What happened in this episode?
Davina McCall interviews writer and producer Russell T Davies about formative experiences, career milestones and personal loss. Davies recounts family history around his birth in Swansea in 1963, including his mother’s post-operative reaction to medication and his claim that she was sterilised without consent after a Caesarean section, followed by his description of a supposed clubfoot diagnosis he says proved unfounded. He discusses learning to write for television and the difficulty of growing up gay in 1970s Wales, describing youth theatre as an early space where he found role models and community.
Davies credits his long friendship with Jill Nalder — later honoured with an MBE — as central to the research for It’s a Sin, and describes how the drama faced repeated rejection before Channel 4 ultimately commissioned it after internal leadership changes. He reflects on the impact and unexpected commercial success of Queer as Folk, including viewers who told him it shaped where they lived and whom they met.
The conversation turns to Years and Years and Davies’s interest in social and technological decline, including worries about online hatred and proposals to regulate platforms as publishers. He gives an extended account of his late partner Andrew’s glioblastoma diagnosis, years of treatment and end-of-life care, including how prognosis information was handled and the role of NHS palliative support. Davies also says he has since formed a new relationship, meeting his partner Oliver via Instagram.
