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Stephen Russell Davies

OBE FRSL - better known as Russell T Davies - is a Welsh screenwriter and a television producer. He specialises in emotional dramas, frequently with gay and sex-related adult themes.

He took a BBC Television directors course in the 1980s and did present one episode of Play School before he decided production was the way forward for him. He has written and produced many award-winning and very successful shows. ‘Childrens Ward’ won a BAFTA children’s award for Best Drama in 1996. His other shows include ITV drama ‘Touching Evil’, ground breaking adult drama ‘Queer as Folk’ but most famously he is known for being chief writer and executive producer of the revival of ‘Doctor Who’ in 2005.

He has created more gay drama with shows Cucumber’ and the sex themed documentary series Tofu’. He also wrote the screenplay for a ‘Very English Scandal’ which starred Hugh Grant as the Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as his lover. He later wrote ‘It’s a Sin’ which is about the AIDs crisis which swept through the gay community in the 1980s.

He was awarded OBE in the 2008 Queens Birthday Honours List for his services to television drama. And the T in his name doesn’t stand for anything, he added to distinguish himself from the radio DJ Russell Davies!

By Lindsay Robinson