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This storyline showed how it can be a monosexual lover's distrust of a bisexual, and not the bisexuality, that spoils a relationship. Alex cheated with Dan; meanwhile Mark, though approached flirtatiously by a girl at a bar, had remained faithful to Alex. It was Alex's cheating and not Mark's that led to them breaking up.    

Unfortunately, later episodes seemed to return to the stereotype of the unstable untrustworthy bisexual. Mark began dating regular female character Nicki, and then cheated on her with a man. When he was found out, he ran away and disappeared from the series. However, there had been at least one episode that had suggested that when it comes to cheating, it isn't always the bisexual lover who has to be the guilty party.

Another interesting, and provocative, take on male bisexuality came from the drama Bob and Rose (2001), available on Region 1 DVD, which was written by UK Queer as Folk creator Russell T. Davies. Thirty-something Bob is a man who has always comfortably identified as gay, until he meets Rose and unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with her.

Bob and Rose may be incredibly happy together - but what about the reactions of their friends and family? Bob's mother, a proud member of Parents Against Homophobia, doesn't know how to react to the news that her son is in love with a woman. Bob's best friend, Holly, who has always secretly been in love with him, is devastated to find that he could fall for a woman who isn't her. And Rose's friends sow doubts in her mind - can she have a lasting relationship with a man who is otherwise gay?    

The series is unusual in exploring a form of bisexuality that is neither an ongoing 50/50 attraction, nor just a one-off fling. In suggesting that a ‘gay' man could form a happy and permanent straight relationship, it risks raising the ire of gay activists. Yet there are real-life examples of people who have always been attracted to one gender, but who unexpectedly find themselves falling seriously in love with someone of the other.

Anne Heche is one. Stephen Daldry (director of The Hours) is another. Although he still identifies as gay, he is now happily married to a woman. The drummer Jon Moss, of 80s band Culture Club, identified as heterosexual before he began his six-year relationship with Boy George. After the relationship ended, he married and had children.

In writing Bob and Rose, Davies addressed a form of bisexuality that may make people uncomfortable, but that nevertheless seems to exist.    

As representations of bisexual men have proliferated and become more varied on the small screen, so have they begun to do so on the large screen. 2004 could be described as the year of the bisexual hero, or significant main protagonist: Alexander the Great in Alexander, Bobby Morrow in A Home At The End Of The World, Dr. Alfred Kinsey and Clyde Martin in Kinsey, Ned Kynaston in Stage Beauty. 2005 brought us Colin Firth in Where The Truth Lies and now in 2006 we have Pierce Brosnan in The Matador.    

Issue can still be taken with these representations. Pierce Brosnan's character may be likeable, for example, but he is still amoral (and a killer). A recurring theme in many of these movies is that the character may be technically bisexual, but it is only his physical relationships with women that are shown onscreen (as in Alexander). But what is also notable is the variety of personalities on display: an ancient warrior, a sweet-natured orphan, a somewhat stuffy doctor, a Restoration female impersonator, a Rat-Packer, a hit-man.    

What this may indicate is that, as more shows and films become prepared to deal with queer issues in general, bisexual male characters as distinct from gay characters are beginning to get more of a look-in. And for bisexual men, as that 2000 episode of Sex and the City demonstrates, being acknowledged to exist at all is, in a way, just as important as how they are presented. The recent crop of portrayals may not be flawless - they may still be prone to certain stereotypes - but at least they are there.

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