Russell T Davies, whose drama It’s A Sin has topped multiple Best Show polls in 2021, has challenged the cliché of “nice” gay characters.
Davies, who will soon take over as the new showrunner of Doctor Who, has said that he tends to write faults into his characters, such as It’s A Sin‘s lead Ritchie, played by Olly Alexander.
“His selfishness, and the fact that he thinks he’s so clever he can talk his way out of any situation. That’s me. All his worst faults are mine,” he told The Guardian when asked if he saw himself in Ritchie.
He continued: “People often say my lead characters are unlikable, and I think, well, I’m doing that on purpose, because we often are. Likeable is very easy to write, isn’t it?
“There’s often a feeling that the gay character should be the nice character. And I’m like, nobody worries about Tony Soprano, do they? But gay people have to be nice! I love ignoring that.”
At the time of its launch, it was confirmed that the five-part series set the record for Channel 4’s most-binged new TV box set on All 4.
Also earlier this year, Davies revealed that an additional flatmate and further story arcs were lined up had the show been allowed to run for longer.
“It could’ve been eight episodes long, and there would’ve been an extra flatmate, and he would’ve had adventures,” he said on Damian Barr’s Literary Salon. “But I was offered four episodes, and that’s fine. Everything that I would’ve done kind of compacted inwards.”