---
title: "Queer as Folk"
year: 1999
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/queer-as-folk"
fi1m_score: 79
critics_score: 73
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-16T23:08:34.373323+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-16T23:09:16.871543+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Queer as Folk (1999)

Created by Russell T Davies · 32m · MPA TV-MA · Drama

**Fi1m score: 79** · Critics 73 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* Aidan Gillen treats the whole of Manchester as a queue he is entitled to jump, and nobody stops him

> Russell T Davies’s Manchester drama is quick, filthy and properly funny, and it treats its three leads as people rather than as a cause. It is careless with some of the damage they do, and a two-episode second series finishes in a hurry.

## Synopsis

Manchester, 1999. Stuart Jones (Aidan Gillen) has money, a flat with more glass than furniture and no intention of going home alone. His oldest friend Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly) has loved Stuart since school and has never said so. On a Friday night in the bars Stuart picks up Nathan Maloney (Charlie Hunnam), who is still at school and has told his mother Janice (Caroline O’Neill) he is at a friend’s. Before dawn Stuart is at a hospital, where Romey Sullivan (Esther Hall) is giving birth to his son. Vince’s mother Hazel (Denise Black) keeps a warm, crowded house with her lodger Bernard (Andy Devine), and Nathan decides he is not going back to being invisible at school.

## Review

Russell T Davies wrote all ten episodes of *Queer as Folk*, eight half-hours first shown from 23 February 1999 and two more the following February, and his idea was simple. Gay life in Manchester would not be an issue, a tragedy or a lesson. It would be a Friday night, with the people who have it, want it, regret it and do it again the next week. That the idea now sounds ordinary is partly the series’ doing. It is a very good piece of television and a slightly heartless one, and the two things are connected.

The first episode does more in 32 minutes than most dramas manage in a series. Stuart Jones (Aidan Gillen) takes Nathan Maloney (Charlie Hunnam), years too young for him, home from a bar, gets a phone call, and drives to a hospital where Romey Sullivan (Esther Hall) is having his baby, with Nathan still in the passenger seat. Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly) has, as usual, gone home alone. Gillen plays Stuart as a man who has never once been refused and finds the idea faintly amusing. He is charming in the way that a lit cigarette is warm, and Gillen never asks us to forgive him, which is why we keep watching.

Kelly’s Vince is the series’ conscience and its running joke. He is kind, funny, slightly cowardly and hopelessly in love with the wrong man. Denise Black gives Hazel, his mother, the best lines in the thing and delivers them from the kitchen with a fag on. There is a scene between the two of them, late in the first series, that we will not describe except to say it moved us more than a programme this quick had any right to. It is one mother saying one true thing to one son, and the camera does not move. We had been laughing thirty seconds earlier. We were not laughing then.

Nigel Walters and Alasdair Walker shoot the bars in hard reds and blues and the streets wet and orange under the lamps, with the camera moving almost constantly, so that a night out has the same rhythm as the cutting. Jeff Tessler and Claire Kenny give Stuart a flat of glass, steel and empty floor, and Hazel a house where every surface has a mug on it, and you understand both men before either speaks. Murray Gold’s score is mostly pulse, sitting under pop records, and it knows when to stop. Charles McDougall, Sarah Harding and Menhaj Huda direct with the same brisk hand; nobody lingers.

The trouble is what the series does with its own nerve. Nathan is far too young for Stuart, and Davies knows it is a problem, says so through Janice and through Nathan’s friend Donna (Carla Henry), and then lets Stuart shrug it off, and lets the series shrug with him. Stuart hurts people in nearly every episode and it very rarely costs him anything, and by the sixth we found ourselves wanting the script to make him pay for something, anything. Alexander Perry (Antony Cotton) and the rest of the circle are a chorus, there to react, and Bernard’s scenes with Hazel are better than his scenes with anyone else. Stuart’s crowd exists to be seen with him, which is true to life and thin as drama.

The second series is two episodes, and it shows. Storylines that needed a run at them are settled in a scene, and the ending is a flourish rather than a finish. It is a good flourish. We will say no more than that.

Against British television of 1999 this was a cold shower, and it still moves faster than most of what is made now. Against Davies’s own later work it is the loud younger brother: *It’s a Sin* (2021) covers some of the same streets with far more care for the people who did not make it home. Watch this one first, ideally in a couple of sittings, because it was built for a Friday night and it behaves like one. It carries an 18 and earns it inside the first ten minutes.

*Fi1m score 79, published 16 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are warmly disposed towards the series, and the praise clusters in the same place: its frankness. The reviews return again and again to how explicit and unapologetic its picture of Manchester’s gay scene is, and how little it apologises for the sex, the clubbing or the men at the centre of it. Several single out the club scenes and the moments of sudden heartbreak, and the mix of humour and hurt is the quality most often named. The character work is credited with keeping it watchable years on.

The reservations are smaller and mostly arrive from later vantage points: some elements have dated, a few characters are hard to like, and the age gap at the heart of one relationship sits uncomfortably now. The spread is narrow, with one exception. The Independent, writing when it aired, is the lone mixed voice, finding the characters self-obsessed and the ending a shrug of style. The retrospectives are kinder than the contemporary notice.

### Reviews we read (6)

- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the series as a knock-out for its filthy, glamorous portrayal of Manchester's gay scene, full of sex, clubbing, and unexpected heartbreak. They single out the memorable clubbing scenes and emotional moments for praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/27/queer-as-folk-review-gay-cucumber-aidan-gillen)
- **The Times**, Rupert Mellor (80/100, inferred): The series opens with a bold, explicit depiction of gay life in Manchester that lets its characters fully embrace their identities. It balances shock value with growing emotional sophistication and broad audience appeal despite initial controversy. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/queer-as-folk-the-definitive-collectors-edition-18-s8t379jhsq8)
- **The Independent** (50/100, inferred): The critic notes the series ends with a shrug of style after exploring self-obsession and moral ambiguity in the characters' lives. They find it hard to be optimistic about some plot points but acknowledge the stylish presentation. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/television-review-1087360.html)
- **Collider**, Adam Donald (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the 1999 British series as a groundbreaking and underrated trailblazer that brought frank, explicit depictions of LGBTQ+ lives to mainstream TV. They highlight its mix of humor and heartbreak, realistic characters, and lasting positive impact on representation and audiences. [Read](https://collider.com/queer-as-folk-uk-underrated/)
- **Den of Geek**, Alice Pattillo (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the original 1999 series as groundbreaking and unapologetic in its depiction of gay life, highlighting its honest exploration of relationships, sexuality, and identity, while noting its enduring relevance despite some dated elements and controversies. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/rediscovering-queer-as-folk/)
- **Digital Spy**, Catriona Wightman (75/100, inferred): The review finds that the series holds up well 15 years later, being vibrant, witty, and entertaining with strong character work, though noting some unlikeable characters and uncomfortable plot points like the age gap. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a553165/queer-as-folk-is-15-years-old-looking-back-on-a-classic/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Russell T Davies
- **Creator:** Russell T Davies
- **Director:** Charles McDougall, Sarah Harding, Menhaj Huda
- **Writer:** Russell T Davies
- **Cinematography:** Nigel Walters, Alasdair Walker
- **Music:** Murray Gold
- **Production design:** Claire Kenny, Jeff Tessler
- **Producer:** Nicola Shindler
- **Cast:** Aidan Gillen as Stuart Jones; Craig Kelly as Vince Tyler; Charlie Hunnam as Nathan Maloney; Esther Hall as Romey Sullivan; Denise Black as Hazel Tyler; Andy Devine as Bernard Thomas; Alison Burrows as Sandra Docherty; Caroline O'Neill as Janice Maloney
- **Runtime:** 32m
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 23 February 1999
- **Genres:** Drama

## Where to watch in the US

- Netflix: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: streaming
- The Roku Channel: free, hd
- Tubi: free, sd
- Pluto TV: free

*Checked 2026-09-16.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *It's a Sin* (2021): Davies returns to the same streets a decade earlier, with grief the series avoids
- *Beautiful Thing* (1996), Fi1m 80: Two boys on a Thamesmead estate; gentler, sweeter, and just as unbothered by apology — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/beautiful-thing.md)
- *Looking* (2014): San Francisco friends who talk about sex as much as they have it; quieter, sharper
- *Happy Together* (1997), Fi1m 86: Wong Kar-wai’s lovers in Buenos Aires; the same appetite, shot in a fever — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/happy-together.md)
- *This Life* (1996): Late-nineties British twentysomethings behaving badly, with a camera that never stands still

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/queer-as-folk