‘Cucumber’ will not return for a second series, writer Russell T. Davies has revealed.
The highly-anticipated gay TV drama begins on Channel 4 this week and stars Vincent Franklin as middle-aged homosexual man Henry who is confused about the direction his life is going in.
Russell insists the eight-episode programme has a conclusion which would make it impossible to bring Henry back, but the two spin-off shows, ‘Banana’ and ‘Tofu’, could keep going after their initial run.
When asked if ‘Cucumber’ will come back to screens, he said: "No – ‘Cucumber’ comes to an end. It has a beginning, middle and an end … Part of us is dying to continue. I went into this saying it would be one year only for the whole thing – then you make it and you think, ‘Oh, it’d be nice to make some more of those,’ and you’re tempted back.
"But we’re talking about Banana because it’s an anthology series and I’ve loved discovering new writers and new directors with it, so that could continue."
Openly gay Russell caused controversy with his 1999 TV series ‘Queer As Folk’ which followed the lives of three homosexual men living in Manchester.
When he created the show, the 51-year-old producer-and-screenwriter agonised over how he was portraying the LGBT community but he didn’t feel the same pressure when writing ‘Cucumber’ – which also stars Julie Hesmondhalgh and Cyril Nri – because British society has moved on so much.
In an interview with website DigitalSpy, he said: "I don’t worry about representation so much, I just want to write stories about gay people. I think ‘Queer as Folk’ was in many ways the first big gay series and so it did feel like new territory and it did feel like it was needed. There are a lot more gay characters on television now but there’s still not that many … It’s hard, I think about representation if I’m sitting in a Channel 4 boardroom. When I’m actually sitting writing it, I don’t think about it at all."
No second series for Cucumber
