Classics Revisited: Does 'Queer as Folk' Hold Up in the 'Heartstopper' Era?

The progenitor of gay British TV, Queer as Folk, turned 25 this year. The ten-episode comedy-drama aired in 1999 and remains just as enjoyable now (if not quite as relevant) as it was a quarter century ago. The monumental BBC series (that wound up with an American remake on Showtime) follows the day-to-day life of a group of friends in Manchester as they party on Canal Street, clash with their families, and fall in and out of love.

Written and produced by Russell T. Davies during a time when gay characters on TV were one-off stereotypes at best and dead or nonexistent at worst, Queer as Folk put both gay men and Davies himself in the spotlight. Davies, best known now as showrunner of the revival of Doctor Who, would go on to write prolifically about the lives of gay men in A Very English Scandal, Cucumber, and the landmark historical drama It’s A Sin. Queer as Folk was Davies’s first significant foray into centering gay characters on TV. It was also many gay people’s first time seeing themselves represented on screen.

Queer as Folk is a rollicking good time that takes unbridled joy in being gay. But it’s punctuated by moments of Davies’s signature emotional gravitas that reflect the ongoing AIDS epidemic, pervasive homophobia, and legislated inequality that were unavoidable aspects of gay life. There was no show like it when it aired, and today, there’s no other show that has been enriched by what has come after it. Queer as Folk feels historic in the context of Davies’s work and the enormous legal strides and increase in media representation that the LGBTQ+ community has seen in the past quarter century.