Writer and executive producer Russell T Davies (Doctor Who, It’s a sin, Strange as the folk are) was one of the big-name creatives who graced the stage at SXSW London on Friday in a keynote appearance to discuss his work and career.
But before he stole the spotlight in the second edition of the event in the British capital, Hollywood Reporter She caught up with Davies at London’s SXSW Photo Studio in Shoreditch to talk about Channel 4’s new five-part erotic drama Toe tipthe first two episodes of which were released on Sunday.
Starring Alan Cumming as Leo and David Morrissey as Clive, the series is set amid the recent backlash against gay rights, and tells the story of a Manchester pub owner and his old neighbor who becomes embroiled in a dispute.
in her heart, Toe tip “It’s about the rage of the online world creeping into the real world,” the creator said. THR. No US home has been revealed for the show.
Why this is a good time to tell a story Toe tip?
The timing was right in part because I had the idea for the story, and you always have to pounce before someone else has the same idea. But also because of the things we say about the state of the world, the anger rising in the world, and our scrolling opinions [through social media]. It’s about the rage of the online world creeping into the real world, and that’s becoming more urgent for me.
I wrote the first episode very quickly, and the series was commissioned very quickly. I told Channel 4 I would write it, and they were interested. It took me about a month, and then they ordered it within seven days.
Wow, for most people, this would never happen so quickly…
They may wait seven years. But that’s how objective it is. We raced across the screen. We had two editing suites and two mixing suites to prepare, because the stuff you’re talking about is in the canon, and with it [Labour Party boss] Keir Starmer as Prime Minister and Kemi Badenoch as Prime Minister [conservative] Leader of the Opposition, this is in danger of becoming outdated very soon. So we literally rushed to get it on the air before any of those characters stepped down.
There has been a backlash against LGBTQ+ rights, making this a timely show…
definitely. Sure, when I wrote Strange as the folk are In 1999, this was a more upbeat series despite some darkness and egregious moments of brutality. But in reality, it was a very optimistic series leading towards the future. And now I have serious fears and serious doubts. The way the transgender argument is being weaponized against the entire LGBTQ+ community is certainly scary. You can see it happening right in front of us.
You mentioned social media…
I have a friend who says that after we invented the printing press, we had 200 years of war. What we have here is a completely new form of communication and we are not about to back down from it. We will not be cut off from the Internet, it will not stop, and we have not evolved to deal with it. I think our technology is trumping our emotions, and that’s a very big problem.
Tell me a little bit about how you cast Alan Cumming and David Morrissey.
They are just amazing. By some miracle, they actually became best friends in real life. I didn’t know that. We contacted Alan Cumming before writing the script. We did something very unusual and said let’s try to connect an actor to an idea, which I’ve never done before, but I always see other people doing it. Alan said yes, and then he received the script and loved it. So make time in his schedule. He’s a busy man, though Traitors In the United States, among others. We waited to shoot with him, which meant I could also write all the scripts in advance, which was great.
Then it turned out that he had been best friends with David Morrissey for 40 years, and they had never appeared together on screen. When they did their first little scene on Canal Street [in Manchester]We gave them all a round of applause. It was a beautiful moment. In fact, it was Alan who sent the script to David. You could technically say this is the second lead. But David makes him a primary partner with Alan, and Alan likes that nicely. David has no ego, no bullshit in his head. He loves a good piece of work and just grabbed it. Episode three, which comes out this Sunday, changes the whole drama, so you see everything from Clive’s point of view, from David’s character’s point of view. Once I knew it was there, I had the opportunity to really rely on it, which is great.
Is Clive a conservative or is it more than that? How do you describe him?
Clive is homophobic and transphobic, but those are extreme words. It doesn’t start there, and the series looks at what drives him there. Despite all of that, we show him kindness, civility, and decency that have been very clearly undermined by his online browsing, and belief in conspiracy theories.
There has been a whole generation of people who have either been let down by education or rejected education, and who are now educating themselves, and this is largely out of control. There’s a reason we have curricula, filters, and strategies for teaching. Otherwise you are educating yourself in an age of lies, in an age where anyone can publish anything.
When I look at the world today, the number of people who don’t believe in the moon landing is now creeping up to about 40 percent. It’s just completely shocking. How do we stop that? How do you stop this decay of information, this decay of knowledge in the world that I find terrifying.
I heard that Leo isn’t perfect and heroic either?
I think it’s written well enough that the gay guy isn’t just the hero; He does wrong things. He doesn’t stop his friend from gossiping sometimes. He over-sexualises things and will resort to cheap insinuation in front of young men. It largely represents a generation that is not taking the growing problem seriously. He continues to endure Clive’s hostility because he keeps thinking things will get better, and they jump right before his eyes. But he doesn’t hear the call to action that’s happening right next to him.
