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As part of this year’s BFI Flare film festival, Russell T Davies gave a talk on his illustrious TV writing career, the state of the world and his much anticipated new series – and it was a cracker. He’s a BAFTA-winner, one-time Doctor Who show runner and creator of landmark telly like Queer As Folk, It’s a Sin and A Very English Scandal – as well as (in the interests of balance) less landmark telly like The Grand (‘it was like Downton Abbey before Downton Abbey,’ he remembers, ‘but a cheap version’). And of course, he’s been a huge voice in centring gay stories on the small screen over the past 30 years.
‘I believe in starting and ending at a kitchen table,’ he explained of his storytelling ethos. But while no one should hold their breathe for an Aaron Sorkin-style piece set in the corridors of power, Davies’s conversation-starting dramas are always holding a mirror up to the cultural moment. His next series, Tip Toe, promises to deliver another one, uniting Alan Cumming and David Morrissey at the front lines of the culture war. Here’s what we learnt about the Channel 4 thriller – and his gilded résumé – from the screenwriting titan’s BFI talk.
His new thriller will be ‘Years and Years meets Queer As Folk’
Davies’s next series is Channel 4 thriller Tip Toe, a five-parter that takes him – and us – back to the old stomping grounds of Queer As Folk. The series stars Alan Cumming as Leo, a bar owner in Manchester’s Gay Village and David Morrissey as Clive, the buttoned-up, conservative neighbour who unleashes hell on him. The screenwriter unveiled a first clip of Leo and his drag queen friend Melba (Saltburn’s Paul Rhys) chewing over the resurgence in discrimination and bigotry in recent years. ‘Do I think it’s coming back?’ asks Melba. ‘It’s back.’ Another intimate affair with state-of-the-nation resonance, it promises to be an essential watch when it airs in June.
The original opening of Queer as Folk looked too much like a violent thriller
A revolutionary moment in British TV, Davies’s hedonist, heartfelt gay drama Queer as Folk still feels as blunt and brilliant as it did back in 1999. Revisiting the show’s opening, which introduces two of its lead characters, Stuart (Aidan Gillen) and Vince (Craig Kelly), on the pull in Manchester’s Canal Street, and the third, 15-year-old Nathan (Charlie Hunnam), arriving in the city for the first time, he reflected on the compromises that shaved off its sharper edges. ‘The opening was [meant to be] at Manchester bus station with Nathan stepping off a bus,’ Davies says. ‘He's 15 years old, he's terrified and he walks through the streets on his own. But the Channel 4 executives were terrified that it looked like a thriller, like he’s going to get murdered.’ The writer has since softened on the actual opening. ‘I kind of got what they mean that it looked like a thriller, but actually that's how Nathan feels.’
It’s a Sin was initially dismissed as ‘a miserable AIDS drama’ by a TV exec
One of the most remarkable pieces of British telly of the past decade, and a key lockdown distraction to boot, It’s a Sin justifies a spot Time Out’s list of 100 greatest ever TV shows in spades. Davies reflected on its challenging journey to the screen. ‘There was literally an executive who said: “If I hear one more word about that miserable AIDS drama…”’ The series was rejected by ‘every single channel,’ he noted. ‘We had a Channel 4, then ITV, then the BBC… twice.’ The latter is still a source of disappointment. ‘I'm immensely grateful for Channel 4 for making it, but in some ways I thought it should have been on the BBC because it's the history of the nation, [and] that's what the BBC is [about].’
The lyrics of a Frankie Goes to Hollywood track were changed to save ‘It’s a Sin’ £10,000
Revisiting a standout moment in the show, when Ritchie Tozer (Olly Alexander) breaks the fourth wall to reel off AIDS conspiracy theories, Davies revealed that the scene ends with a deliberate misquote of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s track ‘Relax’. ‘Instead of “hit me with those laser beams”, we changed it to: “Hit me with those lasers, please.” [So] we wouldn't have to pay £10,000 [in licensing].’
He loves Heated Rivalry – but doesn’t think it’s revolutionary
The screenwriter is a big fan of hot guys ice hockey smash Heated Rivalry but bridles at the idea that it’s done game-changing things with depictions of gay sex that Queer as Folk wasn’t doing 27 years ago. ‘I love it and (Heated Rivalry creator) Jacob Tierney is a brilliant man,’ he says. ‘Yet, to be absolutely honest, when people sit there going, ”Oh, it's such a revolutionary gay show,” I'm going: “Hello!” People on my Instagram page say: “Queer as Folk walked, so Heated Rivalry could run”. I thought we were fucking running from the start.’