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Interview: Russell T Davies

Why is it that secret agencies in American movies likeMen In Blackhave billion-dollar budgets, while Torchwood has five employees?
I think you've hit something there. Maybe that's why an American would find the show interesting. There's a fundamental difference between British and American television, it seems to me. This is a great generalization, but as a whole, American television is aspirational, where British television looks towards the working class. If you're on British television, you're more likely to have lead characters who are unemployed or shop workers. Maybe on American television, they're more likely to be running the shop. I admire American television for being aspirational. There's a slight guilt and complex and persecution culture in Britain about moving away from it. In British television, our evening soap operas are all entirely working class, and that's been the dominant voice for 40 years. We're stuck with it. We need to move on. It shouldn't be the only voice. There's a huge contingent of British writers who'll say you sold out and betrayed the whole profession of writing by not writing about the working class, which I find extraordinary and laughable. Nevertheless, perhaps that's where Torchwood's interest comes from. They're a strange little bunch of people living in a sewer.

Doctor Who has been around since 1963. Is there a giant board used to keep track of all the continuity?
The great thing is that there isn't and never has been. That's the most extraordinary part of the history of Doctor Who. Every three or four years, the production team would change. Every few years, the doctor would change. So we'd have this fantastically ramshackle, jammed-together continuity. As a long-term dyed-in-the-wool Doctor Who fan, I'm the historian; I know every single episode ever made. And I love all that, and I'm very respectful towards it, but I have to say, I'd throw all that out for the sake of a good idea.