Russell T. Davies dramas to spotlight gay life

Queer as Folk creator Russell T. Davies is creating a pair of TV dramas and an online series that will explore gay life in the 21^st century.

Cucumber will be an 8x60mins series for UK broadcaster Channel 4 about a 46 year-old man, his long-suffering boyfriend and a disastrous life altering date night; while Banana is 8x30mins and for Channel 4 sister channel E4 and will follow the lives of characters around the lead from Cucumber.

Tofu, meanwhile, is an eight episode doc billed as “an anarchic online guide to sex inspired by the dramas each week”.

Davies drama Queer as Folk was a ground breaking study of gay life in the UK’s Manchester that ran on Channel 4 for two seasons between 1999 and 2000.

The show’s producer, Red Production Company, which is a target of a takeover by France’s StudioCanal, is producing the new series. Founder Nicola Shindler is executive producing along with Davies, who is best know for refreshing the Doctor Who franchise for the BBC. Benjamin Cook is making Tofu. Filming begins in Manchester in spring next year.

BBC Worldwide, which originally developed Cucumber, has distribution rights.