Russell T Davies

Russell T Davies was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award in 2006 for his writing services to television.  His multi-award winning work includes Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Casanova, The Second Coming, Queer as Folk, Bob and Rose, and Children's Ward.

We interviewed him earlier this year at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

I was working in production in television, and I got an attachment to Manchester, and all I wanted to do was meet writers, because you just didn't believe that they existed. They were like mythical creatures. And five hundred yards down the road, there was Granada, and I was just determined to get in there, so I did that thing that you're supposed to do, knocking on doors and knocking on doors and begging for a job. And it worked.

The first day at work there I was made the script editor on Children's Ward and put in a room with Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor, and it was the best training in the world. You meet these people and you realise - well first of all you realise that they're ordinary people just living ordinary lives and are completely sensible and ordinary, and then you get to know them a bit longer and they're completely mad – barking! But that's part of how brilliant they are, and how they live their lives. Before meeting them I didn't believe it was possible, I didn't believe they existed, so that was really pivotal for me.

Is it a good idea for a writer to get a job as a script editor?

I was a bad script editor because I was much more of a writer, and bad script editors just impose their ideas on people. Unless you get a Paul Abbott script in which case I'd give up and go "Oh it's just too good, I've got no notes". So I wouldn't say you have to follow that as a career path when you set out writing. When I look back, I should have just written more.

However if you do get into it then it's fantastic. Some people discover they're born script editors and they love it and they don't want to write, and some people aren't script editors. I was too much of a writer. Storylines on the soaps, now that's what I really preferred, that's closer to writing. Storylining at Granada, I did six episodes of Coronation Street and I was just holiday relief for someone who went to Madrid. Granada did all these marvelous cheap late-night soap operas and afternoon soap operas, and I invented one called Revelations, and there was one called Springhill that I did. The storyliners sit in a room and they work out the plot. The writers work out the story, but then you take what they worked out and you break it down into weekly episodes.

At the same time you're very aware of production. It's not just a creative job. You know the limitations you've got. You've a list of who's on holiday, so if you're in the middle of a gripping story with the Platts, but Gail Platt is off on holiday, then you can't include her. You'd have some old codger falling ill and having to be re-written all of a sudden. And you learn to solve every single problem. By the time you've done a couple of years storylining on a soap opera, there's no problem you can't fix.

Is there a difference between writing for children and writing for adults?

It's just common sense really. When you talk to a child, you talk differently than the way you talk to an adult. When you talk to your auntie, you talk differently than the way you talk to your mum, to your lover, to your best friend. So when you're doing Children's you never really beat your brain out how to do that, it's just instinct.

I loved it in Children's, I had a really happy time there. We would aim a lot of stuff at students, and it was at the same time Children's was re-trenching and saying we should have programmes for younger viewers, like eight-year-olds. I had this Saturday morning show on BBC1, and my friend Sally phoned me up and said, "Do you realise you've just transmitted a joke about Emily Brontë for children. That's not going to go down well with the target audience." And she was right. It was a very funny joke about Emily Brontë, but at that point I thought actually I am aiming at the wrong audience, so I got myself out. I just thought it's really valuable working in Children's but I shouldn't be wasting people's time.

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