Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander has been cast in the lead role of Queer As Folk creator Russell T. Davies’ upcoming new show Boys.

The musician will play Ritchie Tozer, an 18-year-old gay man starting a new life in London in 1981, arriving at the beginning of the UK’s AIDS crisis.

RELATED: Olly Alexander to Headline L.A. Pride After Battling Prejudice at Home: WATCH

“I feel like the luckiest boy in the world to be a part of this project,” Alexander said in a statement. “I’ve been a fan of Russell T Davies ever since I watched Queer As Folk in secret at 14 years old. His work helped shape my identity as a gay person so I’m absolutely over the moon we’ll be working together.”

The five-part series will follow Alexander’s character – the “golden boy” keeping secrets from his family – along with his new friends, 17-year-old party lad Roscoe Babatunde (Omari Douglas), quiet and unassuming Welsh boy Colin Morris-Jones (Callum Scott Howells), and straight-talking Jill Baxter (Lydia West) as they grow up “in the shadow of AIDS.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3KlM2ElEub/?utm_source=ig_embed