Russell T Davies - 4

When you were writing Queer as Folk, did you feel you had a moral responsibility to the gay community?

Yes I did, but I had a responsibility to myself because I was so genuinely fed-up of every gay character on television. And EastEnders had just done Tony and Simon's romance, which was terrible. When they had scenes with the gays, they were always sat in shiny jackets in shiny bars made of chrome, and they talked about HIV all the time. It was absolutely terrible. It was a head of steam and anger building up over many years actually, ever since I was a teenager. But never at any point do you sit at the keyboard thinking what's my responsibility to the community.

It's very interesting because afterwards there was an awful lot of pressure - join this charity, become Chairman of this, become Chairman of that, come and lead the parade at Gay Pride and all that sort of stuff. And it's a very big decision to say no to all that, because I felt a certain amount of responsibility to follow that through. But a friend of mine said to me a writer should be watching a parade, not leading it. And all I needed was someone to say it, it was like that was permission to do what I wanted. I just felt responsible to myself.

If someone has a pop at gay writers, I'll stand up for them, I'll have a right old go, but through the work the only responsibility is the story, and Queer as Folk was immensely critical about gay life in places. In episode four, they go to the funeral of one of their friends, and the mother of the dead man sits down and it's the most devastating speech about gay men, their life, and how they lead their life. But she wasn't wrong.

If you're writing something, that's what you do, you look at the people. It's in your own interest to look at the opposite, to look at someone who's going to criticise gay rights massively. Doing all the research for The Second Coming, I had to go and read the Bible and really treat that subject with a lot of respect. You have to push yourself, you have to look at the opposite of what you think.

But in terms of responsibility, so long as I've been honest, and I have been, then I'm safe, I think. Queer as Folk was done with honesty, and made beautifully and I'd still stand by it. So that's the responsibility. And it's hard. There was a story a couple of years afterwards, about a boy who watched Queer as Folk, and went into school the next day and came out and then he was beaten up, massively, his cheek bones were crushed... and that's terrible, and that's a result of Queer as Folk.

Equally, I go out and to this day I still get people coming up to me and saying, "I came out because of Queer as Folk, I moved to Manchester because of Queer as Folk and my life is better," so at the end of the day you have to make the very very hard choice to look at a boy who's had his cheekbones crushed and say "I'm keeping going." which is terrible, and that's a responsibility. But that's what I did and that's what I still do.

You're the showrunner on Doctor Who, which means you're in complete control - when do you have to lay down the law and say no to people?

It sounds like quite an antagonistic process. It's not, it's a team process, you've chosen to work with these people in the first place. I think it's right that the writer has more responsibility - the writer's created it. I know how it should feel and what sort of cast it should have, what sort of colours it should be, what sort of speed it should build at, so I have a lot to say about that.

Phil Collinson - the producer of Doctor Who - and I, I don't think we've ever had a proper argument. We disagree about casting, we disagree about all sorts of things but we've never, from all the years of making the show - and it's a very tough show under very great pressure - we've never had what you'd actually call an argument. Because it's creative, when you've got the people there it just works that way.

Being a producer is something I think all writers should do and I think it's a process we should head towards, but a lot of writers are mad. They're barking a lot of the time. They've got to learn they can't stand there and say "No, that shirt should be blue." (Unless the script says "I like your blue shirt," then something's gone wrong.)

So there's a lot to be learned, and how to learn it is the problem. Certainly when I was starting out I just spent a lot of time on set. Queer as Folk I was there every single day. I was on the set of Bob and Rose, I was on The Second Coming, you learn such a lot just by being there, and spending time in the office, and making sure you go to the edit and the dub. You have to start out as an observer because you have to learn the rules of that sort of stuff, and you learn how to express yourself. It's like any job, you just learn how to express yourself and get by until you're trusted. If you ruin it then you don't deserve to be there. But it is something everyone should aim for.

And when I say I was on the set of Queer as Folk, I wasn't paid for those days. I wouldn't expect to be either. Sometimes you can get writers demanding payment for it, but you've got to bite the bullet and say "I'm not being paid for this, I've been paid for the script, I'm voluntarily choosing to be on set and immersing myself in everything." It was lucky for me because I'd already worked for other soaps, I wasn't a stranger on set, but you can still do that now, it's just choosing to immerse yourself, but also making yourself useful. If you pipe up with great ideas that save money and make it look better on screen, then they love you being there.

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