Russell T. Davies is a renowned British television writer, often described as a genius, who has made a significant impact on the industry with his emotional dramas, often featuring gay and sex-related adult themes. After graduating from Oxford University, Davies pursued a career in television, initially taking a BBC Television director's course in the 1980s. He briefly presented an episode of the BBC's version of Play School in 1987 before deciding that his abilities lay in production rather than presenting.
Davies worked for the children's department at BBC Manchester from 1988 to 1992, where he produced the summertime activity show Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead? (1973). During this time, he also made his first forays into writing for television, creating a children's sketch show 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. The production was successful, and noteworthy for showcasing the acting talents of a young Kate Winslet. Two years later, he wrote another science-fiction drama, entitled Century Falls (1993).
Davies moved to Granada Television in 1992, where he produced and wrote for their successful children's hospital drama Children's Ward (1989). One of the episodes he wrote for this series won a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Drama in 1996. He also began to break into working for adult television, contributing an episode to the ITV crime quiz show Cluedo (1990) and working on the daytime soap opera Families (1990).
After a brief stint as a storyliner on ITV's flagship soap opera Coronation Street (1960),Davies wrote and created the hotel-set mainstream period drama The Grand (1997) for prime time ITV. He also 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.
In 2001, Davies wrote and created another popular mini-series with a gay theme for Red, Bob & Rose (2001),screened on the mainstream ITV channel in prime time. He also wrote an episode for a Red series he had not created, Linda Green (2001),and wrote the religious telefantasy drama The Second Coming (2003) starring Christopher Eccleston.
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, Davies 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 has also created more gay drama with Cucumber (2015) and the sex-themed documentary series Tofu (2015).
Davies 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 It's a Sin (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.
