Sneaking downstairs to see what TV my parents were watching, some of Russell T Davies’ early, boundary-pushing work ended up accidentally etched into my too-young brain. Queer As Folk was one of my earliest introductions to explicit, queer male sexuality, for instance, while The Second Coming’s satanic panic gave me actual nightmares.
Despite Davies being a TV titan nowadays, the Swansea-born writer is overlooked in terms of critical study. Enter Emily Garside’s Gay Aliens And Queer Folk: How Russell T Davies Changed TV, a comprehensive overview of his career, style, impact – and queer, Welsh status in heteronormative UK television.
After studying in Oxford and Cardiff, Davies volunteered at the Sherman Theatre in the early 80s before working for BBC Wales, earning him a foot in the door for television via CBBC. His timing couldn’t be better, Garside notes, as this era was a ‘golden age’ for grittier, thought-provoking kid’s programming, allowing Davies to lay some proto-Doctor Who groundwork, like 1993’s Century Falls, about a pair of psychic twins.
By the mid to late 90s, he began to push the envelope further by writing queer characters, albeit behind the mask of a pseudonym. A turning point came when a Granada executive essentially told him, in Davies’ interpretation, to “go gay!”, as his writing was best at its most authentic. Thus, the seeds were sown for Davies’ major launchpad, Queer As Folk.
If his present-day CV is just an iMDb search away, Garside’s exploration of what makes a Russell T Davies show a Russell T Davies show is Gay Aliens…’ real selling point. Not someone you’d consider an auteur, Garside nonetheless finds common threads across the frankly massive and disparate tapestry that is his body of work. Her fangirl passion and personal connection to Davies’ legacy – a lifeline for someone of the ‘lost generation’ (growing up in the 80s with no Doctor and Section 28 in effect) – is evident on every page without becoming gushing.
Through her chosen subject, the book also incidentally provides a strong critical assessment of queer, British TV during a hugely transformative period: as her chapter on It’s A Sin is titled, know your history.
Emily will be speaking about her book at Waterstones, Cardiff on Thurs 5 Oct (info: here) and Storyville Books, Pontypridd on Thurs 12 Oct (info: here)
Gay Aliens And Queer Folk: How Russell T Davies Changed TV, Emily Garside (Calon)
Price: £18.99. Info: here
words HANNAH COLLINS