Russell T. Davies

In 2003, when the BBC decided to revive Doctor Who, it turned to Russell T. Davies. With the series Queer As Folk and The Second Coming, Davies had emerged as one of the leading writers and producers in the U.K., and he was tasked with bringing the sci-fi classic to a new generation of viewers. The show launched in 2005 on BBC One and today remains integral to the prime-time schedule. It also spawned two lucrative spin-offs: The Sarah Jane Adventures, a kids’ series, and Torchwood, a sci-fi drama that, with its third season, Torchwood: Children of Earth, scored huge ratings on BBC One and BBC America. From his new base in Los Angeles, Davies spoke to World Screen about the inspiration for Torchwood, his decision to leave Doctor Who this year and his Hollywood learning curve.

 

WS: What led to the creation of Torchwood?

DAVIES: I just thought there was an appetite for more after the success of Doctor Who. It’s done very well abroad; it was huge in Britain, it is still huge. But I was also very aware that because Doctor Who only has two lead actors, it’s really very hard to make more than 13 episodes. In America you make 22, 24, 26 episodes. We wanted to meet that production output as well. It was a whole new world to explore. And we were popular with the BBC—we were given the budget, so you’re mad to turn that sort of a chance down!

 

WS:Why did you decide to do the latest installment as a five-part mini-series?

DAVIES:It was time for a change. The program was very much invented for a digital channel—BBC Three—and it got the highest figures that BBC Three had ever had. That was never going to compare to mainstream terrestrial channels. In many ways it was invented as a cult program, which is naturally for a smaller audience. In the third year, the BBC liked it so much they wanted to move it to BBC One. So it was a promotion. We wanted to arrive with a bang, to be honest. We felt there was no point creeping in quietly and pretending we had always been there. Once someone came to me with the format of five episodes told over five days and transmitted over five days, I just loved it. It was a big experiment; none of us knew whether it would work. The ratings were colossal. We practically tripled Torchwood’s [BBC Three] ratings. It was a joyous week that I’m still recovering from!

 

WS: The tone of the third season was much darker than the first two. Was that something that you set out to do?

DAVIES:It wasn’t a deliberate choice. Even when I’m working on Doctor Who, some episodes are dark, some are lighter. All you do is follow the story. We realized three episodes in that we were following a story that was heading toward the decimation of the population. Once you come up with that concept, there’s no other way to tell that except seriously. It was good, wasn’t it? I loved it! [Laughs]

 

WS:How did you think it would perform in the U.S.?

DAVIES:When it was going out in Britain, we already knew that we were on to a winner; the ratings kept getting better every day. It could have disappeared over here [in the U.S.], but then BBC America did so much promotion, they put so much money and energy into it. They really flogged the show and made it huge and upfront. So it was a joy [to see the ratings]. Mind you, I still can’t believe that everyone doesn’t watch it. Frankly, I won’t rest until there are 60 million viewers, that’s what I want!

 

WS:You also created a new kids’ show out of Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures.

DAVIES:We wanted to spin off in that area because there was such a demand from children. And we took that seriously. And we’d worked with Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith, on Doctor Who many years ago. I loved working with her and I loved that character. It was all these things being in the right place at the right time. I have worked in children’s television before. That’s where I started. The first thing I ever wrote was a children’s drama, so I did know that world very well. I knew the rhythms of it and the boundaries of it and the potential of it.

 

WS: Are you looking at developing shows for the U.S.?

DAVIES:I’d love to. Part of the reason I’m over here is that it’s a much bigger business. I’ll see what I can learn personally, whether there’s anything to take back home or there’s any [production] I could join in on.

 

WS:What do you think American producers can learn from the way drama is developed in Britain?

DAVIES:I’m not sure they need to learn anything as such. I think we have opportunities in the U.K. that don’t pre­sent themselves in America. In Britain, we all admire the size of American [series], 13 weeks or 20 weeks; it’s all very expensive. When you talk to American writers, they admire that in the British system, you can do something that is only six hours long or very often something that is two or three hours long. We have much more flexible formats. We make practically nothing that is 20 weeks long. Only Doctor Who, Torchwood and Merlin are 13 weeks long. It’s a very rare thing in Britain. What you get are very author-led pieces—we don’t have writers’ rooms, we have one writer writing the whole thing. That’s a chance you don’t get [in the U.S.]