Russell T Davies
Russell T Davies FRSL | |
---|---|
Born | Stephen Russell Davies 27 April 1963 Swansea, Wales |
Alma mater | Worcester College, Oxford |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1986–present |
Spouse |
Andrew Smith
(m. 2012; died 2018) |
Stephen Russell Davies
Born in
Following the show's sixteen-year hiatus, Davies revived and ran Doctor Who for the period between 2005 and 2010, with
After his partner developed cancer in late 2011, Davies returned to the UK. He co-created the CBBC science fantasy drama
Early life
Stephen Russell Davies was born on 27 April 1963 at Mount Pleasant Hospital in
Davies attended Tycoch Primary School in
In 1979, Davies completed his
Davies continued to submit scripts to the WGYT during his studies at Oxford, including Box, a play about the influence of television which Evans noted contained Davies' penchants for misdirecting the audience and mixing comedy and drama; In Her Element, which centred on the animation of still objects; and Hothouse, an Alan Bennett-inspired piece about internal politics in an advertising office. In 1984, he made his final performance for the WGYT and signed up for a course in Theatre Studies at Cardiff University after he graduated from Oxford.[7] He worked sporadically for the Sherman Theatre's publicity department and claimed unemployment benefit in the interim. In 1985, Davies began his professional television career after a friend suggested he should talk to a television producer who was seeking a temporary graphic artist for the children's show Why Don't You?.[8]
Children's television career (1985–1993)
Davies was taken on as a member of the
On 1 June 1987, Davies made his first and only appearance as a television presenter on
On Why Don't You?, Davies held various jobs including: researcher, director, illustrator, assistant floor manager and unofficial publicist for fan-mail. He was offered his first professional scriptwriting job in 1986 by producer Dave Evans; he had entered Evans's office to collect his wages and was offered an extra £100 to write a replacement script. Davies' script was positively received by the CBBC and led to increasingly larger roles which culminated in a six-month contract to write for the show after it relocated to Manchester in 1988.[11] He worked for the show for two more years and became the show's producer. He oversaw an increase in drama which tripled its audience—despite the fact BBC Manchester was not permitted by the corporation to create children's dramas—which reached its climax with his last episode: a drama where the Why Don't You? protagonists, led by the show's longest running presenter Ben Slade, were trapped in a café by a supercomputer which tried to kill them.[12]
While producing Why Don't You?, Davies branched out within CBBC at BBC Manchester: he attended directors' courses; wrote for older audiences with his contributions to DEF II and On the Waterfront; and accompanied Keith Chegwin to Norway to assist in the production of a children's documentary about politics. The head of CBBC, Ed Pugh, offered him the chance to produce Breakfast Serials, a new series scheduled for an 8:00 am slot. Breakfast Serials incorporated elements of non-sequitur comedy and popular culture references aimed at older children, such as a parody of Land of the Giants.[13] He decided to leave CBBC during the production of Breakfast Serials: a friend called him after the first episode was transmitted and observed he had "broadcast a joke about the juvenilia of Emily Brontë at eight o'clock in the morning"; the conversation caused him to reflect he was writing for the wrong audience.[14] Davies worked as a writer on three more children's series while he pursued an adult drama career, creating Dark Season and Century Falls, and writing for Children's Ward.
Dark Season and Century Falls
During his tenure on Why Don't You?, Davies oversaw the production of a story that took place in
The first three episodes of Dark Season feature three young teenagers in a contemporary secondary school, Reet (
Dark Season uses concepts seen in his tenure as executive producer of Doctor Who: "
Davies started planning a second series for Dark Season, which followed a similar structure. The first half of the series would take part in the arcade mentioned in the novelisation, and the second would feature the appearance of psychic twins and the re-emergence of the villain Eldritch. The concepts were transferred to its spiritual successor, Century Falls, which was produced in 1993 at the request of Dark Season director Colin Cant. The series primarily used the "psychic twins" concept and was set in an isolated village based on those in the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.[19]
The plot of Century Falls is driven by a legend that no children had been born in the eponymous village for more than forty years. The protagonist, Tess Hunter (Catherine Sanderson), is an overweight teenager who moves to the village with her mother at the beginning of the serial. She quickly befriends the psychic Ben Naismith (Simon Fenton) and his twin sister Carey (Emma Jane Lavin). The three teenagers examine the waterfall that gave Ben his powers and the disaster which caused the legendary infertility. The serial climaxes in a confrontation between Tess and the deity Century, who is attempting to fuse with Tess's unborn sister.[19]
Century Falls is conceptually much darker than its predecessor Dark Season and his later work, which Davies attributed to a trend that inexperienced writers "get off on the dark stuff":[20] In a BAFTA interview with Davies, Home recalled she "very nearly got into trouble because it did actually push at the boundaries which some of the powers-that-be would rather not have been pushed". The series offered a sense of realism in its protagonist, who is not heroic and aspirational, has poor social skills, and is bluntly described by Ben as a "fat girl".[17] Century Falls was the last script he wrote for CBBC for fourteen years. He had begun to formulate another successor: The Heat of the Sun, a series set over Christmas 1999 and New Year's Day 2000 that would have included the concepts of psychic powers and world domination.[21]
Children's Ward
While he was writing Dark Season and Century Falls, Davies sought freelance projects elsewhere; these included three scripts for the BBC children's comedy
- Jason Lloyd
- You must be a
AIDS.- Richard Higgs
- I'm not gay, and I haven't got AIDS; I'm HIV positive. But just for the sake of an argument let's say I was homosexual. Would it matter? What difference would it make?
- Jason
- [You'd] fancy me, wouldn't you?
- Richard
- There's not a boy, girl, man, or woman alive who could possibly fancy you. Look around. Where's this queue of people dying to ask you out? They don't exist, Jason, because you're stupid, you're bigoted, and you don't matter one little bit.
— Children's Ward, written by Russell T Davies, 1993[23]
Davies left the role of producer in 1994, but continued to write occasionally for the series. Notably, he was requested to write the 100th episode of the series, by then called The Ward, which aired in October 1996. Instead of celebrating the milestone, he wrote a script about a recently emerging threat: paedophiles in online chat-rooms. The episode was about an X-Files fan who was drawn in by a paedophile's offer of a rare magazine. In the dénouement of the episode, the child recounts the tale of his near abduction and describes his attacker as "just a man like any other man". The episode earned Davies his first Children's BAFTA award for Best Drama.[22]
Adult television career (1994–2004)
During his production tenure on Children's Ward, Davies continued to seek other freelance writing jobs, particularly for
In 1994, Davies relinquished all of his producing jobs, and was offered a scriptwriting role on the late-night soap opera
Davies attributes the revelation about Holderness's character as a consequence of both the "pressure cooker nature" of the show and the recent
Davies continued to propose dramas to Channel 4. The next drama to be commissioned was
The Grand
Davies' next project was The Grand, a
The second series had a lighter tone and greater emphasis on character development, which Davies attributed to his friend Sally, who had previously warned him of the adult humour in Breakfast Serials; she told him his show was too bleak to be compared to real life. He highlighted the sixth and eighth episodes of the second series as a time of maturity as a writer: for the sixth, he utilised then-unconventional narrative devices such as flashbacks to explore the hotel barman's closeted homosexuality and the societal attitudes towards sexuality in the 1920s;[36] and he highlighted the eighth as when he allowed the series to "take on its own life" by deliberately inserting plot devices such as McGuffins to enhance the comic relief of the series.[37]
Although well received, the series' ratings were not high enough to warrant a third series. After its cancellation in September 1997, Davies had an existential crisis after almost dying from an accidental overdose; the experience persuaded him to detoxify and make a name for himself by producing a series which celebrated his homosexuality.[38]
Queer as Folk
After his near-death experience, Davies started to develop a series for Channel 4 which reflected the "hedonistic lifestyle" of the gay quarter of Manchester he was leaving behind. Encouraged by ex-Granada executives Catriona MacKenzie and Gub Neil to "go gay", the series focused on a group of friends in Manchester's gay scene, tentatively titled The Other End of the Ballroom, and later, Queer as Fuck.[39]
By February 1998, when he completed the first draft for the series première, the series was known under its eventual title Queer as Folk.[39] The series emulates dramas such as Band of Gold in presenting realistic discussion on sexuality, as opposed to "one-sided" gay characters in soap operas such as EastEnders, and eschews "heavy-handed discussion" of issues such as HIV; the show instead focuses on the party scene on Canal Street.[40]
After he wrote the pilot, he approached actors for the main characters.
The series was aired in early 1999, when
Queer as Folk 2 was broadcast in 2000 and was driven by the plot element of Vince's half-sister's wedding. The specials place emphasis on Vince and Stuart's relationship, and ends with their departure for another gay scene in a pastiche of
Bob & Rose
Shindler continued to pitch The Second Coming to other television networks while Davies sought other ventures. His next series was based on a gay friend who married a woman and fathered a child. He saw the relationship as a promising concept for an unconventional love story and asked the couple about their relationship to develop the show.[54] After he developed the series around the prejudice he and his gay friends had shown, he realised he was creating caricatures for the purpose of exposing them, and instead focused on telling a traditional love story and gave the couple the traditionally British names of Bob Gossage and Rose Cooper.[55]
To simulate a classic love story, the plot required antagonists, in the form of Bob's best friend and fellow teacher Holly Vance and Rose's boyfriend Andy Lewis (Daniel Ryan). While Andy, named after Davies' boyfriend Andrew Smith, was a minor character and departed in the third episode, Holly featured throughout the entirety of the series.[55] Bob & Rose thus followed a similar format to Queer as Folk, in particular, the triumvirate of main characters composed of a couple and an outsider who lived in contemporary Manchester, and inverted the traditional "coming out" story by focusing on Bob's uncharacteristic attraction to Rose; Bob describes his sexual life by simply speaking the line "I fancy men. And her."[55] The series was similar to the Kevin Smith film Chasing Amy (1997), as they both portrayed a romance between a straight character and gay character and the resulting ostracism from the couple's social circles, much like The Second Coming shared its concept with Smith's 1999 film Dogma.[56]
Like Queer as Folk, Bob & Rose contributed to the contemporary political debate around LGBT rights: a subplot involves the fictional pressure group Parents Against Homophobia (PAH), led by Bob's mother Monica (Penelope Wilton), an ardent gay rights activist, and their campaign to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which prohibited local authorities from "intentionally promot[ing]" homosexuality.[57] The subplot climaxes in the fourth episode, when Monica and Bob lead a rally into direct action by handcuffing themselves to a bus run by a company whose management donated millions to keeping the law on the books;[57][58] the scene directly parallels protests against the transport company Stagecoach due to their founder Brian Souter's financial and political support of Section 28—at one point, Davies intended to explicitly name Stagecoach in the script—[58] and is inspired by earlier protests undertaken by the LGBT rights pressure group OutRage!.[57]
After successfully pitching the show to
The series was filmed in the southern suburbs of Manchester between March and June 2001 and often used Davies' own home as a
The Second Coming
Shortly after the transmission of Bob & Rose, Davies was approached by Abbott to write for his new BBC show Linda Green. He accepted the offer and wrote an episode where the titular character (Liza Tarbuck) and her friends attend a schoolmate's funeral and become psychologically haunted by the deceased woman's solitary life. His first work for the BBC in eight years prompted them to approach him with additional concepts for period dramas, which he invariably declined as his sole intent was to revive Doctor Who, which had then been on hiatus for over a decade.[63]
In 2002, he met with the BBC to discuss the revival of the show and producing The Second Coming; the BBC were unable to commit to either, and he again declined to work for them.[63] After the BBC rejected The Second Coming, Shindler proposed the series should be pitched to ITV. Despite the story's controversial message, the critical success of Bob & Rose encouraged the channel to commission the series for broadcast.[63]
The Second Coming had been several years in the making and endured many rewrites from the first draft presented to Channel 4 in 2000, but retained its key concept of a depiction of the
An experienced actor was required to portray Stephen; Davies approached Christopher Eccleston, who had previously been approached for the role of Stuart in Queer as Folk, based on his performance as Nicky Hutchinson in the drama Our Friends in the North.[66] Eccleston accepted the role and helped Davies make the character more human after he observed "Baxter was getting lost amid his loftier pronouncements". The character of Judith, who would represent the fall of God, was given to Lesley Sharp after her performance in Bob & Rose, and the role of the Devil was given to Mark Benton.[66]
The Second Coming was controversial from its conception. When it was a Channel 4 project, it was the subject of a
Mine All Mine
In the time near his mother's death, Davies returned to Swansea several times and reflected on the role of family. During one visit, he realised he had not yet written a series set in Wales; hence, he created a series about a family who discovers they own the entire city of Swansea.
Because the series was centred on an entire family, Red Productions was given the task of casting eleven principal characters:[70] the role of family patriarch Max Vivaldi was given to Griff Rhys Jones, at the request of ITV for prolific actors;[70] Rhian Morgan, Davies' ex-girlfriend from the WGYT, was cast as Max's wife Val;[70] Sharon Morgan as Max's sister Stella;[70] Joanna Page as Candy Vivaldi;[70] Matthew Barry and Siwan Morris as the Vivaldi siblings Leo and Maria;[70] Hi-de-Hi! actress Ruth Madoc as Val's sister Myrtle Jones;[70] and Jason Hughes as Maria's boyfriend Gethin.[70] The series, specifically the family's composition of two daughters and a gay son, mirrored his own upbringing to the point where Davies and his boyfriend referred to the show as "The Private Joke".[71]
The series was originally written in six parts, but Davies excised a large portion of the fifth episode because the crew expressed concerns with its pacing. The series was filmed in late 2003 under the direction of Sheree Folkson and Tim Whitby, and utilised many areas of Swansea which Davies was familiar with since his childhood. It aired as four-hour-long episodes and a ninety-minute finale on Thursday nights preceding Christmas 2003.[72] Eventually, Mine All Mine would be his least successful series and ended its run with just over two million viewers, which he later blamed on the series' high eccentricity.[72]
Casanova
Shortly after the transmission of Mine All Mine, the BBC commissioned Davies to produce the revival of Doctor Who, which completed his decade-long quest to return the series to the airwaves.[73] At the time, he was developing two scripts: the first, a cinematic adaptation of the Charles Ingram Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? scandal, was cancelled after he accepted the Doctor Who job;[74] and the second, a dramatisation of the life of the Venetian adventurer and lover Giacomo Casanova, was his next show with Red Productions.[75]
Davies' association with Casanova began when
Davies' script takes place in two distinct time frames and required two different actors for the eponymous role: the older Casanova was portrayed by Peter O'Toole, and the younger Casanova was portrayed by David Tennant.[76] The serial takes place primarily during Casanova's early adulthood and depicts his life among three women: his mother (Dervla Kirwan), his lover Henriette (Laura Fraser), and his consort Bellino (Nina Sosanya). The script takes a different approach to Dennis Potter's 1971 dramatisation; instead of Potter's focus on sex and misogyny, the 2005 serial focuses on Casanova's compassion and respect for women.[76]
Casanova was filmed alongside the first few episodes of the new series of Doctor Who, which meant producers common to both projects, including Davies and Gardner, made daily journeys between the former's production in Lancashire and Cheshire and the latter's production in Cardiff.[77] Red Productions also filmed on location overseas in a stately home in Dubrovnik, and alongside production of the identically titled 2005 Lasse Hallström film in Venice.[76] The two production teams shared resources and were given the unofficial names of "Little Casanova" and "Big Casanova" respectively.[76] When it premièred on BBC Three in March 2005, the first episode attracted 940,000 viewers, a record for a first-run drama on the channel, but was overshadowed on BBC One by the return of Doctor Who in the same month.[77]
Doctor Who (2005–2010)
Since watching First Doctor's (William Hartnell) regeneration into the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) at the end of the 1966 serial The Tenth Planet, Davies had "fallen in love" with the show and, by the mid-1970s, he was regularly writing reviews of broadcast serials in his diary. His favourite writer and childhood hero was Robert Holmes; during his career, he has complimented the creative use of BBC studios to create "terror and claustrophobia" for Holmes's 1975 script The Ark in Space—his favourite serial from the original series—and has opined that the first episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) featured "the best dialogue ever written; it's up there with Dennis Potter".[78] His screenwriting career also began with a Doctor Who submission; in 1987, he submitted a spec script set on an intergalactic news aggregator and broadcaster, which was rejected by script editor Andrew Cartmel, who suggested that he should write a more prosaic story about "a man who is worried about his mortgage, his marriage, [and] his dog".[78] The script was eventually retooled and transmitted as "The Long Game" in 2005.[79]
During the late 1990s, Davies lobbied the BBC to revive the show from its hiatus and reached the discussion stages in late 1998 and early 2002.[80] His proposals would update the show to be better suited for a 21st-century audience: the series would be recorded on film instead of videotape; the length of each episode would double from twenty-five minutes to fifty; episodes would primarily take place on Earth, in the style of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) UNIT episodes; and Davies would remove "excess baggage" from the mythology such as Gallifrey and the Time Lords. Davies' pitch competed against Dan Freedman's proposed retool as a fantasy series, Matthew Graham's gothic horror-styled reboot, and the Mark Gatiss—Gareth Roberts—Clayton Hickman pitch which made the Doctor the audience surrogate character, instead of his companions.[81] Davies also took cues from American fantasy television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville, most notably Buffy's concepts of series-long story arcs and the "Big Bad".[82]
In August 2003, the BBC had resolved the legal confusion over production rights which had surfaced as a result of the jointly produced
Davies'
The first new series of Doctor Who featured eight scripts by Davies; the remainder were allocated to experienced dramatists and writers for the show's ancillary releases: Steven Moffat penned a two-episode story, and Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, and Paul Cornell each wrote one script.[85] Davies also approached his old friend Paul Abbott and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling to write for the series; both declined due to existing commitments. Shortly after he secured writers for the show, Davies stated he had no intention of approaching writers from the old series; the only writer he would have wished to work with was Holmes, who died in May 1986.[85]
By early 2004, the show had settled into a regular production cycle. Davies, Gardner, and BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series Mal Young took posts as executive producers, and Phil Collinson, his old colleague from Granada, took the role of producer.[86] Davies' official position as showrunner combined the roles of head writer and executive producer and consisted of laying a skeletal plot for the entire series, holding "tone meetings" to correctly identify the tone of an episode, often described in one word—for example, the "tone word" for Moffat's "The Empty Child" was "romantic"—and overseeing all aspects of production.[86]
The production team was also tasked with finding a suitable actor for the role of the Doctor. Most notably, they approached film actor Hugh Grant and comedian Rowan Atkinson for the role. By the time Young suggested The Second Coming and Our Friends in the North actor Christopher Eccleston to Davies, Eccleston was one of three left in the running for the role: the other candidates are rumoured to have been Alan Davies and Bill Nighy.[87] Eccleston created his own characteristics of his rendition of the Doctor based on Davies' life, most notably, his catchphrase "Fantastic!":
[The central message of the show is] seize life, it's brief, enjoy it. The Doctor is always saying "isn't it fantastic?", which is one of Russell's favourite words. "Look at that blue alien, isn't it fantastic? Oh, it's trying to kill me. Never mind, let's solve it."
— Christopher Eccleston[88]
The show started filming in July 2004 on location in
The first episode of the revived Doctor Who, "Rose", aired on 26 March 2005 and received 10.8 million viewers and favourable critical reception. Four days after the transmission of "Rose", Tranter approved a
Tennant had been offered the role when he was watching a pre-transmission copy of Doctor Who with Davies and Gardner. Tennant initially believed the offer was a joke, but after he realised they were serious, he accepted the role and made his first appearance in the dénouement of "
Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures
"With Doctor Who we often had to pretend that bits of Cardiff were London, or Utah, or the planet Zog. Whereas [Torchwood] is going to be honest-to-God Cardiff. We will happily walk past the Millennium Centre and say, 'Look, there's the Millennium Centre'."
Russell T Davies, April 2006[95]
In October 2005, BBC Three Controller Stuart Murphy invited Davies to create a post-
Concurrently, he was approached to produce a CBBC show which was described as Young Doctor Who.
The workload of managing three separate shows prompted Davies to delegate writing tasks for Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures to other writers so he could focus on writing Doctor Who.[98] After Billie Piper's departure as Rose Tyler in the second series finale "Doomsday", he suggested a third spin-off, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, a compilation of annual bank holiday specials which followed Rose and a parallel universe version of Torchwood.[99] He later reneged on his idea, as he believed Rose should stay off screen, and abandoned the idea even though it had been budgeted.[99]
The Writer's Tale, and writing the fourth series
In September 2008,
After its release, the pair embarked on a five-stop signing tour to promote the book in October 2008 at
Post–Doctor Who career (2010–2021)
Davies stepped down from the show's production in 2009 along with Gardner and Collinson, and finished his tenure with four special length episodes. His departure from the show was announced in May 2008, alongside a press release which named Steven Moffat as his successor.[111] His role in late 2008 was split between writing the 2009 specials and preparing for the transition between his and Moffat's production team; one chapter of The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter discusses plans between him, Gardner, and Tennant to announce Tennant's departure live during ITV's National Television Awards in October 2008.[112] His final full script for Doctor Who was finished in the early morning of 4 March 2009, and filming of the episode closed on 20 May 2009.[113][114]
Davies moved with Gardner and
In August 2011, Davies' boyfriend Andrew Smith was diagnosed with a brain tumour, which prompted Davies to postpone current projects and move back to the UK so his partner could undergo treatment closer to their respective families.
Cucumber, Banana, and Tofu
Davies' next project after Doctor Who, codenamed More Gay Men, was a spiritual successor to Queer as Folk and would have focused on middle-aged gay men in the Manchester gay scene. The show's genesis dates back from 2001, when his friend Carl Austin asked him "why are gay men so glad when we split up?". The show was due to enter into production in 2006, but was indefinitely postponed due to the success of Doctor Who. Davies continued to develop ideas for the show, and explained a pivotal scene in the premiere to Cook in 2007:
I can imagine a man who is so enraged by something tiny—the fact that his boyfriend won't learn to swim—that he goes into a rage so great that, in one night, his entire life falls apart. It's not about the learning to swim at all, of course, it's about the way that your mind can fix on something small and use it as a gateway to a whole world of anger and pain... If I write the Learn To Swim scene well—and it could be the spine of the whole drama—then I will be saying something about gay men, about couples, about communications, about anger."
— Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook, 6 March 2007, The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter[125]
In 2011, the series had entered into pre-production, with American cable network Showtime contracted for transmission and BBC Worldwide for distribution.[126] Showtime had reached the point of casting before Davies moved back to Manchester, at which point the series was picked up by Channel 4 to be produced with Nicola Shindler and the Red Production Company. The commission by Channel 4 marked Davies' first collaboration with the channel since Queer as Folk and Shindler and Red since Casanova. Davies was convinced to return to the channel by Head of Drama and former Doctor Who executive producer Piers Wenger, who described the show as a "political piece of writing" which creates a "radical approach" to sexuality.[127]
Second return to the BBC
After Cucumber, Davies returned to the BBC in 2016 to produce A Midsummer Night's Dream, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Davies credits the play as "opening his eyes to drama" after he starred in a school version of the play as Bottom.[130]
In 2018, Davies produced and wrote the screenplay for
Davies followed that with the miniseries Years and Years, a Red Production Company series for BBC One which starred Emma Thompson, Rory Kinnear and Russell Tovey. It focuses on an ordinary family in Manchester who experience massive political, economic, and technological changes over fifteen years as a fascist dictator, played by Thompson, takes over Britain.[133]
It's a Sin
It's a Sin, began filming on 7 October 2019—under the working title of Boys[134]—and completed filming on 31 January 2020.[135] The series, produced by Red Productions for Channel 4, is a dramatised retrospective of the HIV/AIDS crisis during the 1980s, focusing on the men "living in the bedsits", as opposed to films such as Pride, which focused on gay activists. Davies notes the stories about the politics of the crisis and the virus itself has been told, but not those about the early victims of the virus itself.[136]
In 2015, Davies described Boys as a way of "coming to terms" with his own actions during the 1980s, when the shock of the crisis prevented him from properly mourning the deaths of his close friends.[136] Elements of It's a Sin mirror Davies' own experiences during the 1980s: a scene in the second episode where protagonist Richie Tozer—played by Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander—mocks AIDS reflects denialist attitudes in the gay community during the early years of the crisis; the show's characters live in a fictionalised version of the "Pink Palace" flatshare-cum-party house owned by Davies' friends; and Lydia West plays a fictionalised version of Davies' childhood friend—and later actress—Jill Nalder, who appears in the show as the fictional Jill's mother.[137][138]
It's a Sin is Davies' first script to primarily focus on AIDS since Children's Ward, although the pandemic's legacy is present in his other shows: Queer as Folk relegates AIDS to fleeting mentions as Davies "refused to let [gay peoples'] lives be defined by the disease"; and in Cucumber, middle-aged protagonist Henry blames "
Future projects
Davies plans to write a series about
Return to Doctor Who (2021–present)
After his departure from Doctor Who, Davies kept in contact with the show's crew and made several contributions to its expanded universe: in 2013, Davies made a cameo appearance in Peter Davison's spoof special The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot;[143] in 2015, his Virgin New Adventures novel Damaged Goods was adapted into an audio play by Big Finish;[144] in 2017 he illustrated a book of Doctor Who poetry titled Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse;[145] and in 2018, he wrote a novelisation of "Rose" for Target Books.[146]
During the
On 24 September 2021, the BBC announced Davies would return as Doctor Who showrunner, succeeding
Writing style
Davies is a self-admitted procrastinator and often waits hours or days for concepts to form before he commits them to the script. In The Writer's Tale, he describes his procrastination by discussing his early career: at the time, his method of dealing with the pressures of delivering a script was to "go out drinking" instead. On one occasion in the mid-1990s, he was at the Manchester gay club Cruz 101 when he thought of the climax to the first series of The Grand. As his career progressed, he instead spent entire nights "just thinking of plot, character, pace, etc" and waited until 2:00 am, "when the clubs used to shut", to overcome the urge of procrastination.[156] Davies described the sense of anxiety he experiences in an email to Cook in April 2007, in response to Cook's question of "how do you know when to start writing?":
I leave it till the last minute. And then I leave it some more. Eventually, I leave it till I'm desperate. ... I always think, I'm not ready to write it, I don't know what I'm doing, it's just a jumble of thoughts in a state of flux, there's no story, I don't know how A connects to B, I don't know anything! I get myself into a genuine state of panic. ... Normally, I'll leave it till the deadline, and I haven't even started writing. This has become, over the years, a week beyond the deadline, or even more. It can be a week—or weeks—past the delivery date, and I haven't started writing. In fact, I don't have delivery dates any more. I go by the start-of-preproduction date. I consider that to be my real deadline. And then I miss that. It's a cycle that I cannot break. I simply can't help it. It makes my life miserable.
— Russell T Davies to Benjamin Cook, 3 April 2007[157]
He expanded on his email two weeks later in response to Cook's query about the supposed link between major depressive disorder and creativity. He explained his anxiety and melancholy during the scriptwriting period still allowed him to keep on top of his work; on the other hand, he thought "Depression with a capital D [didn't provide] any such luxury".[158]
Davies explained in length his writing process to Cook in The Writer's Tale. When he creates characters, he initially assigns a character a name and fits attributes around it. In the case of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) in his inaugural series of Doctor Who, he chose the name because he considered it a "good luck charm" after he used it for Lesley Sharp's character in Bob & Rose. He presented his desire to make the show "essentially British" as another justification: he considered
Davies also attempts to channel his writing by using music that fits the theme of the series as a source of inspiration: Doctor Who was typically written while he listened to action-adventure film scores; Queer as Folk was written to Hi-NRG music "to catch [the] sheer clubland drive"; Bob & Rose was written to the Moby album Play, because the two works shared an "urban, sexy, full of lonely hearts at night" image; and The Second Coming shared the concepts of "experimental[ity], anguish, dark[ness], [and] pain" of Radiohead albums.[159] More specifically, he wrote the early drafts of the fourth series Doctor Who episode "Partners in Crime" while he was listening to Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion, and singled out the song "Any Other World" as a "Doctor Who companion song" with lyrics that matched Penny, the planned companion for the fourth series.[161]
When he creates new scripts, Davies considers the dénouement of a story to be representative of the work. He often formulates both the scene and its emotional impact early in the process, but writes the scenes last due to his belief that "[later scenes] can't exist if they aren't informed by where they've come from".[162] Davies is a strong advocate for the continued use of the cliffhanger ending and opposes advertising that sacrifices the impact of storytelling. In pursuit of his quest, he instructs editors to remove scenes from press copies of episodes he writes; cliffhangers were removed from the review copies of the Doctor Who episodes "Army of Ghosts",[163] "The Stolen Earth",[164] and the first part of "The End of Time",[165] and Rose Tyler's unadvertised appearance in "Partners in Crime" was excised.[166] In an interview with BBC News shortly after the transmission of episode "The Stolen Earth", he argued that the success of a popular television series is linked to how well producers can keep secrets and create a "live experience":[167]
It's exciting when you get kids in playground talking about your story, about who's going to live or die, then I consider that a job well done, because that's interactive television, that's what it's all about: it's debate and fun and chat. It's playing a game with the country and I think that's wonderful.
— Russell T Davies, "Struggle to keep Who secret", BBC News Online[167]
Davies attempts to both create imagery and to provide a social commentary in his scripts; for example, he uses camera directions in his scripts more frequently than newer screenwriters to ensure that anyone who reads the script, especially the director, is able to "feel... the pace, the speed, the atmosphere, the mood, the gags, [and] the dread". His stage directions also create an atmosphere by their formatting and avoidance of the first person.
Davies also uses his scripts to examine and debate on large issues such as sexuality and religion, especially from a homosexual or
His most notable commentaries of religion and atheism are The Second Coming and his 2007 Doctor Who episode "
Like other script writers during Doctor Who's original tenure, several of Davies' scripts are influenced by his personal politics. Marc Edward DiPaolo of
Recognition
Saving it from extinction.
— Frank Cottrell-Boyce, when asked his opinion on Davies' greatest contribution to British television drama.[177]
Davies has received recognition for his work since his career as a children's television writer. Davies' first
Most of Davies' recognition came as a result of his work on Doctor Who. In 2005, Doctor Who won two Television Awards—Best Drama Series and the Pioneer Audience Award—and he was awarded the honorary Dennis Potter Award for writing.
Under his tenure, Doctor Who won five consecutive
During Davies' tenure as executive producer, only Steven Moffat's "
Among Doctor Who fans, his contribution to the show ranks as high as the show's co-creator Verity Lambert: in a 2009 poll of 6,700 Doctor Who Magazine readers, he won the "Greatest Contribution" award with 22.62% of the votes against Lambert's 22.49% share,[213] in addition to winning the magazine's 2005, 2006, and 2008 awards for the best writer of each series.[214] Ian Farrington, who commented on the 2009 "Greatest Contribution" poll, attributed Davies' popularity to his range of writing styles, from the epic "Doomsday" to the minimalistic "Midnight", and his ability to market the show to appeal to a wide audience.[213]
Davies' work on Doctor Who has led to accolades out of the television industry. He features in the Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures.[215]
Between 2005 and 2008, he was included in
Since his initial departure from Doctor Who, Davies has continued to receive recognition for his work: in 2016, Davies won a British Academy Craft Award in the category of "Best Writer: Drama" for
Personal life
Davies was in a relationship with Andrew Smith, a
In an interview with the
Production credits
Series | Channels | Years | Credited as | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Writer | Producer | Other roles | ||||
Why Don't You? | BBC1
|
1985–90 | Yes | Yes | Director, assistant floor manager, and publicist | Various episodes |
Play School
|
1987 | Presenter | One episode | |||
On the Waterfront | 1988–89 | Sketch writer and script editor | ||||
DEF II | BBC2 | 1989 | Sketch writer | Various episodes, uncredited | ||
Breakfast Serials | BBC1 | 1990 | Yes | Yes | ||
Dark Season | 1991 | Yes | Creator | |||
Children's Ward | ITV | 1992–96 | Yes | Yes | ||
Families | 1992–93 | Storyliner | ||||
ChuckleVision | BBC1 | 1992 | Yes | Three episodes | ||
Century Falls | 1993 | Yes | Creator | |||
Cluedo
|
ITV | Yes | One episode | |||
Do the Right Thing | BBC1 | 1994–95 | Scriptwriter | Uncredited | ||
The House of Windsor | ITV | 1994 | Yes | Various episodes, several uncredited | ||
Revelations | 1994–95 | Yes | Co-creator | Various episodes. Created with Tony Wood .
| ||
Coronation Street | 1996 | Storyliner | Two weeks; cover for permanent storyliner. | |||
Springhill | Channel 4/Sky One | 1996–97 | Yes | Co-creator and storyliner | Seven episodes. Created with Frank Cottrell Boyce .
| |
Damaged Goods | — | 1996 | Yes | — | — | Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures novel |
Coronation Street: Viva Las Vegas!
|
Straight-to-video | 1997 | Yes | |||
Touching Evil | BBC1 | Yes | One episode | |||
The Grand | ITV | 1997–98 | Yes | 18 episodes, several uncredited | ||
Queer as Folk
|
Channel 4 | 1999–2000 | Yes | Yes | Creator | |
Bob & Rose | ITV | 2001 | Yes | Yes | ||
Linda Green | BBC One | Yes | One episode | |||
The Second Coming | ITV | 2003 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | |
Mine All Mine | 2004 | Yes | Yes | |||
Casanova | BBC Three | 2005 | Yes | Yes | ||
Doctor Who | BBC One |
|
Yes | Yes |
|
31 episodes and three mini-episodes. Simulcast on BBC HD starting with "Planet of the Dead".[247] |
Doctor Who Confidential | BBC Three | 2005–10 | Yes | Executive producer | ||
Tardisodes | BBC.co.uk
|
2006 | Yes | |||
Torchwood | BBC Three (2006–07) Starz (2011)
|
2006–11 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | Six episodes |
Torchwood Declassified | BBC Three | Yes | Executive producer | |||
The Sarah Jane Adventures | CBBC/BBC One
|
2007–11 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | One special and one story |
Baker Boys | BBC One Wales | 2011 | Creative consultant | |||
Wizards vs Aliens | CBBC | 2012–13 | Yes | Yes | Co-creator and executive producer | Created with Phil Ford |
Old Jack's Boat | CBeebies | 2013 | Yes | Two episodes | ||
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot | BBC Red Button | Actor | Played a caricature of himself | |||
Cucumber | Channel 4 | 2015 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | Cucumber, Banana, and Tofu share a fictional universe[127] |
Banana | E4
|
Yes | Yes | |||
Tofu | All 4
|
|||||
Damaged Goods | — | 2015 | Yes | Big Finish adaptation of the 1997 Virgin New Adventures novel of the same name, adapted by Jonathan Morris.[248] | ||
A Midsummer Night's Dream
|
BBC One | 2016 | Yes | Yes | Executive producer | |
Rose | — | 2018 | Yes | Target Books novelisation of his 2005 Doctor Who episode. | ||
A Very English Scandal | BBC One | 2018 | Yes | Yes | Executive producer | Adaptation of the book of the same name by John Preston. |
Years and Years | 2019 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | ||
"The Secret of Novice Hame" | — | 2020 | Yes | — | — | Animated short episode of Doctor Who |
It's a Sin | Channel 4 | 2021 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | |
Mind of the Hodiac | — | 2022 | Yes | Big Finish adaptation of a 1986 Doctor Who spec script, as part of The Lost Stories range. Co-written by Scott Handcock. | ||
Nolly | ITV | 2023 | Yes | Yes | Creator and executive producer | |
Tales of the TARDIS | BBC iPlayer | Yes | Yes |
Doctor Who franchise writing credits
|
Bibliography
Prose fiction
Novels
- Dark Season (novelization of the series)
- Davies, Russell T (1996). Doctor Who: Damaged Goods. Doctor Who Books. ISBN 0-426-20483-2.
- Davies, Russell T (2018). Doctor Who: Rose. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1-78594-326-3. (a novelizationof the titular Doctor Who episode)
Short fiction
- "Revenge of the Nestene" (collected in the 2020 anthology Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown)
- "Doctor Who and the Time War" (collected in the 2020 anthology Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown)
- "The Secret of Novice Hame" (collected in the 2020 anthology Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown)
Nonfiction
Books
- A Writer's Tale (with Benjamin Cook) (2008)
- A Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter (with Benjamin Cook) (2013) (expanded second edition)
Afterwords
- Davies, Russell T (2006). Afterword. Doctor Who: The Inside Story. By ISBN 978-0563486497.
Illustration
- Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse by James Goss
Published scripts
- Queer As Folk: The Scripts (1999)
- Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts (2005) (a collection of )
Notes
- ^ Goldbart, Max (27 November 2023). "'Doctor Who' Shakes Up Writers' Payment Structure After Disney+ Boards BBC Sci-Fi Series". Deadline. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
- ^ a b c Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 9–11.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 12.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 13–15.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 16–17.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 19–21.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 22–24.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 24–25.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 27–31.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 31–33.
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- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 38–41.
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- ^ a b c Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 45–47.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 43–45.
- ^ S2CID 191498539.
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- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 52–54.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 53.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 56–57.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 59–64.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 61–62.
- ^ Johnson, Richard (11 March 2007). "Master of the universe". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 April 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 64–69.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 69–72.
- ^ Elledge, John (24 July 2014). "Gayness, gak and Gallifrey: Russell T Davies' 1996 Doctor Who novel is being dramatised, and it's amazing". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 8 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 72–73.
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- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 87.
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- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 139–141.
- ^ a b c Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 143–145.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 145.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 149–150.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 150–151.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 152.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 145-153.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 157–159.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 160–161.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 161.
- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 162–163.
- ^ Aldridge & Murray 2008, p 164.
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- ^ a b Aldridge & Murray 2008, pp 179–181.
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- ^ Davies & Cook 2010, p 676.
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- ^ Spilsbury, Tom (23 June 2010). "The Sarah Jane Adventures series four: titles revealed!". Doctor Who Magazine. No. 423. Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics. p. 6.
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- ^ Nededog, Jethro (6 July 2011). "'Torchwood' Creator Developing New Showtime Drama Series". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
- ^ a b c Brown, Maggie (19 November 2013). "Russell T Davies to explore 21st-century gay life in two Channel 4 dramas". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 November 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
- ^ Martin, Dan (17 January 2015). "Russell T Davies: 'Equality doesn't mean happiness'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 January 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
- ^ Jeffrey, Morgan (22 January 2015). "Russell T Davies: Cucumber, Banana, Tofu and 15 years since Queer as Folk". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 26 January 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
- ^ "A Midsummer Night's Dream: An Interview with Russell T Davies". BBC Writersroom. 18 May 2016. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
- ^ a b Lawrence, Ben (16 May 2018). "Russell T Davies on A Very English Scandal: 'I didn't want it to be an attack on Jeremy Thorpe'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
- ^ a b "71st Emmy Awards Nominees and Winners: OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL – 2019". Emmys. 16 July 2019. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ "Gripping new drama Years & Years, from Russell T Davies, set for BBC One". BBC Media Centre. BBC. 4 June 2018. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
- ^ Russell T Davies [@russelltdavies63] (7 October 2019). "Here we go! . . . #boys @redproductionco @channel4 @pjuk @philcollinson @nicolanshindler @meccleston @ollyyears @callumhowells_c @marsdoug…"". Retrieved 7 October 2019 – via Instagram.
- ^ Russell T Davies [@russelltdavies63] (1 February 2020). "That's a WRAP! BOYS, Channel 4 & HBO Max, autumn 2020. . . . @redproductionco @channel4 @hbomax @nicolanshindler @philcollinson @pjuk". Retrieved 31 January 2020 – via Instagram.
- ^ a b Barraclough, Leo (15 January 2015). "'Queer as Folk', 'Doctor Who' Writer Russell T. Davies to Pen '80s-Set AIDS Drama 'The Boys'". Variety. Archived from the original on 29 January 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
- ^ "It's A Sin star Lydia West says her character is based on "inspiring" real-life person". Radio Times. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
- ^ a b "Russell T Davies on It's A Sin: 'We were all Aids deniers – then it got real'". BBC News. 18 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
- ^ Davies, Russell T. (3 January 2021). "Russell T Davies: 'I looked away for years. Finally, I have put Aids at the centre of a drama'". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
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References
- Davies, Russell T; ISBN 978-1-84607-571-1.
- Aldridge, Mark; Murray, Andy (30 November 2008). T is for Television: The Small Screen Adventures of Russell T Davies. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905287-84-0.
- Davies, Russell T; Cook, Benjamin (14 January 2010). The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-1-84607-861-3.
External links
- Russell T Davies at the BFI's Screenonline
- Russell T Davies at IMDb