Russell T Davies memoir 'The Queerest of Folk' reviewed — SkimNews
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- Russell T Davies publishes autobiography The Queerest of Folk, galloping through five decades in British television from his 1963 birth in Swansea, early children's TV work at Granada Studios alongside Sally Wainwright, Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor, through the breakthrough success of Queer As Folk.
- Queer As Folk — Davies's 1999 Channel 4 series that the review calls hard to overstate in its impact on queer representation — was almost titled Queer As Fuck until a publicist warned it would never be discussed on Richard and Judy; Davies writes: "That was a red line for me."
- Doctor Who was revived by Davies in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston, followed by David Tennant, and most recently Ncuti Gatwa, whose tenure the reviewer describes as "short-lived"; the collapse of a Disney deal led to Davies's second departure from the show, handled "with grace."
- Andrew, Davies's husband, died of brain cancer in 2018 after eight years of illness — a chapter written with "forceful and moving honesty," including Davies's response to well-wishers saying Andrew is "looking down on him": "I always think, I fucking hope not!"
- The memoir's bluntest passages target industry encounters: Gwyneth Paltrow is dismissed as "remote and numbed and privileged" for objecting to intimacy coordinators, Harvey Weinstein is recalled for his "baleful power" at a money meeting, and A Very English Scandal producers get a sharp retort: "Old Etonians should never take on a Swansea comprehensive boy in a scrap."
- The book closes with a manifesto championing invention and creativity against threats from autocrats, AI and collapsing budgets, celebrating Baby Reindeer, I May Destroy You, The Traitors and The Chase alike under what the reviewer calls a "thrillingly democratic" ethos that "there is no high or low."
Why it matters: Davies shaped two of British TV's defining shifts of the past 25 years — pioneering mainstream queer drama with Queer As Folk and reviving Doctor Who from cancellation — making his candid memoir a primary source on the creative instincts that transformed the medium. His willingness to name names on the page, from Gwyneth Paltrow to Harvey Weinstein, signals that readers are getting Davies's actual voice rather than a sanitised showbiz tell-all.
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