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Russell T Davies, an excitable man at the best of times, is cruelly constrained. Having written his most extraordinary drama yet, he's bursting to tell Attitude all about it, but brown-trousered ITV suits have placed all manner of embargos on the show's content. Their concern? That a series about Jesus Christ returning to modern-day Manchester in the body of a random bloke might ruffle a few feathers among one of this country's minority groups, namely, the Christians. But if you're expecting The Second Coming to be a soap-box exercise of the 'God is bad, mmkay?' ilk, think again. Davies has come up with one of the most thought-provoking, debate-stirring pieces of work ever to be whispered about, and - blimey - the one which will finally allow him to shake that "Queer As Folk bloke' label. And right now, he's unstoppably, talking-ten-to-the-dozen proud. Attitude got a sneak preview of the first episode, and can see why.

Gay men and religion have never been firm friends - most people will be expecting you to rant against religious homophobia…

Well yes, I suppose so, but that's all a bit "sixth-form essay", isn't it? Actually I think when I started writing this, I set out to take more of a pot-shot at religion because, well, because all you ever hear from bishops and rabbis is 'You people should not exist'. I mean really - have that lot ever done us any favours? All they do is bang on about how their churches are empty, then turn around and say 'Homosexuality is a sin' and you say 'That's why your churches are empty, you bastards!' Not just because of us - but also because of the mothers and fathers and brothers of gay men. So yes, I could have written The Second Coming like that.

Why didn't you?

I read the Bible. Simple as that. When you sit down with the Bible and read the New Testament, you realise that all these bishops and so on have not read that book! And they should be ashamed of themselves, because it's a fantastic book. It preaches love, compassion, humility, forgiveness - if Jesus Christ were alive today, he'd say 'Gay men? Fantastic. Good for you.' It sounds naïve, but when you realise the corruption that message goes through, it's just so wrong. That really was a big turning point for me. To take pot-shots at God means you haven't read the New Testament. And that's when The Second Coming became a much better drama. All that anti-gay stuff is in Leviticus, which is just, well, mad. To spell it out in the simplest of fucking terms, OLD testament, as in old, NEW testament as in new, as in replacing the old one. That's the whole point!

It's quite a passionate celebration of faith at times.

Oh absolutely, I've got two friends who are deeply Christian, a lovely couple, and they had a daughter who died in childbirth, which was just terrible. And I remember thinking 'What do you do with your faith at a time like this?' And yes, they wavered, but three years down the line they've come out of it more convinced in their faith than ever. And you've got to respect that - how marvellous.

What are your own religious beliefs?

I'm an atheist. That said, when my mum died last October, I remember sitting there thinking 'Oh it would be so nice to believe in the afterlife now…' How enviable. My sister's a Christian, and for her, mum was still there in the room. If ever there's a moment when you wish you believed, there it is, but still I couldn't.

Will the show upset the Church?

Oh there'll be people protesting about it before they've even seen it, you can count on that. But as far as Christians themselves go, well Jessica Stevenson is a passionate Christian, and I gave her the script to read when we were filming Bob And Rose. And strangely enough, what I saw as atheism, she saw as modern Christianity, which is all about people instead of invisible gods. I thought she might be pissed off, but she loved it.

Yes, but the Son Of God porks the lovely Lesley Sharp in the second episode, we hear…

Of course he does! He loves her. This is the woman he absolutely loves, what could be more natural? It's not a shag up a back alley with a drag queen, is it? It's a beautiful thing - which is what sex is. And it's so human, too - if Jesus is on earth wanting to experience what men feel, of course he's going to want to do that. It's the most intense experience of the lot.

This won't be percieved as a comedy, plainly. But Bob And Rose unexpectedly was…

I know! I was awarded 'Comedy writer of the year' for that. How did that happen? You're talking about the year when the first series of The Office went out! Still the oddest night of my life, that one. Sitcom hacks who've been there for fifty years staring at me, so obviously thinking 'Who the fuck are you?'. Ooh I got glared at, I really did. And am I invited this year? No.

Were you happy with how Bob And Rose was received?

It's funny. You write Queer as Folk and you get people complaining that it's not like real gay life, all these young sexy boys… so you write a drama with Alan Davies as a middle-aged gay man and people say 'Ew, he's not very sexy' and don't watch it. [rolls eyes] Fuck off!

Rumour has it, there's an American version in the works…

Yes! HBO have bought Bob And Rose! Their comedy department are turning it into a series of half-hour episodes, a bit like Sex And The City. Fingers crossed on that - they're going to shoot a pilot and then we'll see what happens. This is as good as it gets - so exciting. And we get a lot more say than we did with Queer As Folk USA, HBO are very open. So far they've been absolutely lovely - one meeting, they loved the story, that was it! If only it were always like that, it'd be gorgeous.

The Second Coming airs on ITV1 towards the end of January.