Welsh screenwriter and television producer, Russell T Davies, is perhaps best known as the original showrunner and head writer of the revival of the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who. However, he is also renowned for creating pivotal queer programming including: Queer As Folk, Cucumber, Banana, It’s A Sin, and the most recent harrowing work, Tip Toe. Now, Davies’ latest project is a book. ‘The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television’ is a memoir, co-written with HEAT and Empire journalist, Boyd Hilton, explores Russell T Davies’ career in television.
Hilton described the process of writing with Davies as “one of the joys of my life”, adding that Davies is “a literal and figurative giant of TV drama”.
He continued: “We’ve known each other since the tumultuous launch of Queer As Folk 27 years ago, and for me his subsequent extraordinary body of work is a unique achievement that demands to be celebrated.”
Image credit: BBC
The synopsis from Penguin, publisher of the new non-fiction work, reads: “Britain’s foremost TV writer and showrunner takes us through his life in television, and behind the scenes on some of our favourite shows.
“The Queerest of Folk distils Russell T Davies’s career in television, taking us from his early days working on children’s shows and soaps through to the giddy heights of relaunching Doctor Who and bringing queer relationships onto the mainstream screen.
“We’re offered a glimpse into the imagination of one of Britain’s most celebrated writers – what it is to feel the spark and flood and burn of ideas popping into your head – coupled with the day-to-day business of meetings and pitches, the frustrations and the hoots, over a career that has spanned five decades.
“This is a memoir fizzing with a love for television and the power it has to draw us together in an increasingly fragmented world.”
Sharing the news on social media, Russell T Davies said the book would be: “Lots of fun, some gossip, stories of shows never made, and I hope insight into the day-to-day life of writing for TV.”
The Queerest of Folk: A Life in Television is due to be published by Bantam, an imprint of Penguin, on 8th October 2026. Pre-orders for the book are already open, and Davies is also set to read the audiobook himself.
