Russell T Davies on Queer as Folk’s most notorious scene: ‘My mother said it was soft porn’

Russell T Davies has spoken about Queer as Folk’s rimming scene the day after the show celebrated its 25th anniversary, saying his mother thought it was “soft porn”.

The It’s a Sin and Doctor Who writer was speaking at National Student Pride today (24 February), talking on a panel moderated by Attitude editor-in-chief Cliff Joannou. He was joined by It’s a Sin actor Nathaniel Curtis, West End star Noah Thomas, Shadow and Bone star Jack Wolfe and Heartstopper star Bel Priestley.

Speaking on the event’s LGBTQIA+ in TV & Film panel, the TV legend said the show was expected to be a failure by some. “There were a lot of middle-aged, white, straight executives who went up to one of the producers and say, ‘How’s your gay drama?’ like it was going to be so dreadful and so cliched, and so full of tragedy and fake gay characters. A lot of people were expecting that.”

He continued: “The worst criticism was from my mother, who said it was soft porn. I took it home on VHS to show my mother before it went out on television and she was genuinely shocked by it. Shortly after transmission was her 70th birthday and there were people who didn’t come to her birthday party because I was going to be there.”

“It was very much chosen so that it was a sexual experience that Nathan hadn’t even imagined”

Talking about the infamous sex scene featuring rimming between characters Nathan and Stuart (played by Charlie Hunnam and Aidan Gillen), Davies explained: “It was very much chosen so that it was a sexual experience that Nathan hadn’t even imagined. He would have fantasised about men, he would’ve imagined what men get up to – bear in mind what little information he would have had at that time.”

Surprisingly, however, he received no pushback around including the scene. “Nobody tried to stop it because I think maybe some people didn’t know what it was and nobody wanted to be the prude who piped up and said, ‘Isn’t that going too far?'”

On how the show has aged in the last 25 years, Davies said: “If we did Queer as Folk now, we’d have trans characters in there, we’d have a better racial mix in there. In some ways, that 25 years has left that programme behind, which is exactly what should happen. That’s right; that’s fair – it should look dated now.”

Queer as Folk is available to stream on the Channel 4 app.