"Maybe some crossover of Henry Sugar x Deb... I don't even mind if it's comedy (much welcome, actually). Or else, anything from their recent projects." - Request by Anonymous.
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR (2023) | SUCH BRAVE GIRLS S01E03 (2023)
Russel T Davies in Doctor Who: Unleashed, Children in Need Special
We had long conversations about bringing Davros back because he's a fantastic character. Time and society and culture and taste has moved on, and there's a problem with the Davros of old in that he's a wheelchair user who is evil...
...and I've had problems with that, and a lot of us on the production had problems with that, of associating disability with evil and, trust me, there's a very long tradition of this.
I'm not blaming people in the past at all, but the world changes and when the world changes, Doctor Who has to change as well.
So we made the choice to bring back Davros without the facial scarring and without the wheelchair, or his support unit, which functions as a wheelchair. I say this is how we see Davros now. This is what he looks like. This is 2023. This is our lens. This is our eye. Things used to be in black and white, they're not in black and white anymore. And Davros used to look like that and he looks like this now. And that we are absolutely standing by.
I think, because it's Children in Need night, it's a night where issues of disability or otherness or being excluded from society come right to the front of the conversation. So, of all the nights to make this change, I thought it was absolutely vital to do this, and I'm very very proud of the fact that we have.
Russell talking about disability representation in Doctor Who, straight away, in the very first episode is making me feel things.
Do I agree with everything he's said about disability representation and villains, absolutely (see every James Bond film/book.)
Do I agree with their approach to Davros? Maybe, maybe not. It's a very complicated topic on which I do not have the lived experience to speak.
But they are thinking about it. And they clearly care. And that fills me with so much hope for the future.
N.B. I copied the interview transcript from the current BBC iPlayer subtitles. All inaccuracies and emphasis are my own. Please let me know of any errors.
forever wondering how the women from the BBC red light district series are doing.
if you are in space where u feel you can witness the upsetting things shown and discussed in the series (sex, violence, addiction, to name a few) i highly recommend giving it a watch. their stories and perspectives and voices are so important. you can find it on youtube. there isnt many episodes and they are not very long. i must say i’ve been searching for updates for a while and havent seen anything except that Bee has passed. i’m unsure if that is confirmed.
they cross my mind at the very least weekly. these women deserve so much more.