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Revision as of 01:09, 9 February 2004 by Paul A (talk | contribs) (link)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Russell T. Davies (born 1963 in Swansea, Wales) is a British television producer and writer. After initially taking a BBC Television director's course in the 1980s, he briefly moved in front of the cameras to present a single episode of the BBC's famous young children's show Play School in 1987, before deciding that his abilities lay in production rather than presenting.
Working for the children's department at BBC Manchester, from 1988 to 1992 he was the producer of summertime activity show Why Don't You? which ironically showcased various things children could be doing rather than sitting at home watching the television. While serving as the producer of Why Don't You? he also made his first forays into writing for television, creating a children's sketch show for early Saturday mornings on BBC ONE called Breakfast Serials (1990).
In 1991, he wrote his first television drama, a six-part serial for children entitled Dark Season for BBC ONE, which effectively comprised of two different three-part stories based around a science-fiction / adventure theme. The production was extremely successful, and noteworthy for showcasing the acting talents of a young Kate Winslet. Two years later he wrote another equally well-received science-fiction drama in the same vein, entitled Century Falls.
In 1992 he moved to Granada Television, producing and writing for their successful children's hospital drama Children's Ward. One of the episodes Davies wrote for this series won a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Drama in 1996. At Granada he also began to break into working for adult television, contributing an episode to the ITV crime quiz show Cluedo?, a programme based on the popular board game of the same name, in 1993, and also working on the daytime soap opera Families. He continued working on Children's Ward until 1995, by which time he was already consolidating his position outside of children's programming with the comedy The House of Windsor and camp soap opera Revelations (both 1994).
After a brief stint as a storyliner on ITV's flagship soap opera Coronation Street (for which he later wrote the straight-to-video spin-off Viva Las Vegas) and contributions to Channel 4's Springhill in 1996, the following year he wrote and created the hotel-set mainstream period drama The Grand for prime time ITV, winning a reputation for good writing and high audience figures. He contributed to the first series of the acclaimed ITV drama Touching Evil, before beginning his fruitful collaboration with the independent Red Productions company.
His first series for Red was the ground-breaking Queer as Folk, which caused much comment and drew much praise when screened on Channel 4 in early 1999. A sequel followed in 2000 and a US version, still in production as of 2004, was commissioned by the Showtime cable network there. In 2001 he followed this up with another popular mini-series for Red, Bob and Rose, this time screened on the mainstream ITV channel in prime time. After writing an episode for a Red series he had not created, Linda Green (shown on BBC ONE) in early 2003 he wrote the religious telefantasy drama The Second Coming starring Christopher Eccleston, which cemented his position as one of the UK's foremost writers of TV drama.
As of 2004, his current work includes another Red mini-series for ITV, Mine All Mine, due to be screened in early 2004; a series about the life of Casanova; and the screenplay for a film version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? cheating scandal. Most famously, he is the chief writer and executive producer of the BBC's revival of Doctor Who, due to be screened in 2005.
Outside of television and film, his prose work has included the novelisation of Dark Season for BBC Books in 1991 and an original Doctor Who novel, Damaged Goods, for Virgin Publishing in 1996.
He lives in Manchester, UK.