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The Broadcast Interview RUSSELL T DAVIES AND JULIE GARDNER
‘You might call Torchwood very Welsh, or very sci-fi ; I’d call it very me. I could move it to the moon and I’d
be comfortable’ Russell T Davies
Anglo-American production model that draws on the best of both. Tranter recently revealed BBCWP
has around 20 scripts at different stages with US cable and network broadcasters, including remakes of Criminal Justice and I, Claudius. But Miracle Day, Gardner says, is not typical of that slate. “I don’t know if there’s been any-
thing like it in recent TV history: we were shooting 25 hours a day at some points – in the UK on UK hours, and in the US on US hours; it’s a fourth season for the BBC and a fi rst for Starz; there’s some returning cast and some new actors. It’s been mental, really funny, and feels like a distinct new model.” At the heart of that model is the
duo’s working relationship. Davies “clings to Julie’s coat-tails” over budgets, while she creates the best environment for him to work in. Gardner says they just click: “He’s intense but he can be a bit of a laugh, too. The joy of working with Russell is that he’s very clear about his aspira- tions, he’s good at taking notes when he sees their value, and he’s fero- ciously hard-working.” Most of that hard work has been in
the sci-fi genre since their resurrec- tion of Doctor Who in 2005, but both Davies and Gardner are now thinking
RUSSELL T DAVIES ON ...
Producers “Great producers – Julie, Nicola Shindler, Tony Wood – create space for writers to be them- selves. They know when there might be cutbacks, they know when to tell you to go for it, and when to deliver bad news – which is why you stick with them.”
High-concept ideas “I like ideas that you can pitch in one line. A lot of British writers have complained quite fairly
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and naturally about the pitching side of things in America, but I like it – it’s what you do with your mates when you’ve seen a fi lm.”
Sex and violence “Starz probably would have wanted a bit more, and it does work in fan- tasy – look at Game Of Thrones – but some- times you’ll be
watching something on HBO or Showtime and you’ll think ‘enough with the nakedness’.”
Moffat’s Doctor Who “It feels older and more complicated, in a good way, and he’s
gone for long story arcs.
But Doctor Who defi es analysis – it regenerates like the Doctor himself.”
of branching out. Gardner says: “I love sci-fi . I love its melodrama – not in the cheesy sense, but when the stakes are huge and there’s a sacrifi ce moment for a hero or there are terrible moral choices. I’ve also worked on things like Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, which helps with the balance.” They might not be classic sci-fi , but
they are still time-travel shows – perhaps it’s high-concept drama that she’s most drawn to? “Well spotted, you’ve got me. That’s true. If I’m going to the cinema, I’m always drawn to the blockbuster.” Davies too professes his love for sci-fi while enthusing about moving away
Davies credits (clockwise from top left): C4’s Manchester- set Queer As Folk; Christopher Ecclestone in Second Coming; Casanova, starring David Tennant; and Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures
from it. “There are other things to write. I’d love to do a Dickens adaptation. I’ve been dying to do The Old Curiosity Shop for ages but ITV did it about four years ago so I’ll have to wait.” A fan of the Andrew Davies school
of adaptation, he’s clearly enamoured with the novel – best known for its death-of-Little Nell tearjerker – for typically perverse reasons. “It’s a mess. There’s a narrator who
disappears at the end of the second chapter. He says ‘that’s it, I’m off now’. Dickens obviously realises he can’t be in every room to tell the story. I love that quality.” There’s a kind of Dickensian feel to
Miracle Day’s story arc too, which as a 10-part serial is an odd mix of slow- burn development and quick resolu- tion, Davies says. “Its cliff-hangers aren’t literally cliff-
hangers; they don’t pick up at exactly the same moment. But episodes fi ve and six are what Steven Moffat would call the game-changer, when it’s clear what the miracle is really about, and that almost feels like a two-parter. It’s all about your instinct for how slowly and quickly you want things revealed, and it gets faster and faster until epi- sodes eight, nine and 10, which are a real rollercoaster.” In a fortnight’s time, it will become
clear whether audiences on both sides of the Atlantic enjoy the same kind of ride.
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