Talk Art · Russell Tovey and Robert Diament

Russell T Davies (Christmas Special Episode)

·1 hr 12 min·5 clips

Davies reveals that the very first Peanuts comic strip ever printed ends with the line 'How I hate him'—establishing the strip's bittersweet darkness from its opening panel.

A warm welcome opens the episode. The hosts introduce their guest through screenwriting and Doctor Who, then find the quieter thread: comics, drawing, and the work he nearly followed. The art story comes in sideways. He remembers getting artwork into a dummy run of a newspaper, and also the younger scruples that made the publisher impossible to accept. He calls himself a cow, but the memory is not only regret. There is real pride in having seen his drawings printed at all. The hosts stay with it. Asked whether he would take on a Sunday strip if the publication itself were not a problem, he answers with quick delight and admits he still loves the form. Drawing has not gone away. His most recent substantial work was illustrating a book of Doctor Who poems by James Goss, finished in only 15 days. That pace changed the look of it. He says it was not quite his proper drawing style, because he had to invent something fast and make it hold together. Then the sweet part arrives. Asked whether he likes his own work, he says he loves it, and the old strips feel more like him than almost anything. Beside his computer, there is still a drawing board, almost 1000 felt pens, and an idea about a wheelie bin coming to life. The hosts catch the unfinished wish in that. One page a week, started years ago, could have become a thousand pages by now. What starts as a charming side note becomes a small self-portrait of someone still pulled toward panels, jokes, marks, and private worlds. The closing stays loose with Instagram handles, thanks, and the Talk Art sign-off, but the part that lingers is his affection for the work he has not quite returned to.

As heard by us

A warm Talk Art conversation follows Russell T Davies back to comics, drawing, Doctor Who, and the cartoonist still waiting in the wings.

Russell T Davies' visit to Talk Art turns his familiar public image as a screenwriter and showrunner back toward drawing: school comics, Doctor Who sketches, a roomful of felt pens, and the cartoon-strip instinct he still seems to trust.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a time-traveling TalkArt conversation about Russell T Davies, Doctor Who, and the drawings that have followed him since childhood.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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