Russell T Davies: ‘The Don’t Say Gay movement proves we can’t relax – what happens in America, then comes here’-John Whaite-Entertainment – Metro

John Whaite speaks to Russell T Davies for Metro.co.uk (Picture: Getty/METRO)

Russell T Davies is responsible for telling the most powerful LGBTQ+ stories, subsequently transforming queer representation on television. 

In 1999 he unleashed the fearless Queer As Folk to Channel 4, brining unfiltered gay sex to the mainstream, proving to be unmissable television for both members of the LGBTQ+ community and those outside of it.

But arguably his most crucial series to date came in 2020, when It’s A Sin stopped the world in its tracks and after years of LGBTQ+ people living with HIV and and Aids being overlooked, demonised and cast aside, often being left to die scared and alone, they were remembered with the love and respect they deserve; their story told with honesty and care. 

After It’s A Sin aired on Channel 4, thousands of people in the UK rushed to get tested for HIV and more than a year on its impact is immeasurable. 

Davies used an all LGBTQ+ cast for his LGBTQ+ characters, and as he takes over Doctor Who he has cast the first Black gay male as the Time Lord with a Black trans female companion in Ncuti Gatwa and Yasmin Finney respectively. 

Here, Metro.co.uk’s Guest Entertainment editor John Whaite talks to Davies about his career and the importance of LGBTQ+ representation on screen.

What was your time at Oxford like? I started at St. John’s but after 6 weeks, I knew that I was out of my depth and just didn’t fit in. How did you feel there as a working-class lad from Wales?

I know what you mean, I never felt quite at home. Although maybe that’s just what 18 feels like. Really, I think I was in shock to find myself somewhere you couldn’t watch TV. One set for the whole college, those were the days!

What inspired you to write? I know that’s a bit of an insipid question, but your work has such a vulnerable quality to it; are you compelled from something visceral, or do you sometimes write simply because you have a job to finish?

Oh that’s kind. I think! I suppose it has to be visceral. Yes, there’s a technical side that demands you deliver 70 pages on Monday, or 500 people can’t do their jobs. But yes, it’s a drive too. I don’t have a choice. Those stories would be in my head no matter what job I was doing, I was born with them, they won’t stop.

On a similar note, you often walk the line between (or rather blend the ideas of) science fiction and raw humanity so beautifully, is that important to you? Why?

I think I just don’t see the borders of genre. Life changes all the time, fiction can be anything, I love it when sci-fi gets real, and I love it when reality gets heightened. One improves the other!

Have you got a favourite character you’ve created?

Oh that’s hard to say. They all live in in my head, they really do, they’d be offended. The other day, I had to write a character I hadn’t written for 32 years, but there she was, just stepping into the spotlight, like I’d never been away.

One of the most powerful moments for me in It’s a Sin is when Ash is ordered to check all the books in the library to remove any gay references and he declares: “I looked at all the vast halls of literature and culture and science and art, and there is not the slightest danger of any child ever being infected because there’s not one gay man or woman anywhere. There is nothing. There is nothing.” How important is it for you to weave the LGBTQ+ narrative into culture so that history doesn’t repeat itself?

It’s A Sin was one of the most impactful shows in recent memory (Picture: Channel 4)

Well that’s the point, visibility. More and more, I think that people take offence – and become prejudiced without even realising – when they imagine that something from their childhood has been undermined. And specifically when a fundamental visual image is altered. Whether that’s your childhood notion of mum and dad, or Jesus and the apostles, or boy kissing girl. 

If you learnt it when you were one, then you get upset when it’s changed, even if that change is simply the harmless existence of something other. So that’s why we need more images, more visibility, for everyone, from the youngest age, so a wider, diverse world becomes more natural, more real, more accepted. More happy!

Does it make you feel proud to know that you are doing this, and that in doing so you are paving the way of self-acceptance for generations to come?

Oh that’s kind, but I think the great hard work is done by activists and charity workers and fighters like Peter Tatchell. I do my bit, but no one ever changed the law because of a TV show.

You’ve really fought for inclusion of LGBTQ+ on the small screen, what are your hopes or ambitions for LGBTQ+ representation that you still want to achieve or would like to see happen?

I think we need more and more – we’ve had thousands of years of straight stories, we’ve got a long way to go before we catch up. 

And there’s danger in the air. The Don’t Say Gay movement proves that we can’t relax. What happens in America, then comes here.

‘The Don’t Say Gay movement proves that we can’t relax’ (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

I remember when you chatted with Steph on Steph’s Packed Lunch about the debate around queer actors playing queer roles and it was the perfect answer. Would you mind reaffirming your view on that for the readers of this pride edition?

Oh God, that’s long, that’s an essay! I just think it’s not an equal see-saw, the majority of actors, who are straight, flood the minority of parts, which are queer. And for those who say it’s acting, what do you think acting is? It’s about portraying something truthfully. So cast the truth!

As for those who’d then question whether queer actors can then play straight, let me tell you: we have to pretend to be straight from the age of eight. That’s our truth, we’re experts!

If you haven’t seen Big Boys yet, please do ASAP (Picture: Channel 4)

Which up and coming LGBTQ+ talents really excite you and which LGBTQ+ writers should we be looking out for?

I’m so excited by the work of Jack Rooke, who’s written Bad Boys, now on Channel 4, he’s amazing! And my mate Charlie Covell, creator of End of the F***** World, is an absolute

genius. And Juno Dawson, a great novelist and scriptwriter. But there are so many voices now, so much genius!

My mum insisted that I ask, above any other question, where did your sister get that floral swimming cap?

I am forbidden to say! I must preserve her mystery. Even Helena Bonham Carter asked me that, but you won’t break me!

Entertainment – MetroRead More