The Queerest of Folk

The memoir of a life in British Television from the head writer of Doctor Who and creator of Queer as Folk and It’s a Sin

By: Russell T Davies

Narrated by: Russell T Davies

From Doctor Who to Tip Toe, Queer as Folk to Coronation Street, Britain’s foremost television writer and showrunner takes us behind the scenes of some of the nation’s most beloved programmes.

In The Queerest of Folk, Russell T Davies traces his remarkable career in television, from his early days working on children’s shows and soaps through to the giddy heights of relaunching Doctor Who, and the queer stories that challenged what the mainstream screen dared to show.

With warmth, humour and glorious candour, Davies opens the door to his extraordinary imagination: what it is to feel the spark of ideas popping into your head, the flood and burn of characters coming to life. Alongside this comes the daily craft of television-making – the meetings and pitches, the arguments and the compromises, and the frustration and sheer exhilaration of a career that has spanned five decades.

This is a memoir fizzing with love for television and the power it has to draw us together in an increasingly fragmented world.

© Russell T Davies 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critic reviews

'A classic, Get to the Good Bits memoir...as propulsive as his tv shows'. (Jenny Colgan)

'A galloping memoir of Davies’s life as Britain’s most celebrated showrunner’

‘An education and a joy…extraordinarily moving’

‘For anyone that’s interested in tele this is a great tale’ (Lorraine Kelly)

[Russell has] single-handedly made the world a better place...let us all be a bit more Russell (Davina McCall)