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Russell The Davies, OBE
So, the man himself, Russell T. Davies, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Now inevitably there’s a certain amount of grumbling about the honours list anyway, and there’s a certain amount of muttering along the lines of “well, he’s only brought back Doctor Who, how does that qualify him for an honour?” but I think he more than deserves this award for service to television and culture over the last twenty-odd years.
Who notwithstanding, he’s the creator of the groundbreaking series Queer as Folk which I had the pleasure of watching again recently and, with the shock value of some of its scenes long since gone, found I was just blown away by the writing. The warmth and the humour and - frankly - brilliant characterisation made me fall in love with it all over again. It’s a stunning bit of writing and well worth a re-viewing if you get the chance.
And then there’s its cultural impact which still resonates to this day.
Then there’s the quality of his other work. I have yet to see many of his other series, but two of his early works “Dark Season” and “Century Falls” had me gripped by Children’s BBC when technically I was way outgrowing it. The former clearly showed he wanted to write Doctor Who, but both also proved that kids could easily handle, nay love, proper drama at a time when the industry believed it was going out of fashion.
If anything I think its these two series that made me realise I wanted to write too.
He’s never written down to kids this one - look at “the Flashing Blade” and “Breakfast Serials” too for further proof - and I do believe that’s vitally important.
His New Doctor Who Adventures novel “Damaged Goods” is something I’ve also picked up again recently and that too is a brilliant - if very dark and, at times, harrowing - read, but also contains seeds that will be familiar to any New Series fans. (Council Estate, with sassy Girl, dark Time Lord, gays a go-go, war machine from an unseen war appearing on earth and so on…)
To see Russell talk about television is too be overawed by his intelligence, his rigour and - above all - his amazing enthusiasm for the medium. It’s always heady stuff and fires me up every time.
And then he’s effectively created a proper Welsh television industry, turning it from a small regional operation into a major powerhouse of drama. And if that doesn’t deserve an OBE I don’t know what does.
The man’s, frankly, brilliant and - despite my occasional problems with his plot decisions on Who - I love him to bits. Well done Russell, it’s an award I think is richly deserved.
Posted on June 14, 2008 | Filed Under Film and Television, The World we Live In
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Response left by Pandemonia on June 14th, 2008
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Abso-bloody-lutely!