Cherry -- who will use his own life experiences as a basis for the plot -- told afterelton.com: "We're going to have the first male desperate housewives."

"They will move into the old Applewhite house, and one of the gay men will just have a fractious, hateful relationship with (Susan Mayer)," he continued.

"Susan wants to be so politically correct and show how open-minded she is, that she puts her foot in her mouth instantly and it goes downhill from there. I'm basing it a little bit on my relationship with my neighbours."

He added: "We've just started writing the episodes, so I probably won't start casting for another few weeks."

Production has already begun on the fourth season of the hit ABC drama and is due to kick off its 23-episode run in the US on Sunday, September 30.