couple where the husband has contracted the disease after an affair. The drama was praised at the time for the intensity of its writing and both main performances.

With extracts from the diaries he wrote throughout the production, Nicholson shares how he was inspired to tackle the subject matter and reveals how his research saw him undergoing his own Aids test, an experience that confirmed for him that this was a story that needed to be told.