MONDO EXTRAS

Again, damned if you do and [damned if you don't]. You've just made me realise that people will say I'm writing with kid gloves. Oh, blimey. Fuck it, different show, with me in a different state of mind.

By the by, I don't think there is such a thing as ITV drama. I believe David Liddiment, head of the channel, would show anything if it's good. He once told me, to my face, that he would have shown QAF. And I worked for that man for many years, he just wouldn't lie, believe me. Maybe the odd compromising or hyped publicity statement, yeah, but I've done that, it's part of the game. Face to face, he's brutally honest. It's writers and producers who impose that ITV-ishness, not the channel. If they show rubbish sometimes, it's cos too many people submit rubbish. ITV made Cracker and Prime Suspect, two of the best shows ever. They made Band of Gold! Every bit as sexually raw and honest as QAF -- Band of Gold paved the way for QAF's sexual freedom far more than any other of the ancestors that are listed (This Life, etc). But of course, Band of Gold was massively popular -- what, fourteen million viewers? So it gets left off the list by cultural commentators. Snobbery again.

della femina: Is Nicola Shindler producing Bob & Rose?

Russell T. Davies: Oh yes, and I'll be co-producing as well. For the moment, I sort of think, "Why work with anyone else?" I hope -- though it's good to work with other people too -- that I'll always work with her.

della femina: Will you be working with her on The Second Coming, the four-hour series you're writing for Channel Four about the Son of God returning to Earth?

Russell T. Davies: Ah yes, that. I'm angry now. In fact, I fucking hate that channel. I spent ten months working on that, it was given a definite greenlight in May -- I'm sure you know, but a greenlight means it's absolutely commissioned, scheduled, etc, it's real -- I wrote all four hours, did about fifteen rewrites to everyone's satisfaction. Not only that, but I turned down other work, because Channel Four asked me to turn down other work. And then -- you can see where this is heading -- three weeks ago, they pulled out, the bastards.