Often described as a genius, Russell T. Davies is one of the leading British television writers of his generation, who specializes in emotional dramas, frequently with gay and sex-related adult themes. After graduating from Oxford University, he initially took a BBC Television director's course in the 1980s, and briefly moved in front of the cameras to present a single episode of
the BBC's version of Play School (1964) in 1987, before deciding that his abilities lay in production rather
than presenting.
Working for the children's department at BBC
Manchester, from 1988 to 1992 Davies was the producer of summertime
activity show Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? (1973) which ironically showcased various
things children could be doing rather than sitting at home watching the
television. While serving as the producer of "Why Don't You?" he also
made his first forays into writing for television, creating a
children's sketch show for early Saturday mornings on BBC One called Breakfast Serials (1990).
In 1991, Davies wrote his first television
drama, a six-part serial for children entitled Dark Season (1991) for BBC
One, which effectively comprised of two different three-part stories
based around a science-fiction / adventure theme. The production was very low budget but nevertheless successful, and noteworthy for showcasing the acting talents
of a young Kate Winslet. Two years later he wrote another equally
well-received science-fiction drama in the same vein, entitled Century Falls (1993).
In 1992, Davies moved to Granada Television, producing and writing
for their successful children's hospital drama Kinderstation (1989). One
of the episodes Davies wrote for this series won a BAFTA Children's
Award for Best Drama in 1996. At Granada he also began to break into
working for adult television, contributing an episode to the ITV crime
quiz show Cluedo (1990), a programme based on the popular board game of the
same name, in 1993, and also working on the daytime soap opera
Families (1990). He continued working on "Children's Ward" until 1995, by
which time he was already consolidating his position outside of
children's programming with the comedy The House of Windsor (1994) and camp
soap opera Revelations (1994).
After a brief stint as a
storyliner on ITV's flagship soap opera Coronation Street (1960) (for which
he later wrote the straight-to-video spin-off Coronation Street: Viva Las Vegas! (1997)) and
contributions to Channel 4's Springhill (1996), the following year Davies wrote and created the hotel-set mainstream period drama The Grand (1997)
for prime time ITV, winning a reputation for good writing and high
audience figures. He contributed to the first series of the acclaimed
ITV drama Touching Evil (1997), before beginning his fruitful collaboration
with the independent Red Productions company.
Davies first series for Red
was the ground-breaking adult gay drama Queer as Folk (1999), which caused much comment and
drew much praise when screened on Channel 4 in early 1999. A sequel
followed in 2000 and a US version, which still runs successfully in
that country to this day, was commissioned by the Showtime cable
network there. In 2001 he followed this up with another popular
mini-series with a gay theme for Red, Bob & Rose (2001), this time screened on the
mainstream ITV channel in prime time. After writing an episode for a
Red series he had not created, Linda Green (2001) (shown on BBC1) in early
2003 he wrote the religious telefantasy drama The Second Coming - Die Wiederkunft (2003)
starring Christopher Eccleston, which cemented his position as one of
the UK's foremost writers of TV drama.
Davies other work includes
another Red mini series for ITV, Mine All Mine (2004), a series about the life of Casanova (2005) which made a star of David Tennant and the screenplay for
a film version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (1998) cheating
scandal. Most famously, he is the chief writer and executive producer
of the BBC's big budget revival of Doctor Who (2005), as well as the spin-offs Torchwood (2006), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007) and Wizards vs. Aliens (2012). He subsequently created more gay drama with Cucumber (2015) and the sex-themed documentary series Tofu (2015). He has also written A Very English Scandal (2018), which stars the legendary Hugh Grant as gay Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, whose political career was destroyed by conspiracy to murder allegations. He then won further acclaim with his serial Boys (2021), written about the HIV/AIDS crisis which swept through the gay community in the 1980s.
Outside of television and film, Davies' prose work has included the
novelization of Dark Season (1991) and an original "Doctor Who" novel,
"Damaged Goods", for Virgin Publishing in 1996.
Davies lives in Manchester, UK.
