Russell T Davies was watching the repeat run of his TV drama Queer as Folk last week when he spotted something that made him laugh. It was a scene from the second episode, when Nathan, the precocious 15-year-old, is setting off for another evening of hot gay sex with the villainous Stuart.

"I'm doing it, I'm really doing it," the young stud boasts to a female friend as he gets on the bus - a Stagecoach bus owned by Brian Souter, the businessman now campaigning against the repeal of Section 28, the law preventing the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools.

Since it started in February last year, Davies' glossy hit series set in Manchester's gay village has developed a strange habit of mirroring real-life y politics. It first aired only week before a controversial Government vote on the age of consent for gay men. Now, right after its repeat run, a new series hits our screens just as the furious debate over Section 28 hits the Scottish Parliament.

But Queer as Folk didn't endear Davies to some gay campaigners. The series, after all, was uncompromising in portraying the worst excesses of gay men. Take the infamous first episode, for example, in which Stuart, a selfish, sex-obsessed 29-year old, has a one-night stand with a 15-year-old schoolboy. Tabloid reaction was rabid, labelling Queer as Folk a "near paedophile soap opera" and an "incitement to crime" at a time when gay activists could really do without bad publicity.

Some, such as Stonewall, turned on Davies, accusing him of sensationalism and perpetuating negative stereotypes. "I feel sorry for gay spokespeople and politicians," the writer says. "I have a nice life and write what I want to write - they have to deal with politicians and the public and getting laws changed."

He had no idea when he was writing the series, he says; that the timing of its broadcast would be so politically relevant. Did it concern him that his work might be unhelpful to a cause he believed in?

"It does afterwards," he says. Because actually the age of consent debate was far more important than any poxy drama.

"I don't think the programme itself had any effect on voting whatsoever. If an MP changes his vote because of some drama he watched last night, it's not worth them having a vote, frankly. The only regret I have is that, coming out when it did, it caused people like Stonewall to have to make more press comments and deal with it when they had a far more important battle. It's a shame that it wasted their time."

Despite these conflicts, Davies remains unapologetic about Queer as Folk - as he should. The series was brave, groundbreaking drama, an honest portrayal of gay people at their best and their worst

Put another way, it showed homosexuals in exactly the same way other dramas shows heterosexuals every day of the week. They weren't token characters, put in to make a point about HIV or bigotry. They were normal, everyday people-at work, at play and in bed.

"The business about Nathan being 15 -it happens," says Davies. "It didn't occur to me for a second that because it's going on television you have to make it nicer and more palatable for people."

And as he points out "Den from EastEnders slept with a 15-year old girl and made her pregnant, and did we want to burn him?

"I tell you what's interesting about that first episode. It's just people's reactions to a naked arse, basically. There are funny little pieces to camera that crop up now and again, and Stuart does one about how when he was 12 years old he got into the shower with his teacher and shagged him.

"No one commented on that that. I've not had a single comment about that scene because there's not a naked arse, but I think that's twice as shocking." Much of the inspiration for Queer as Folk came from Davies' own life. He lives in Manchester, and based many characters on people he knows. The shallow and self-serving Stuart, he admits, closely resembles a specific acquaintance. When the first series went out, Davies found himself a watching one episode with him. "He hated Stuart with all his heart," he laughs. "He was huffing and going out to put the kettle on, sighing with boredom at this man who chases sex every night. He couldn't see himself in him at all."

Getting the character of Stuart right was one of Davies' biggest concerns. "We weren't worried about sex scenes or the under age thing because we knew we'd handled that correctly. And indeed, there were 160 complaints to the ITC and none were upheld.

"Our greatest risk was that people would hate Stuart and we were just hoping they would have the patience and the intelligence to stick with him.

"A lot of people come up to me and say, `I like Vince.' I'm not impressed by that - Vince is designed to be liked. It's the people who say, `I love Stuart,' and a very tiny minority who say "I like Stuart because I've been like that", who impress me: Then I'm fascinated, because I think they've got a lot of nerve to say that."

Stuart, he thinks, was the main reason many viewers continued watching Queer as Folk. Starting out as a charming but deadly TV villain, he gradually developed into a complex damaged character.

Still, Davies thinks the three main characters have a lot in common. "In some ways they operate as three aspects of the same personality. I honestly believe the nicest person in the world can be like Stuart. Equally everyone feels like a Vince and we were all young once, stupid and scared like Nathan.

"A lot of dramas would go for a obvious difference just to keep characters bouncing off each other. But they share a lot of characteristics - which is unusual."

It is partly this similarity that has led Davies to decide there will be more Queer as Folk after the new series. It's also a very short series two, hour length episodes.

It's about not wanting to repeat yourself," Davies says "It's only about three people. The more you o build that up the more of a soap it becomes, but it worked because it's absolutely focused. And there's only a limited number of ways that two 29-year olds stay in contact with a 15-year-old. It just becomes artificial after a while."

Queer as Folk is likely to contribute further to the gay rights debate before it disappears. The new series contains a painfully true scene which those fighting for the repeal of Section 28 should use as campaign material. "It's about the teachers who turn their backs on homophobic bullying, explains Davies.

"They will stop you if you say nigger in the schoolyard, but if you call someone a poof they walk right on past. Nathan deals with that attitude brilliantly and it's a bit of soapbox moment, but it's also a genuine character moment."

But Davies is wary of making his work overtly political. "Somehow I'm touching on issues already. I'm not writing apolitically - my anger is in there because you can't switch it off when you're writing. It will all come through if you write honestly.

"There's nothing wrong with writing politics - look at what Jimmy McGovern does - but I'm not the sort of person who goes 'I'm now going to write something about Section 28.' I don't know whether that's good or bad, but I can't alter that."

Perhaps there's no need: For all the fierce debate there is now over Section 28, attitudes can sometimes change-quicker than you might think. Look at recent coverage of Queer as Folk, says Davies.

"What was really funny was this time last year you couldn't open a paper without someone having a go at you. But what a difference when it comes round to repeats! It's now TV Times' pick of the day; and all the papers are saying, 'Repeat of this acclaimed drama.'

"Articles about repeats! You don't get articles about repeats -and all of them positive. That's such a turnaround in a year. You think, 'What was all the fuss about?'"