tel e v I s I 0 D Thai's all, Folk Russell T.</p><p> DaviesJs gay series Queer as Folktook British TV by storm.</p><p> But the show is still MIA in the United StatesJ and the spin-off never happened.</p><p> Is it curtains for Stu and Nathan? By Michael Gillz If you're wondering why Queer as Folk-the groundbreaking British TV drama-still hasn't been broad cast anywhere in the United States even as its sequel heads to video in the United Kingdom , join the club.</p><p> That's exactly what the show's creator, Russell T.</p><p> Davies, is wondering as well. ''I'm not supposed to talk about this, but I don't care," says the 36-year-old writer, who set the series in his current hometown , Manchester, England, but is now sitting at Balans restaurant in Lon don.</p><p> He pauses for a moment, thinking, and then rushes ahead. "No, I really don't care.</p><p> The moment it came out it was op- THE ADVOCATE I'" I APRIL 25,2000 COURTESY CHANNEl FOUR tioned by an American gay channel that hasn't launched yet called Cl TV. "Showtime's got the right to make a new [American version), and I hear that they're going to start filming this sum mer," Davies continues. "But the rights to show the original were bought by this group in Miami, and it cannot be re leased on video or DVD in the States until [CITV has broadcast it)." "You can certainly run that quote," CITV managing partner Darren Manko vich says of Davies's rant, "but I can't confirm or deny anything [about the Queer as Folk deal)." According to Mankovich , the Miami-based CITV is a start-up network that plans to offer pro gramming via "multiple distribution strategies for cable and satellite," al though no firm outlets have yet been ~ announced.</p><p> So when and where Queer aB Folk might SUIface on US. television or video remains hazy. "That's driving everyone crazy," says Davies. "Strangely enough, and by complete accident, I think that's one of the things that's mak ing it even more of a cult." The original eight-episode miniseries from 1999 is far from just a cult in the United Kingdom.</p><p> It was Channel Four's second-high est-rated series (behind E.R), the video release was the channel's best-selling video ever, and there are two separate UK. sound track albums.</p><p> But the massive attention the first episodes garnered meant that the sequel-two one-hour episodes that aired on Channel Four in February a week apart-would almost inevitably disappoint. "So many people hated it," says Davies, talking about the show's most dedicated UK. fans. "We got letters in the office saying, 'His hair has changed.' They were too close to it." Critical reaction, however, ''was stag geringly better," says Davies, who's as unassuming as a 6-foot 6-inch Welsh man can be.</p><p> He talks just as enthusiasti cally about his early work in children's TV (a series about computer geeks star ring a 16-year-old Kate Winslet) and the notoriously bad soap Revelations.</p><p> But Queer aB Folk is still a passion for Davies.</p><p> A torrid soap, the series cen ters on sweet, hapless 29-year-old Vince, who pines for his best pal, Stuart; 15-year-old Nathan, who also burns for Stu (and allows Stu to seduce him in the series' steamy first episode); and bad boy Stuart, who's turning 30, looking for the next shag, and thinking he has it all together-yet didn't even come out to his parents until the sequel.</p><p> Despite the ego-boosting attention all the actors got, filming the final two hours went swimmingly, although Davies admits they were a bit worried about 19-year-old Charlie Hunnam, who plays controversy-magnet Nathan.</p><p> Hun nam had, after all, gone to America, been courted by everyone, and even met Madonna "I was almost slightly dreading him coming back," says Davies. "But [the at tention] just humbled him and made him grow up.</p><p> He'd gone and studied act ing in greater detail than he'd ever done before.</p><p> And I think it showed.</p><p> His per formance was a thousand times stronger in the sequel.</p><p> I love him for that because I would have b"en too busy going to parties and getting pissed and doing cocaine and things like that at that age.</p><p> He's very clever. 's got success written all over rum.</p><p> N0.</p><p> Juccess; that's PHOTOS COURTESY CHANNEl FOUR not the right word.</p><p> Spe cial." Indeed, Hun nam's name has joined Leonardo DiCaprio's among those bandied about to play teenage Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode II, scheduled to begin filming this sununer.</p><p> Everything has not gone so swimmingly for Davies.</p><p> Take his parents, for example.</p><p> They always took pride in his TV work, and when Davies wrote for The Grand, a sort of Upstairs, Downstairs set in a hotel, his mum could bask in the ap preciative comments of her friends.</p><p> But during the initial run of Queer as Folk, as she celebrat ed her 70th birthday, some people stayed away from her party because they thought Davies might be there. "Worse, I gave her a tape of the first episode [before it aired]," re members Davies. "She gave it back to me and said, 'This is pornography.'" (His parents have since made peace with the show, he notes.) More recently, Davies hit a brick wall with Channel Four.</p><p> He had worked on a much-ballyhooed Queer as Folk spin-off called Misfits, charting out some 20 episodes and writing the first two. "I can write some rubbish," he says, "but these were fab." Davies says Channel Four, astonishingly, took a pass. "We'll never really know what hap pened," he says. "I was livid.</p><p> But now I'm really, really happy because there's clo sure.</p><p> To be honest, I'm glad it's over.".</p><p> Giltz also contributes to the New York Post and Entertainment Weekly.</p><p> Jai Find more on Queer as Folk, its sound tracks, and links -U to related Internet sites at www.advocate.com I
