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Davies was also asked more broadly about AI, including how, or if, writers should use the technology.
“I have heard stories of some writers using AI prompts to do a first draft which I find shocking because I think… What are you paid for otherwise? What are you there to do?”
He said he did not use it to write his scripts but he “very much” worried it would start to replace writers, and in some circumstances that may already be the case.
Davies is one of the UK’s most influential television writers – from the ground-breaking Queer as Folk to acclaimed dramas including It’s a Sin, Years and Years and, more recently, Tip Toe, he has had a major impact on British TV.
But perhaps his most significant achievement is his work on Doctor Who.
In 2005, he brought the Timelord back after a 16-year absence after pitching it to the BBC’s then-head of drama at a party in Manchester.
He revived the show again in 2023, although he confirmed earlier this year he would be stepping away.
He told The Media Show there were times he “used to dread going on a Doctor Who set” because of the expensive special effects and “explosions going on, people pulling themselves in to prosthetics”.
“It’s more difficult than any other set.”
The show is now at a crossroads.
The BBC cancelled the planned Christmas special and Disney+ no longer co-finances the series.
But Davies had good news for Doctor Who fans. Another series is on the cards, he promised, even though he will not be involved.
“You’ll start to see production with a brand-new Doctor, a brand-new companion, summer next year.”
Davies – who recently released his memoir ‘The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television’ – got his first break aged 22 working in BBC children’s TV “for £50 a day”.
“It was the best training you could possibly have,” he said.
The Swansea-born writer later honed his skills in the heyday of Granada Television “when Coronation Street was getting 18 million, 20 million [views]”.
Also in the interview, he revealed inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources – he “records the phone-ins on This Morning” and listens to them in the evening.
“All human life is there… just a couple of times a year, you’ll get an extraordinary human story or something very funny. One of my favourite ones about a year ago was a woman whose mother-in-law was insisting on wearing white to her wedding”.
He believes he will get a script out of that “one day”: “What a great little problem that is – two women just at war.”
Russell T Davies’ interview will be on The Media Show, Wednesday 4.15pm BBC Radio 4 & BBC Sounds
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