Russell T Davies Opens Up About Facing Online Hate Over Trans Doctor Who Character

The Huffington Post

Russell T Davies Opens Up About Facing Online Hate Over Trans Doctor Who Character

Russell T Davies at Comic-Con in 2024 Russell T Davies recently reflected on the highs and lows of his second tenure as Doctor Who ’s showrunner. The Bafta winner first helmed Doctor Who when it was rebooted in 2005, staying for five years, before eventually returning to the franchise in the 2020s, to coincide with its 60th anniversary celebrations. On Wednesday morning, it was announced that Russell would be stepping away from Doctor Who with immediate effect, and that a planned Christmas special for the 2026 festive season penned by the It’s A Sin creator had also been scrapped. The announcement came at a time when Russell had been receiving acclaim for his new Channel 4 drama Tip Toe , which explored themes of online radicalisation, misinformation and the rise of hate against LGBTQ+ people in recent years. Promoting the show weeks before the news of his exit from the sci-fi series was confirmed , Russell opened up about being exposed to some of these themes himself after re-joining Doctor Who in 2023. While discussing Tip Toe and whether he could relate to its characters, he told HuffPost UK last month: “ The weaponisation against me online began the moment I put a trans character into Doctor Who.” David Tennant and Yasmin Finney in a Doctor Who special that aired in 2023 Russell explained that the backlash against him personally “began then, on that date” when it was first announced he’d be introducing a transgender character into the long-running series. “And it has never stopped,” he continued, before quickly adding: “With lunatics. And idiots. I mean, there is no measure of their lack of intelligence. But that is now crossing over into the real world. That’s the scary thing.” The increase in anti-trans rhetoric and hate crimes against trans people in the last few years has been well-documented, with a report by the advocacy group Trans Actual UK earlier this year indicating that around 99% of trans people surveyed said that negative media coverage of the transgender community had impacted their mental health. Last year, following a complaint from campaigners in the group For Women Scotland (FWS), the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a “woman” should only apply to those assigned female at birth. Rising transphobia is one of the many themes touched on in Russell’s new show Tip Toe, which he told HuffPost UK he “literally felt driven to write” following events in both his own life and those of his friends. During the interview, he remarked that his friends within the LGBTQ+ community are “feeling more and more pressure, and more and more attacks upon them” in the current political and social climate. Russell’s return to Doctor Who saw David Tennant and Catherine Tate also coming back to the show, with Heartstopper ’s Yasmin Finney joining the cast as the latter’s on-screen daughter, Rose. Last year, the screenwriter brushed off the suggestion that Doctor Who has become more “woke” since his return , telling the BBC: “ There are online warriors accusing us of diversity and wokeness and involving messages and issues. “[I have] no time for this. I don’t have a second to bear [it]. Because what you might call diversity, I just call an open door.” Announcing his exit on Wednesday , he said he was “ as excited as anyone to see what comes next” for the show, which is being put “out to competitive tender this year”. Read our full interview with Russell T Davies here . Tip Toe is available to stream now on Channel 4. READ MORE: Russell T Davies: 'The World Is Out Of Control In A Way We Won't Even Contemplate' Tip Toe Creator Russell T Davies Talks Us Through The Show's Brutal Ending Russell T Davies Admits There Were 'Arguments' Over How Tip Toe Should End

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