Classic Desert Island Discs - Russell T Davies

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Russell T Davies is one of the U.K.'s most successful television writers. He spent his teenage years learning his dramatic craft with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre, and his career in television began in the children's department at the BBC. His first solo hit TV series was the ground-breaking, sexually frank drama Queer as Folk, first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1999. A lifelong Doctor Who fan, he relaunched the series in 2005 for a new generation of viewers. Such was its success, he found himself working around the clock. More recently, he wrote the highly-acclaimed series A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe, and the dystopian drama Years and Years. DISC ONE: Julie Covington, Charlotte Cornwell, Rula Lenska - Sugar Mountain DISC TWO: Hora Staccato (1950 version) performed by Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Bay DISC THREE: The New Christy Minstrels - Three Wheels on My Wagon - DISC FOUR: Leonard Bernstein's Gloria in excelsis, performed by The Norman Scribner Choir DISC FIVE: Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights DISC SIX: The OT Quartet - Hold That Sucker Down (Builds Like A Skyscraper Mix) DISC SEVEN: Neil Hannon - Song For Ten DISC EIGHT: Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky BOOK CHOICE: Asterix and the Roman Agent by by René Goscinny with illustrations by Albert Uderzo LUXURY ITEM: A black Ball Pentol Pen CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Leonard Bernstein's Gloria in excelsis Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor (First broadcast in 2019)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.7	Lauren LeVernier, we're taking our Easter break so until we're back on air we're showcasing
0:09.4	a few programs from our archive as usual the music's been shortened for right reasons.
0:15.5	This week's guest is the screenwriter Russell T. Davies.
0:18.9	I cast him away in 2019.
0:41.5	My cast away this week is the writer Russell T. Davies, one of the most celebrated screen
0:46.3	writers of his generation he's kept audiences glued to their TV sets for 30 years.
0:52.3	All TV writers hope for water cooler moments and he's had plenty though his shows have
0:56.8	also been the talk of the school playground.
0:59.0	He learned his craft with a baffer wedding stint at ITV's Granada Studios on Kids Drama
1:04.0	Children's Ward before expanding his remit to Primetime series and Soaps.
1:08.8	He wanted to take Coronation Street to Las Vegas.
1:11.4	However, it was the groundbreaking Queer Is Folk about the lives of three gay friends in
1:15.9	contemporary Manchester that made his name in 1999.
1:20.0	It was the first TV drama to put young British gay lives in the spotlight.
1:24.4	Its success was followed by the realisation of his childhood dream, the big budget regeneration
1:29.7	of beloved TV time lord Dr Who and three successful spin-offs.
1:34.4	In recent years he's done some time travel himself with multi-batter and Emmy-winning period
1:38.9	piece a very English scandal and BBC ones years and years telling the story of an ordinary
1:44.4	English family living in a dystopian near future.
1:47.8	Though on a brighter note the likelihood of its inclusion in next year's awards list
1:51.6	is something to look forward to.
	...

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