Critic Reviews

Channel 4’s turn-of-the-millennium exploration of life on Manchester’s Canal Street is packed with uplifting moments, painful shocks and sexy shenanigans.

The reason why Queer As Folk largely works is because it’s driven by the characters, not their sexuality.

As Queer as Folk continued its eight-week run, a strange thing happened. It began to mellow into a compelling drama that many viewers began to find as absorbing as any late-night soap opera. [15 Apr 1999, p.E1]

Honestly, the men in Russell T Davies's drama, with their rabbity, unchecked impulses and their feckless lifestyles, are not a sympathetic bunch. Least of all Stuart, the homme fatal at the centre, whose thoroughgoing egoism is absurdly overwritten, and whose loft-style apartment is quite repellently chic. [26 Feb 1999, p.18]