Russell T Davies is a man who prefers to look on the bright side. That time he was gay-bashed by a gang of bus conductors? So why has he taken to keeping a kitchen knife by his front door, “ready to use”?
People believe it when they’re told the Earth is flat,” he says. His support for trans rights has resulted in years of death threats and “groomer” smears, which he used to brush off. People have worked out my address, and one person turned up at my house.
If you believe a paedophile lives here, it’s not the maddest thing in the world to come and get me. I’ve been saying for years that our rights are paper-thin, and here we are. What scares me is that I can’t see an end to it.
Nothing is going to unseat these tech barons – it will require some sort of revolution to stop them. So for the first time in history, hatred is being monetised by an algorithm.” Davies, 63, is the great chronicler of queer British life, having made his name with the groundbreaking (and jaw-dropping) Queer As Folk in 1999. The show followed the lives of three gay men in Manchester, and was a surprise hit, but not without its provocations.
The Daily Mail wrote that, “Any nation which allows this … [is] hell-bent on destruction.” Among the controversies was its depiction of a one-night stand between Stuart, 29, and Nathan, 15. In today’s climate, where accusations of grooming are regularly levelled at gay men, would he still write such an inflammatory storyline? I was trying to say, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’ Of course, Nathan wants to get fucked, and he’s got no one to talk to about it.
People say: ‘Oh my God, he was 15, that’s illegal.’ It’s a drama!” We’re meeting to discuss The Queerest of Folk, a galloping memoir of Davies’s life as Britain’s most celebrated showrunner. He’s previously criticised the new generation of TV writers for prioritising positive representation over good storytelling – his own interest lies in the nuances. His most recent drama, Tip Toe, about a simmering feud between neighbours on opposite ends of the political divide that boils into a horrific act of violence, upset some viewers by including a gender-critical character, Stephanie.
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