Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves

Episode two
Neither as extravagant as ‘Angels in America’ nor as uproarious as ‘Queer as Folk’, ‘Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves’ nonetheless stands alongside them as a major achievement in queer storytelling on the small screen.

While HIV/AIDS spreads and media hysteria mounts in early 1980s Stockholm, Jehovah’s Witness Benjamin (Adam Lundgren) and thrillseeker Rasmus (Adam Pålsson) fall sweetly and convincingly in love. But as grim diagnoses for their surrogate family members trickle in and Benjamin struggles to come out to his parents, things go sour.

It’s a brilliantly realised snapshot of a particular place and time. Even as the awful inevitability of the outcome gradually smothers the deft humour – we knew the fate of Rasmus from the first seconds of last week’s opener – ‘Don’t Ever Wipe Tears…’ doesn’t for a second cast anyone as victims; these are living, breathing human beings with virtues and flaws. And Pålsson and Lundgren are simply superb.