Queer as Folk (UK TV series)

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Queer as Folk (UK)

Format	Drama/Soap opera
Created by	Russell T Davies
Starring	Aidan Gillen Craig Kelly Charlie Hunnam
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	10
Production
Running time	30 to 35 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Original run	February 23, 1999 – February 22, 2000
External links
IMDb profile

Queer as Folk is a 1999 British television series that chronicles the lives of three gay men living in Manchester's gay village around Canal Street. Both Queer as Folk and Queer as Folk 2 were written by Russell T Davies, who was also responsible for a later gay-related drama, Bob and Rose, and the revival of Doctor Who on the BBC in 2005. The series was re-shown on More 4 between 14th-18th October 2007 as part of Channel 4's 25th birthday celebrations.

Queer as Folk was produced by the independent Red Production Company for Channel 4, which had previously shown its openness for gay-themed material with made-for-TV films such as Beautiful Thing, which was later also given a cinema release. The title of the programme comes from a dialect expression from some parts of Northern England, "there's nowt as queer as folk", meaning "there's nothing as strange as people". Davies had originally titled the series this, although at the suggestion of Channel 4 executives for a period during its development and pre-production it was known as Queer as Fuck, before it reverted to the former name.^[1]

The theme tune and incidental music were composed especially for the show by Murray Gold.

1 Characters and plot
2 Location and Production
3 Cast of Queer as Folk
4 Responses
5 Doctor Who
6 Spin-offs and remakes
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Characters and plot

The producers say that Queer as Folk, although superficially a realistic depiction of gay urban life in the 1990s, is meant as a fantasy, and that Stuart, Vince, and Nathan are not so much characters as gay male archetypes.

The main characters are Stuart Alan Jones (Aidan Gillen), who is highly sexually active, and successfully so; his long-time friend Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly), who has a crush on Stuart and less luck regarding men; and 15-year-old Nathan Maloney (Charlie Hunnam), who is new to the gay scene but is not lacking in self-confidence.

Stuart, an advertising executive at Bridgewater Hall, is depicted as possessing intrinsic power, able to bend anything to his will. Stuart's principal characteristic is that he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants. He blows up a car belonging to his friend's antagonistic mother, he invites Vince's female work colleague, who has a crush on closeted Vince, to Vince's birthday party and then introduces Vince's boyfriend, in order to make Vince hate him so that Vince can fall in love with his boyfriend instead of maintaining his crush on Stuart; and when offered a test drive of a Jeep by a car salesman who makes some homophobic comments, Stuart drives the car straight through the large window of the car dealership.

Some of the minor supporting characters, such as Hazel, and Alexander, are given depth as well. Part of the success of the series was due to the way in which the writer deliberately left some things unsaid, allowing the story to continue around them.

In the second series, the tone became somewhat more serious, with each of the main characters having to make hard choices concerning their futures.

[edit] Location and Production

The show was set and filmed on and around the gay village of Manchester, England. The night club scenes of Babylon were filmed at Cruz 101. For the filming the signage and lighting of the club was replaced and a phone box added. Following the completion of filming the phone box was removed and Cruz 101 adopted its original name.

Some bars had to alter their interiors slightly for scenes of inside some of the venues on Canal Street. 'Manto' bar changed its upstairs slightly for a scene where Stuart and Vince go for lunch.

The music for the series was produced by Almighty Records. Because of the TV show, it was the Queer As Folk CD soundtrack which went gold within one month of going on sale in March 1999 in the UK that has become the most successful project the label has ever took on. The release of this CD followed a request from the makers of the TV series, Red Productions, after another major record company turned down the opportunity due to poor rating of previous 'music-led' television shows on Channel 4. Given a list of tracks, Almighty had 1 month to compile the music however some tracks could not be cleared in time for the release mainly due to time scales, including one by Steps who initially said that the show would be too 'low profile' for them to be associated with.^[2] It was the success of this album which prompted Channel 4 launch their own music division when the second series of Queer As Folk was made^[3] - an international franchise which is still around today.

[edit] Cast of Queer as Folk

Aidan Gillen as Stuart Alan Jones
Craig Kelly as Vince Tyler
Charlie Hunnam as Nathan Maloney
Denise Black as Hazel Tyler
Antony Cotton as Alexander Perry
Carla Henry as Donna Clark
Peter O'Brien as Cameron Roberts
Caroline O'Neill as Janice Maloney
Andy Devine as Bernard Thomas
Saira Todd as Lisa Levene
Esther Hall as Romey Sullivan
Caroline Pegg as Rosalie Cotter
Jason Merrells as Phil Delaney
Alison Burrows as Sandra Docherty
Ben Maguire as Christian Hobbs
Maria Doyle Kennedy as Marie Jones Threepwood
Ian McElhinney as Clive Jones
Ger Ryan as Margaret Jones
John Brobbey as Lance Amponah
Jonathon Natynczyk as Dazz Collinson
Adam Zane as Dane McAteer
Susan Cookson as Marcie Finch
Kate Fitzgerald as Mrs Delaney
Juley McCann as Siobhan Potter
Sarah Jones as Suzie Smith
Michael Culkin as Martin Brooks
Paul Copley as Roy Maloney
Andrew Lancel as Harvey Black
Jack Deam as Gareth Critchly
Paul Oldham as "Spike" O’Hagan
Steve Ramsden as Colin Goodfuk
David Prosho as Muscle Man
Paul Simpson as Michael
Lee Warburton as Man in art gallery
Jim Shepley as Jonathan Walker
Adam Heywood Fogerty as Roger Clements
Toshi Dokiya as Lee "Kane"
Michael Atkinson as Mr Latham
Elizabeth Steele as Stuart’s neighbour
Robert Ashcroft as Gary McGee
David Williamson as Bob Green
Roxy Hart as Karaoke hostess
Jane Cawdon as Helen Maloney
Andrew Mawdsley as Tom Threepwood
Stuart Mawdsley as Ben Threepwood
Alan Halsall as Midge
Samantha Cunningham as Cathy Mott
Alfie Robinson as Baby Alfred

[edit] Responses

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

“

Because I'm queer. I'm gay. I'm homosexual. I'm a poof, I'm a poofter, I'm a ponce. I'm a bumboy, battyboy, backside artist, bugger, I'm bent. I am that arsebandit. I lift those shirts. I'm a faggot-ass, fudge-packing, shit-stabbing uphill gardener. I dine at the downstairs restaurant, I dance at the other end of the ballroom. I'm Moses and the parting of the red cheeks. I fuck and am fucked. I suck and am sucked. I rim them and wank them, and every single man's had the fucking time of his life. And I am not a pervert. If there's one twisted bastard in this family, it's this little blackmailer here. So congratulations, Thomas. I've just officially outed you. - Stuart

”

The first series caused controversy in the UK because many conservatives were shocked at the frank language as well as the depiction of a 15-year-old engaging in illegal homosexual acts with an older man (the age of consent for gay men in the UK at the time was 18, though it has since been reduced to 16). The explicit nature of the sex scenes also caused controversy; in particular the first episode featured an extensive sex scene involving masturbation, rimming, and ejaculation. The series became a ratings success despite its late-night timeslot and the withdrawal of its main sponsor, Beck's.

The success led Channel 4 to commission a second series. Although Davies initially intended to write a second full series, he decided that there was not much story left to tell, and instead finished the story with a two-part TV special, Queer as Folk 2, screened in 2000 to slightly lower viewing figures despite an earlier timeslot. This time the explicit sex scenes were mostly absent, a decision applauded by people who had previously criticised the series. Many fans of the series criticised the ending for the unanswered questions it left and the lack of "conclusion" it gave.

[edit] Doctor Who

Russell T Davies is now the executive producer on the science fiction series Doctor Who, and Queer as Folk has many Doctor Who references. In one episode a model of K-9, the robotic dog, is given to Vince. In 1996 Davies had written a Doctor Who novel, Damaged Goods, a copy of which was included on the set of Vince's bedroom as an in-joke by the set dressers. Series one also includes a sequence in which Vince and a man he picked up are leading up to having sex, when the man becomes excited when he sees a video of Genesis of the Daleks and begs Vince if they could watch it instead. Vince wonders whether to break up with his boyfriend Cameron, and finally decides to, in favour of Stuart, the deciding matter was that Stuart knew him better because he knew all of the actors who had played The Doctor over the years, and Cameron had trouble remembering two, showing that Stuart did (contrary to popular belief) pay attention to Vince's Doctor Who ramblings.

[edit] Spin-offs and remakes

A follow-up, spin-off series, Misfits, was initially commissioned by Channel 4. The series would have followed the characters of Hazel, Alexander, Donna (who was absent from the 2nd series due to scheduling commitments) and Bernard from the original series, while introducing new characters. Although Davies developed draft scripts for four episodes and storylines for a further twenty-two, the series was cancelled before it went into pre-production, along with The Second Coming, which was later commissioned and broadcast by ITV.

As a result of Channel 4's decision, Davies pulled out of a deal that would have seen a series of Queer as Folk short stories published on the broadcaster's website, and vowed never to work with Channel 4 again.^[4]

Driven by the success of the series, American cable channel Showtime and Canadian cable channel Showcase co-made a North American version set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, still under the title Queer as Folk, although deviating extensively from the originals plot.

The North American (US/Canadian) version was criticised by some fans of the British series who saw the cast as excessively glamourous and who thought the original's quirky comedy had been lost. It was also criticised for toning down the darker elements of the original; for example, Phil (named Ted in the North American version), who died in one of the originals early episodes, does not die in the North American version, and Stuart (named Brian in the North American version) changes from a personification of power, into a personification only of sex, and increasing the age of Nathan (named Justin in the North American version) from 15 to 17 (only one year below the US legal age of consent), reducing the age controversy. In addition, the North American version puts a greater emphasis on the sexual aspects of the plot and, as a result, features numerous sex scenes.