Famous For: reviving "Doctor Who", making Saturday-night TV compulsive, and the controversial "Queer As Folk".

"I love Doctor Who, and part of me thought 'If you love something maybe you should leave it alone'. But it was three days of nonsense really, and my friends were slapping me round the head and saying 'Don't be stupid, of course you've got to do it!"

Trivia: Dr Who fans refer to him as RTD. He's on the record as saying "Jones" is one of his favourite surnames and loves reality TV.

Biography: Now one of Britain's most acclaimed TV writers - he is the man most often credited with making Doctor Who a commercial and critical success. Born in Sketty, Swansea, he was educated at the city's largest comprehensive.

Watch Video: Russell in the Tardis

More than nine million people tuned in for the finale of the fourth series of Doctor Who (if you missed it, it featured Davros and the possible destruction of reality) while Russell prepared to hand over responsibility for this extraordinary phenomenon to Steven Moffatt for the 2010 series.

He will succeed Russell as the lead writer and executive producer of the fifth series, though Russell has been responsible for overseeing a number of specials due to be screened next year. You can read more about that on the Doctor Who website.

In July 2008 he was awarded an honarary fellowship for achieving international distinction in his field by Cardiff University.

Russell's father Vivian was a classics teacher and former president of Swansea RFC, and his mother Barbara was a French teacher. Russell's two sisters are both teachers - one teaches French and the other RE.

In 2005 he received an honorary fellowship from Swansea Institute alongside one of his sisters who received her MA in Education.

As a youngster, Russell showed an interest in drama, and at one point was a member of the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre.

In 1984 he graduated from Worcester College, Oxford, with a degree in English Literature. He worked in the theatre in his home city, but ultimately opted to try television instead, trying his hand at the Director's course and going on to produce for television. It was during this time that he worked for BBC Wales in Cardiff, as one of the producers for 'Why Don't You', a children's programme produced by the various BBC regions on a rotating basis. On this programme many of the staff would find themselves as a 'Jack of all trades', and Russell would find himself writing more and more of the short drama inserts that could be found in the show. From here he then went on to work for Children's BBC in Manchester, where he wrote a pilot script for what became the 1991 youth science fiction TV series 'Dark Season'. There would be no turning back from there.

In 1996 Russell won a BAFTA for the Best Children's Drama while producing and writing the hospital drama 'Children's Ward', and he also penned his second well-received science fiction production, 'Century Falls'.

From here Russell would go on to work on 'The House of Windsor', 'Springhill', 'The Grand', and a mini-series called 'Touching Evil', before winning recognition and acclaim for his controversial award-winning drama 'Queer as Folk', which charted the lives and loves of gay twenty and thirtysomethings in Manchester.

More mainstream fare followed with the romantic comedy-drama 'Bob & Rose' on ITV, starring Alan Davies and Lesley Sharp, which won further acclaim and numerous awards.

Russell followed this with the controversial, though no less succesful drama 'The Second Coming', starring the man who would be Dr Who - Christopher Eccleston. Of course, not long after Russell wrote also wrote Casanova with that other man who would be Dr Who - David Tennant, and a 5-part series called 'Mine All Mine' set in Swansea and starring Griff Rhys Jones.

In addition to writing a book based on 'Dark Season', Russell wrote the Doctor Who novel 'Damaged Goods'; who would have guessed when this hit the shelves that its writer would go on to mastermind the hugely successful re-launch of the British television icon?

MORE ON BBC.CO.UK:

Moment of Glory: Writing a new series of Doctor Who that has been an unqualified critical and commercial hit.

Off the Record: As a teenager he loved cartoons and of course Dr Who. He wanted to draw for Marvel Comics when he grew up!

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