When Russell Davies’ miniseries Queer as Folk -- the original, not the execrable Showtime version -- debuted on British TV, its frank portrayal of sexual mores among a group of gay friends in Manchester, England, created a huge stir. Now, with his most recent series, Bob & Rose, Davies is raising hackles all over again, because he has dared to write the story of a man and woman in love.

A gay man and a straight woman, that is -- and that's a love that tends to make people nervous.

"I got more hate mail over that than I ever did over Queer as Folk," he told a Canadian newspaper following B&R's award-winning six-episode run last fall in the U.K. (The series has not yet been picked up in the States, but it has been featured in several gay film festivals; showings in Philly's fest begin Wednesday.) "I've seen the greatest violence toward women I've ever seen expressed in print in these letters from gay men."

Hey, guys, wasn't the freedom to love whomever you want the whole point of gay liberation? But Davies isn't surprised. "Not remotely," he says, speaking one evening from the Manchester gayborhood he made infamous. He was already aware that such a love affair could stir suspicions -- because he'd reacted that way himself.

Davies, 38, based the characters of Bob and Rose on the real-life story of a gay friend, Thomas, who fell in love with a woman, Rhian. In an essay for the British newspaper The Observer, Davies writes, "Thomas was, and is, the happiest out, loud and proud gay man you could meet." So, when this proud gay man started appearing in public with a girlfriend, his friends were incredulous. The rumors began, rumors that Davies was only too happy to spread: She was blackmailing him, he was just in it to have kids.

It was only after a late-night conversation with Thomas that Davies realized his own prejudice: "I was acting out of fear, the same fear I'd condemned in every homophobic thug," he writes. "The problem was, and the problem persists, that Thomas and Rhian just don't fit any of the labels."

Davies understands why even a fictional portrayal of such a relationship rings alarms in the gay community. "It's such a sexual-politics minefield," he says. "The fact that [Bob] falls in love means that he's happy. So you've got to be very, very careful not to portray the story as, ŒHe's happy now that he's straight' -- which I think I avoid. I mean, I would never say that."

Not to worry; it's not likely that Jerry Falwell will ever use Bob & Rose as an instructional tape. Bob struggles mightily with the realization that he's fallen in love with a woman, and so do his friends and family -- particularly his mother, who's a crusading member of the Manchester branch of PFLAG. When Bob comes out about Rose to his parents, he quickly snaps at his father, "Don't be so glad. I'm not better."

The most poignant (and at times the most irritating) character is Holly, a teaching colleague of Bob's who is in love with him but has never told him. Instead, she obsessively tries to undermine his relationship with Rose.

"In the end," says Davies, "it's a story about being in the closet. The gay man is completely out, and when he starts dating a woman, he comes out about that. But [Holly]'s the one person there who's not saying a word about what she thinks or who she truly loves, and then all is becoming distorted."

The romantic notion that "anyone can fall in love with anyone" lies at the heart of the series. As Bob and Rose, Alan Davies and Lesley Sharp make their improbable love affair seem not just probable but inevitable. Davies (who's straight) has a rumpled, hangdog vulnerability and a transparently expressive face; Sharp's sad-eyed, quick-tempered Rose may make you think of Edie Falco in The Sopranos.

The fact that both are well into their 30s was a conscious casting choice on Davies' part. "If [Bob]'d been younger, you could have said, ŒOh, his sexuality isn't fixed, he just hasn't made his mind up.'" Because he's older, and established in his gay identity, the stakes are higher. Besides, having done QAF, "which is full of sexy young things taking their shirts off," he liked the idea of exploring the lives of older characters in B&R.

"And then, of course, as well as the critics who didn't like it because of what happened to the gay man in it, I then get told off by the rest of the gay scene because he's not young enough, sexy enough and he doesn't take his shirt off.

Bob & Rose Episodes 1-3 screen Wed., July 17, 7 p.m. and Sat., July 20, noon. Episodes 4-6 screen Thu., July 18, 7 p.m. and Sun., July 21, noon. All screenings at the Wilma Theater, Broad and Spruce sts.

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