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As far as TV product goes, the cultural exchanges between Australia and this country have never really served as any barometer of actual ability on either side. We gave them Benny Hill and The Teletubbies, they came back with Neighbours and Home And Away. Each country, then, has much to apologise for.

In that regard, The Secret Life Of Us (currently showing on Channel 4, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10.30pm) is the best olive branch that you could possibly wish for. Twenty-two hours of urban 20-something drama set in the irresistibly funky Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, it's already been labelled 'The Oz This Life', the real worry when a phrase like that gets bandied about being, well, could a show really be as good as Amy Jenkin's landmark creation? The answer is a confident and unqualified 'Yes'.

TSLOU started life about a year ago as a two-hour pilot. That show (which now forms the first two episodes of the series) introduced us to eight young Melbourne characters (four guys, four girls) all living in the same apartment block. So far, so familiar. Before that pilot had even been filmed, though, Channel 4 got wind of the project, asked to see some scripts and - without even seeing a frame of the product - immediately decided to come on board as co-producers.

A year later, the 22 episodes have been filmed, and Channel 4's leap of faith has been resolutely rewarded. TSLOU is worlds apart from your average oz TV fare. In short, it dispenses with every single rule in the Oz Drama Series Guidebook: we get characters who we actually do give a shit about, we get non-judgemental depictions of infidelity, recreational drug use and - inevitably - we get the Gay Thing.

But before you roll your eyes at the prospect of another character-by-numbers portrayal of a young man who will either fall out with a family member over his sexuality or encounter some issue-laden HIV-related plotline, let us just quickly remind you: this show does not follow The Rules.

Much as we'd love to take credit for the line ourselves, it was TSLOU's Australian publicist, Kym Druitt who summed up the gay angle best when she said "The show faces up to the big questions - like how much pizza to keep in the fridge for breakfast? And the little questions - like am I gay or not?" And it's no glib soundbyte, either. For an insider's take on it, we turn to Samuel Johnson who plays the show's male lead, Evan, an adorable, floppy-haired slacker-figure. As Samuel clarifies, "the show deals with mortality, monogamy, relationships, not being able to pay your rent, homosexuality, drug use... But it doesn't grandstand on any of these issues. You've got characters taking ecstasy, characters punching each other in the face, guys going down on guys... You've got it all."

Samuel would be the first to admit that he's pretty much playing himself onscreen. "Evan's a lot more homophobic than I am, though," he laughs. "In one of the early episodes, he says he'd never have sex with a guy for a million bucks. And that's crap. I would. Why not? I mean, for a million bucks I think I'd go anywhere, short of necrophilia and bestiality... And even then I'd think about it."

Like all of the cast and crew, Samuel's had the best time on this production. The sense that they've chucked out the moral-majority rule-book is mentioned in almost every interview. "Oh, there's that moral high-ground thing traditionally," grimaces Samuel. "I did Home and Away about seven years ago - it's a shit product. And I'm happy to say that of Home And Away. I respect them for making two and a half hours of it a week and getting away with it, but that's about it. I get really sick of television programme makers treating their audiences like they're stupid."

The end result of this departure from the norm is a distinct and refreshing "So what?" subtext to most issues in TSLOU, sexual orientation being one of them. As the series starts out, we have the one gay character, Simon (David Tredinnick), a local bar-owner. He's not especially camp, he's not especially butch, he's not especially anything but himself, really. David himself is especially pleased that there's not even the faintest whiff of stereotype about the character. "Thankfully, from the word go, they just said 'No'. They weren't interested in going there at all," he told Attitude. "Which I was really happy about - because there's nothing worse than a stereotype, is there? It's old hat, and it's not very interesting."

David boasts, however irrelevant the observation may be, one of the sexiest voices of all the cast members. He's got that deep, warm thing going on, occasionally punctuated with the kind of high-pitched chuckle you associate with an old timer watching the young 'uns fucking up around him. Indeed as Simon, he is the Voice Of Experience within the group, generally observing their ins and outs from a safe distance. Until, of course, episode six, when Richie enters the equation...

Richie (Spencer McLaren) is an up-and-coming actor and has, up till now, been happily, devotedly in love with Miranda (Abi Tucker). Then a spliff-fuelled night out with Simon culminates in Richie getting his first ever male-delivered blowjob. And Richie quite likes it. And here again, it would have been so easy for Simon to have been painted as the predatory homo who 'turned' Richie gay. "When we shot that scene," explains Spencer, "there was a lot of discussion - we didn't want it to come across as predatory in any way, there had to be a sense that Richie was not entirely inactive in the situation. We didn't want it to be 'victim Richie'. The point is, he discovers that it's something he wants to explore. And the shock for him is not 'Oh my God, I'm gay', it's 'Oh my God, I really enjoyed that'."

The fallout from this reverberates on until the last episodes. Richie has a lot to deal with, his (soon-to-be-former) girlfriend Miranda has arguably just as much. And it's a story Arc that clearly delighted the show's Sydney-based creator/co-writer, Judi McCrossin. "Miranda's completely thrown by it, and a little embarrassed as to how to tell people," she grins. "My belief is, if you're gay, you're gay. But if you're younger and a bit hip, you might think, you know, 'Ah well, sexuality takes all different forms, and maybe we can work through this, and what does fidelity mean anyway...' and all that kind of stuff, but the fact is, Richie wants to be with men." She screws her nose up. "You can't fight that, can you?"

Spencer says he'd quite like to see the question of bisexuality explored in a second series. "We've never seen an honest treatment of a male bisexual character on TV, have we?" Judi, for her part, is less convinced: "Oh please," she laughs. "Bisexual men are gay, that's what I think. Bisexual women exist, sure, but I just don't believe there's such a thing as a bisexual man. As a woman, if my partner told me he was bisexual, I'd just be 'No, no, good try. Not gonna happen'."

Which might not be the most politically-correct view ever expressed (we look forward to your letters etc), but then, this is a show which has no space in its schedule for PC constraints. That said, Judi has managed to get the Gay Thing so incredibly right, you can't help wonder who a straight woman credits for that kind of insight. "Easy," she beams. "I credit Sydney. I live in such a gay world. My best male friend is a gay man, and I do run all those things past him. But part of it is definitely living in Sydney - in the Eastern suburbs, it's such a gay culture. Predominantly so. What may seem slightly unusual in other towns is not unusual here at all."

As for David and Spencer, neither had any qualms about taking on a gay role. "I've made a career out of playing gay characters on stage, film and TV," he shrugs. "Pretty much 50% of my work has been gay characters. So I've been typecast maybe, but it's been a very fruitful typecasting. If you'll excuse the pun." Although as Spencer confirms, that kind of approach is perhaps not quite as universal as we'd like to think. "It's still a serious issue for the industry, isn't it?" he frowns. "How many out, gay leading men are there? I sometimes wonder whether we're on the brink of some sort of change there, but you look around and you've got Ian McKellen - and he took how many years? - and Rupert Everett. Is there anyone else?"

The irony being that Spencer's character, the now-gay Richie will come up against this later on in the series when he's offered a gay role, but is scared to accept it. We'll not spoil the outcome of that one, save to say that Evan muddies the waters around that one a little too much for his own good and ends up paying the price. In no uncertain terms.

The last word has to go to Samuel. The man is like a kid who just got a report card of straight A's and can't wait to shout about it to anyone who'll listen. "There's a huge amount of excitement here," he grins. "We feel we're doing something that hasn't been done before. This kind of drama is something Australia's never really done. Or never done well, at least. We're very proud of it." He's called away for a photoshoot, but - before leaving - grabs my shoulder. "I'm not pulling your dick here, mate - this is bettter than anything you've seen come out of Australia for years."

The Secret Life Of Us - Cast intro

Will (Joel Edgerton)
Profession: Scaffolder
Irresistible rough'n'ready bloke with all manner of complexities bubbling under the surface and a sense of humour straight out of a Fosters ad campaign. (we mean that in a good way)

Gabrielle (Sibylla Budd)
Profession: Political Staffer
Hell hath no fury, and boy don't we know it. Gabrielle's best childhood friend, Alex, has just slept with her fiance. In an 'It meant nothing' kind of way. Which, of course, means everything to Gabrielle.

Alex (Claudia Karvan)
Profession: Doctor
Gorgeous, successful and smart. But she's also deeply flawed, so that's OK. Frighteningly anal, she even has a sex 'order'. You know, kiss first, then blowjob, then shag. And only ever in that order, OK?

Evan (Samuel Johnson)
Profession: Writer.
Brilliant character - a strange collision of hopeless romanticism tempered with a cynical exterior (a protective measure). Busy writing his first book. Or will be, as soon as he gets out of bed.

Jason (Damian De Montemas)
Profession: Lawyer
Ooh - bastard alert. Jason's the low-down slut who slept with his fiance's best mate just before marrying her. Actor Damian did something similar in that Castlemaine XXXX ad too. Typecast as a tramp, then.

Kelly (Deborah Mailman)
Profession: None, to start with.
Aww. She smiles, and it's like the world just hugged you. Kelly's the eternal wide-eyed optimist. Hell, she even believes that pyramid selling is a good career move. Bless.

Miranda (Abi Tucker)
Profession: Actress. Struggling.
Great voice, in that Mariella Frostrup, 50-woodbines-before-brekky kind of way. Endearingly self-conscious girlfriend of Richie. Who's about to blow that. Anyone who caught Heartbreak High will remember her as Jodi.

Richie (Spencer McLaren)
Profession: Actor. Doing OK.
Expends a great deal of effort making sure that everyone and everything around him is unruffled and happy. Which translates as "lily-livered avoidance of anything that looks remotely like a confrontation".

Simon (David Tredinnick)
Profession: Bar-owner (successful) and bar-man (crap)
Immediately engaging proprietor of local boozer, the Fu Bar. World-weary outlook tempered with a good heart, he's the first port of call when anyone needs a dependable agony aunt.