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.

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]

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

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]