Russell T Davies - Children's Television Career

Children's Television Career

Davies was taken on as a member of the BBC Wales Children's department in 1985 and given one-day contracts and commissions, such as illustrating for Why Don't You? As he was only given three days of work per month by the BBC, he continued to freelance and volunteer for the Sherman Theatre. In 1986, he was approached by the Sunday Sport before its launch to provide a football-themed daily strip; he declined because he was concerned about the pornographic content of the newspaper. He also submitted a script for Crossroads in response to an appeal for new writers; it was not used because the show was cancelled in 1987. He ultimately abandoned his graphic art career entirely when he realised in his early twenties that he enjoyed writing the dialogue of a comic more than creating the art.

On 1 June 1987, Davies made his first and only appearance as a television presenter on Play School alongside regular presenter Chloë Ashcroft. Why Don't You? line producer Peter Charlton suggested that he would "be good on camera" and advised him to take his career public. Davies was granted the opportunity for sporadic appearances over a period of six months; he hosted only one episode as a storytelling illustrator before he walked off the set and commented he " not doing that again". The appearance remains an in-joke in the industry, and the recordings were invariably requested for wrap parties Davies attended.

On Why Don't You?, Davies took on varying jobs, including researcher, director, illustrator, assistant floor manager, and unofficial publicist for fan-mail. He was offered his first professional scriptwriting job in 1986 by show producer Dave Evans; he had entered Evans' office to collect his wages and was offered an extra £100 to write a replacement script. Davies' script was positively reviewed in the department and led to increasingly larger roles that culminated in a six-month contract to write for the show after it relocated to Manchester in 1988. He worked for the show for two more years and eventually became the show's producer. He oversaw an increase in drama which tripled its audience—despite the fact BBC Manchester was not permitted by the corporation to create children's dramas—which reached its climax with his last episode: a drama where the Why Don't You? protagonists, led by the show's longest running presenter Ben Slade, were trapped in a café by a supercomputer that tried to kill them.

While he was producing Why Don't You?, Davies branched out within the children's department at BBC Manchester: he attended directors' courses; wrote for older audiences with his contributions to DEF II and On the Waterfront; and accompanied Keith Chegwin to Norway to assist in the production of a children's documentary about politics. The head of the children's department, Ed Pugh, offered him the chance to produce Breakfast Serials, a new series scheduled for an 8:00 am slot. Breakfast Serials incorporated elements of non-sequitur comedy and popular culture references aimed at older students, such as a parody of Land of the Giants. Davies would make the decision to leave the children's department and the BBC during the production of Breakfast Serials: a friend called him after the first episode was transmitted and observed that he had "broadcast a joke about the juvenilia of Emily Brontë at eight o'clock in the morning"; the conversation caused him to reflect that he was writing for the wrong audience. However, Davies would produce three more children's series while he pursued an adult drama career: Dark Season, Century Falls, and Children's Ward.