British television icon Russell T. Davies is a big fan of the hit hockey drama Rivals.
“I love it, it’s hot,” he said Monday during a special screening talk as part of London’s queer-focused BFI Flare Film Festival. But what Davis is less sure about is where “Heated Rivals” fits in the pantheon of groundbreaking LGBT TV shows, especially compared to his own work.
“Honestly, when people say, ‘Oh, this is a revolutionary gay show,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, hello!'”
The series he’s referring to, of course, is Queer as Folk, the late ’90s drama about a group of gay men in Manchester, which is credited with redefining on-screen gay representation and paving the way for numerous other series.
Davis said he read people posting messages on social saying, “‘Queer as Folk’ walked because ‘Hot Rivals’ ran,” to which he responded, “We’ve been running since the beginning!”
Davies spoke about Queer as Folk, as well as early career shows such as The Grand and subsequent successes Cucumber, It’s a Sin and Years and Years, and treated viewers at London’s BFI Southbank to an exclusive clip from his upcoming drama Tip To, which launches on Channel 4 later this year.
He said the five-part miniseries is “something like Years and Years and Queer as Folk, which follows a gay bar owner (Alan Cumming) in Manchester, while also dealing with the rise of far-right politics and the threat to LGBT rights.”
The six-minute clip shows Leo, played by Cumming, speaking to his friend Melba, an elderly drag queen played by Paul Rhys, about the state of the world. This is a moving and very contemporary conversation referring to the current president of the United States.
“What if this situation never returns? What if Trump keeps winning forever?” Melba asks. “How long will it last? How much will they hate us? Because they hate us, they really hate us. And, you know, I think they always hated us. But now they don’t have to pretend anymore.”
He later said, after discussing online criticism of his alleged hiring of transgender staff, that “the president of the United States has given these men permission to attack us. Leo, you’re queer in 2026, it’s a political act.”
