Russell T Davies
/In this post, there is a list of the advanced words and phrases from the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs interview with Russell T Davies, a very successful TV writers. Aggie and I are currently creating a podcast (in which we will explain some of the words) and it will be launched soon!
You can listen to the interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009zlq
INTRO BY LL
One of the most celebrated screenwriters
00:54 He’s kept audiences glued to their tv sets for 30 years
00:59 all writers hope for water-cooler moments
Also talk of school playground!
1:06 Learned his craft after BAFTA winning stint at ITV studios on kids drama ‘childrens’ ward’
1:12 Before expanding his remit to prime time tv’s
1:13 series and soaps
Took Coronation Street to Las Vegas!
1:18 groundbreaking “Queer as Folk”
‘Nowt as queer as folk’
Lives of 3 gay friends in contemporary manchester
1:23 that made his name
First to put young british gay lives in the spotlight
1:30 realisation of his childhood dream
1:33 big budget regeneration of beloved tv timelord, Dr Who
“A moment’s imagination is worth a lifetime’s experience”
IMAGINATION, DREAM DAY WRITING
2:11 Let’s start with that boundless imagination of yours
2:21 Is it something you have to feed?
Dream day writing is not writing actually!
2:35 If you can just mill about, potter about
It’s like how sketches are better than paintings sometimes
→ writing
Sometimes the end product is too fixed and solid
2:52 My head is full of fireworks
Have to hammer that down into letters and words and full stops
→ Writing is an act of loss
YEARS AND YEARS
Wonderful Cast (contemporary, current story)
3:22 Big gap between drama and real life
Can take a year to write and get made
3:34 a lag in there somewhere
Drama should be talking about right now!
World itself is getting madder and faster and stranger → want to capture this
3:52 the gestation period for that show had been quite substantial (20 years)
Had it in mind to capture world and way we’re affected by it and put it on scream
4:15 I described years and years as dystopian
There’s always hope!
People are good —> We care for each other
Have to hope that’s going to triumph in the end
FIRST DISC (SUGAR MOUNTAIN)
From Favourite TV show (Rock Follies)
4:56 They were pungent dramas
Don’t fit any genre
EMMYS A Very English Scandal
5:51 Recently back from LA from the Emmys
Emmy nomination for outstanding writing for ‘A Very English Scandal’
Hugh Grant played former leader of the liberal party
Real people, lives were ruined
6:26 marvellously small story
Felt responsibility to be fair
6:47 Story had always been told by straight men
INFORMAL someone who is straight is sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex
6:57 Well I get this completely
Understood the passions etc of the story having met Norman Scott and hearing it
7:06 the closetedness
Can get over excited and focus on the wrong thing sometimes
I hope it was a kind piece of work in the end
GAY WRITER
Asked about category of gay drama - happy to be described as a gay writer
7:59 You seemed very content with that prefix
8:01 Why is it important for you to take pride in that distinction
Left Dr Who, said ‘I’m going to write gay dramas from now on’
It’s my joy! It’s what I think about
8:31 it’s unexplored territory
Queerness and otherness is still very new
8:39 We’ve always been here behind the scenes
We’ve been around for thousands of years making all the right decisions of course!
8:50 As an out society we’re less than 50 years old
Emotions in our hearts that have not been put onto screen yet
And there are things that are identical to other people and that’s also important!
MUSIC WHILST WRITE
Takes a long time to find the right track
And once I do, repeat it again and again and again until it drives me insane
When I finish the script I never listen to it again as have heard it a thousand times!
SECOND DISC (HORA STACCATO, piano violin duet)
9:43 Looking for music that fitted A very English Scandal
Need a duet
10:03 It kind of gallops (the song)
Listened to it over 10,000 times once I had finished
STORIES GROW UP WITH
11:37 Parents were classics and french teachers
11:44 A lot of Dr Who from Greek and Roman myths
Parents had full encyclopedia britannica
11:53 Did you avail yourself of it
Find yourself looking at nuclear physics, amoeba….
12:16 for such bookish people, they had a respect for television
12:20 they were slightly in awe of television
Sometimes looked down on but not in their house, left on if a visitor came, never turned off
STARTING TO WRITE
13:00 Always writing, used to draw a lot
13:07 Used to churn out cartoon strips
Drew Dr Who, peanuts..
13:28 at a pivotal age
Careers teacher told me I’d never work in graphics or design because I’m colour blind
Thank God cos I ended up here!
WELSH PURSUITS
6 ft 6
14:00 Did you play rugby?
My father was marvellous about that, he was a huge rugby man
The PE teachers were very interested in me playing rugby
14:30 I was a wimpish gay boy I had no interest in it
“You dont have to do what other people want to do”
“Just because I play rugby doesn’t mean you have to”
THIRD DISC (THREE WHEELS ON MY WAGON)
First record I ever heard
SCHOOL
Tall clever
15:55 And that’s how I got through it
2300 pupils - big school
16:07 Kind of sailed through
West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company
16:18 We put on plays
16:23 Taught me punctuality
16:40 considered Bit frivolous to put on a play
Stayed in it until I was 21
It made me feel drama
17:33 Felt that touching of the audience
As a county, spent vast sums on arts for kids
FOURTH DISC (LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S GLORIA IN EXCELSIS)
18:12 The pinnacle of the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company
Brought together whole choir, theatre, orchestra, dance
Very rarely performed because needs so many performers 250
My role was to come on at the end and say ‘The mass has ended, go in peace’
OXFORD
Studying English
20:34 Could’ve skipped those 3 years
Should you go straight from school to university
20:42 Only covered a novel in first year, then 2 years of poetry
WHAT AFTER
Didn’t have the concept of being a TV writer
20:57 Wasn’t sitting there yearning to do it
Presumed I’d work in TV behind the scenes
21:07 3 years running I applied to this building for the trainee scheme
21:19 I got hold of the BBC head of personnel
21:41 Some would’ve slunk away dejected
Knew I belonged here
A hard ideal to aim for (to be a writer)
FIRST BREAK
22:12 How did you get your first break? [LL]
Pure luck!
22:35 got 7 days and then that rolled on and I havent stopped working since
Working in kids TV
Multi camera studio director ..
22:50 I was greedy for it I loved it
GRANADA TV
22:52 You got a gig at Granada TV
23:20 Weren’t snotty about drama
Have coffee with your mates working on You’ve been Framed and you learned so much
Funny things happen in Spain thats just because you’re editing Spanish clips
FIFTH DISC (KATE BUSH WUTHERING HEIGHTS)
She once wrote to me and invited me round for tea, so terrified I didn’t even go
This is my public apology
I love her mystery! I don’t know what half her songs are talking about
24:57 Oh I’ve chucked all those cards out off the mantelpiece
1999 QUEER AS FOLK
Did it feel particularly personal
Kind of obvious wasn’t it
I’d seen that street (Canal Street) grow
26:40 I’d be quite peeved if I bumped into friends
I’d be on the edge of the dance floor
27:12 It was sexually frank [LL]
It was about the sexual urge
27:29 What was driving those characters
Never dreamt we’d get away with what we got away with it
People did want to watch it
27:41 It was a huge hit
THE PRESS
27:48 That was a baptism of fire
250 people! All journalists chose to attack the show
Learned to never back down, had integrity
One character was 15, caused a lot of controversy
An out gay teenager was a miracle at this time
Now, much more numerous
I just showed what was going on in this show
SIXTH DISC (HOLD THAT SUCKER DOWN)
Reminds me of time in clubs on that street
This is like being out clubbing
DR WHO
30:04 You can famously mark your childhood by the episode you were watching when specific incidents occur
Dream come true to be the person bringing it back to BBC1
My whole life for 5 or 6 years
Transmission on Christmas day
It was like giving an alcoholic a free bar
30:36 An interesting simile though, not necessarily a good thing [LL]
Still tired!
Base in Cardiff
Executive Producer on 6 shows at once at one point
“A programme ruined by a hat”
31:36 When you extrapolate that beyond hats and to all the other design and script decisions, gosh it was busy
Why bring it back
31:49 It earns a place in the national hearth
—> BBC put it on at 7pm on a Saturday
—> On Christmas day, moved into family home
Wasn’t done at all
Contacted by a divorce lawyer, get awful warring couples
The one hour of peace they get is all watching Dr Who together
SEVENTH DISC (SONG FOR TEN)
I often say about Dr Who was that I didn’t have a chance to enjoy it
Did children in need concert, choir sang this song and I thought this is bliss as they hit the descant
PARTNER ANDREW
Move to America with partner Andrew
34:02 Started having hallucinations of an Edwardian lady smiling sarcastically at him
Did a lot of internet searches
34:31 If I’d searched for the word seizure then I would’ve got the diagnosis in seconds
—> Epileptic seizure
Grade 4 cancer 18 months to live
Lived for next 8 years
Moved home, became his carer (had 7 operations on his head)
Lucky enough to be able to do that
35:16 He was compus mentus
Those 8 years were our happiest years
35:43 They were so intimate
36:04 He was properly cherished
I would chuck that freedom away
36:36 I’ve been working flat out
The silence was astonishing after finished the scripts
37:02 Took that long for it to register
Nicest man in the world
37:11 Nice sounds like such a bland word
37:15 When I gave the eulogy I said ‘the world turns under the march of the feet of nice people’
37:27 He had it in spades
He will be in every good man I write now
37:44 Where would you go if you had a tardis
I’d be a bystander in that club on that night when we caught eyes
Not a bad way to go if you have to go
EIGHTH DISC (ELO)
He’d asked me to marry him a hundred times
I didn’t see the point
Pulled the ultimate trick of having a fatal disease
Had to cancel 4 times
Every time you cancel a wedding you have to pay, the 4th time the woman cried on the phone - I won’t make you pay for this one
small, 4 friends
As we walked down aisle
39:07 The music cut out
There’s an automatic cut out in the registry office whenever sound gets too great and it was too great because our friends were laughing so much out loud because he’d finally
39:22 trapped me into this marriage
His face - huge smile, my face - grim
Who needs 100 people when you can have 4 to laugh you through it
ISLAND
I imagine a cartoon island
Book: Asterix and the Roman Agent
One of the cleverest and greatest stories ever written
41:23 A huge epic
Luxury: Ball Pentol Pen
Choose: Bernstein’s Mass