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Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies used his BAFTA Cymru acceptance speech to warn of censorship and call for TV networks to stand firm.
Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: doctor who
Doctor Who: Russell T Davies Sounds the Alarm on US, UK Censorship
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies used his BAFTA Cymru acceptance speech to warn of censorship and call for TV networks to stand firm.
Russell T Davies, still the current showrunner of Doctor Who until we all hear otherwise and writer of acclaimed series like Queer as Folk, It's a Sin, and the sadly prescient Years and Years, was presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to Television at Sunday's BAFTA Cymru Awards ceremony. He used his acceptance speech to warn about how greater compliance rules have forced writers to start censoring themselves in the current climate.
"When times get tough, TV gets timid," Davies declared. "And you all know how hard it is to deal with compliance. And I'm not blaming the people in compliance; they work very hard and have a tough job to do. I do blame their bosses for getting scared. And I can feel it, I've literally had experience of this."
"The compliance is getting tough, 'You can't say this, you can't say that, you have to balance it'. No, you don't have to fucking balance it, you can just be strong and say what you want. And I think then that is where censorship creeps in. The censorship isn't the government, isn't the authorities, it's in us. We sit there and say, 'Oh, they won't like that. Oh, you can't do that, you can't say that.' And then the worst form of censorship of all comes in at home.
"Where the writers – and I don't just mean drama, I mean writers, whether in children's or factual or documentaries, entertainment, where those creators sit there saying, 'I can't write that. They won't like that, they won't accept that, they won't make that. And that is the worst form of censorship that exists because it censors an idea before it's ever been shown to someone."
"So now, with the danger that's coming towards us, indisputably coming towards us, we now need a world in which the BBC stands for 'Big Balls Corporation'. We need an ITV that is literally 'Independent Television'. We need a Channel 4 that is a channel for something. We need a Netflix that is 'Not Enough Trans Films Innit Love? kiss'. That took a while.
"But we've seen in America what is happening, how the government is attacking the media. They're literally attacking people and literally suing them, and we all know there are people who use that as a playbook. That is coming this way, that's a fact.
"And television at its best, it's a beacon. It's a lighthouse, it's an emergency flare, it's a light in the dark, it is a torch bearer that stands for truth and insight and wisdom and justice. And we must not let that flame go out. Thank you very much."
Davies's speech was posted on Instagram – here's a look:
Davies has always been vocal about his support for free speech and how television can be a tool for changing hearts and minds. He has used Doctor Who and his more personal television work to express his beliefs. His series Years and Years actually predicted the rise of a totalitarian regime, which is currently happening in the UK and, by extension, the US.
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