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3.- ADVANCED VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT: QUEER AS FOLK

Queer as folk (UK TV Series)

Queer as Folk is a 1999 British television series that chronicles the lives of three gay men let loose in Manchester's gay village around Canal Street. Both Queer as Folk and Queer as Folk 2 were written by Russell T. Davies, who was also responsible for a later gay-related drama, Bob and Rose, and the revival of Doctor Who on the BBC in 2005. The series was reshown on More 4 between 14th-18th October 2007 as part of Channel 4's 25th birthday celebrations.

Queer as Folk was produced by the independent Red Production Company for Channel 4, which had previously shown its openness for gay-themed material with made-for-TV films such as Beautiful Thing, which was later also given a cinema release. The title of the programme comes from a dialect expression from some parts of Northern England, "there's nought [colloquially pronounced 'nowt'] so queer as folk", meaning "there's nothing as strange as people". Davies had originally titled the series this, although at the suggestion of Channel 4 executives for a period during its development and pre-production it was known as Queer as Fuck, before it reverted to the former name.[1]

The screenplay is notable for its well-written monologues. For example, when at his parents' house, and threatened by his nephew (Thomas) with being outed, Stuart says, in response to his father's request to hand him some nails for a do-it-yourself project:

Stuart: We don't do hammers, or nails, or saws. We do joints and screws, but that's different.

Stuart's mother: Who does?

Stuart: Queers. Because I'm queer. I'm gay. I'm homosexual. I'm a poof, I'm a poofter, I'm a ponce. I'm a bumboy, battyboy, backside artist, bugger, I'm bent. I am that arsebandit. I lift those shirts. I'm a faggot-ass, fudge-packing, shit-stabbing uphill gardener. I dine at the downstairs restaurant, I dance at the other end of the ballroom. I'm Moses and the parting of the red cheeks. [...] And I am not a pervert. If there's one twisted bastard in this family, it's this little blackmailer here. So congratulations, Thomas. I've just officially outed you.

In another example, Stuart remarks about Canal Street:

What, come back to this? The ghetto: alleyways stinking of piss, beggars in every doorway, straights and students coming to look at the freak show, and all the idiots saving all week, saving their stupid money from their stupid idiot jobs so they can come and shoot their load with some stranger. And just you look after it, this stupid little street. It's the middle of the world. Cos on a street like this, every single night, anyone can meet anyone. And every single night, someone meets someone.

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