Do you want to write TV drama inspired by your own life and have it become a massive hit? Well, this is an exclusive opportunity to learn how!
Join multi-award-winning Russell T Davies OBE, Nicola Shindler and Lee Mason – the masterminds behind one of the most successful dramas of the year – as they lift the lid on how the iconic It’s A Sin came to be, and how you too can tell your truth and bring it to the screen for millions to see.
Russell T Davies accepts his Outstanding Achievement Award at the RTS Programme Awards 2021, in partnership with Audio Network, and pays tribute to the queer writers that have come before him.
Written by Russell T Davies (A Very English Scandal), the series follows a group of queer men in 1980s London set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis.
Olly Alexander plays 18-year-old Ritchie Tozer, a youngster beginning a new life in London. There he meets the unassuming Colin (Callum Scott Howells) and party boy Roscoe (Omari Douglas) and the trio form a close friendship.
The writer was talking at an RTS North West online Q&A in late April. He recalled the 2008 recession, when friends at ITV told him, “‘We don’t know if we can show this episode of The Bill tonight,’ [because] they were so short of advertisers and money.
“This recession is going to be even bigger and it’s going to affect the commercial channels hugely… and [the streamers] will start cutting back as well.
“We’ve got a Government that is morally and profoundly opposed to the BBC. Please don’t think they’ll change their minds about the BBC in this crisis.”
In just 20 years, Russell T Davies has left an indelible mark on British television. From Queer as Folk, via Doctor Who, to this year’s dystopian chiller Years and Years, Davies has written unforgettable drama. His work – like the writer in person – is opinionated and loud, but also warm and human.
The BBC One series, made by the Red Production Company, bagged three awards at the ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester. Years and Years was named Best Drama, while the acting gongs went to Rory Kinnear and Jessica Hynes.
Granada Reports also picked up three awards on the night. The ITV News programme won the Best Regional News Programme award for its investigation into the North West’s high suicide rate and the prize for Best Digital Content. Sports correspondent Chris Hall was named Best Regional News Journalist.
RTS Cymru Wales Chair Judith Winnan made the award at the end of a sold-out event at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to mark the RTS Centre’s 60th anniversary.
The multi-award-winning writer and regenerator of Doctor Who had been discussing his career with Gethin Jones. The TV presenter met Davies when he was working on Blue Peter 15 years ago – and went on to appear in Doctor Who, albeit as a Dalek and Cyberman.
The Royal Television Society commemorates its 60th year in Wales with an evening dedicated to Swansea-born Russell T Davies on Monday 28 October at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Russell is responsible for such groundbreaking shows such as Queer As Folk and the multi award-winning A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw.
His 2019 drama series Years And Years, set in a near-future where British society teeters on the edge of collapse and starring Emma Thompson and Anne Reid, has received global critical acclaim.
On the eve of the 2016 US presidential election, when Donald Trump was getting his first inkling that he would be elected to the world’s highest political office, Russell T Davies was texting the controller of BBC drama about an idea they had long been discussing. “I wrote to Piers Wenger and said, ‘If he wins tomorrow, it’s time I write this show now’ – and he said yes,” recalls Davies.
