Out writer Russell T. Davies said in a
new interview that the gay press was furious that Queer as Folk
did not address the AIDS epidemic.
Davies' Queer as Folk premiered
on Britain's Channel 4 in 1999. A U.S. version based on Davies'
original characters premiered the following year on Showtime.
At the time, Queer as Folk was
considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of the lives of gay men
and lesbians.
In a The New Statesman profile,
Davies, 55, recalled the backlash the show received.
“The backlash from social
conservatives was predictable,” the Statesman wrote, “but
few would have expected the reaction from the gay press who turned up
to the launch, furious that the show did not explicitly tackle Aids.”
“That was a fuck of a press
conference, that,” Davies
said. “People shouting at us, 200 people packed into a room;
terrible, very volatile.”
The Statesman added that Davies
is tinkering with an “AIDS drama,” but revealed few details.
Davies' latest project A Very
English Scandal, stars Hugh Grant as MP Jeremy Thorpe and Ben
Whishaw as the lover Thorpe was tried and acquitted of conspiring to
murder. Based on John Preston's book of the same name, A Very
English Scandal airs next week on BBC One.