Russell T Davies on 40 years of bringing gay stories to our screens – podcast

Russell T Davies on 40 years of bringing gay stories to our screens – podcastThe Dr Who showrunner made his name with taboo-busting series such as Queer As Folk. He tells Helen Pidd about how he changed the way queer lives were depicted on British television

Even if you don’t know his name, you will almost certainly have watched one of his TV shows if you grew up in the UK. As well as rebooting Doctor Who, Russell T Davies been bringing stories of gay lives to our TV screens for the last 40 years.

It’s been his mission since he came of age as a young man in the 1980s, a time when LGBTQ people were unable to get married or serve in the armed forces, and when queer kids grew up in the shadow of section 28 and the Aids crisis. Stories about gay life back then, if shown at all, tended to be about shame, fear, and ruin.

But Davies’s writing changed all that, bringing stories of gay joy, gay love and gay laughter to primetime television, while never shying away from the homophobia and discrimination that queer people still face.

He tells Helen Pidd about how he made the ground breaking Queer As Folk, why he believes gay actors should be cast in gay parts, and the darker turn his latest drama took.

The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television by Russell T Davies, published on 8 October by Transworld at £25. To support the Guardian, order your copy from guardianbookshop.com