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Excerpts of "Queer As Folk" mentions in the book "Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale" by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook, 2008, (Published by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, A Random House Group Company):
(I've been out of school so long I forget how to do a proper reference tag - but just know that these are direct quotes from a book that is not my own. I am only quoting it here for research purposes.) :)
Page 29 –
“Stuart Jones in QAF is like that. Without him, that show would have been The Everyday Lives Of Gays, and the whole thing would have died. But Stuart is selfish, cruel, cold, hedonistic… and fantastic! He’s the star around which every other character satellites. Stuart is honest and straightforward, and knows himself very well, and knows what he wants. Oh, people HATED him, vociferously at first, but he’s attractive as a character, undeniably, because he’s true. How many Stuarts are there on Canal Street? Dozens. HUNDREDS! More importantly, any one of us can, on a certain night of our lives, be like that, exactly like him. There are times when we would all do anything – drop our friends, stampede over people, defy convention – for the sake of getting a man. Or a woman. I don’t simply mean that men like Stuart exist; I mean that we can all be like that sometimes. Every one of us. My job as writer is not to worry on behalf of an invisible consensus wondering about sheer bloody boring niceness. Allow the bastards to be lovely, allow the heroes to be weak, and then they’ll come alive.”
Page 36 –
“Yes, QAF is a massively political drama, and yet barely a political speech is made. Not directly. But every word is loaded. Every scene is about the place of gay men in the world. You could argue that it’s entirely political. And it’s MY politics. It’s all me, me, me.”
Page 37 –
“….but that doesn’t mean I sit here thinking, oh, I must announce my thoughts about gay men, about Christianity, about life. Maybe that’s when bad scripts are written, when you choose the theme first. I consider that I’ve something to say when I’ve thought of a person, a moment, a single beat of the heart, that I think is true and interesting, and THEREFORE should be seen. It’s because I can imagine QAF’s Nathan Maloney so full of repression, and desire, and lust, and martyrdom, that I have to write him. It’s because I’ve seen, and sometimes been, Stuart Jones – it’s because I understand him and want to convey that life – or because I don’t understand him and want to explore him through writing.”
Page 43 –
“When I wrote QAF, I had strong mental impressions of Stuart, Vince and Nathan, but then when I came to write QAF 2, long after they’d been cast and had acted in eight episodes, I still didn’t write Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly and Charlie Hunnam. The mental versions were far stronger and took over again. I wonder if that’s weird. But it IS like when you picture your friends, isn’t it? You imagine their ESSENCE. I don’t imagine their hair colour, or teeth, or clothes, or crow’s feet; I sort of imagine their dynamic, the place they occupy.”
Page 52 –
“Right from the moment that QAF was conceived, I knew that it would end with Stuart and Vince dancing on a podium – and I knew WHY. Everything else – that poor, dumped boyfriend of Vince’s, Stuart’s loneliness, the circling drug-killer in the club – came later. But the central image – two men, eternally happy in a state of unrequited love – was a given. That was why I was writing the whole drama, right from the start, to reach that moment of happiness. It’s as crucial as the first moment of thinking of the story. An ending is what the story IS. For me, anyway.”
Page 61 –
“QAF was ten years of my life put on screen. Just about everything in that happened to me in some shape or form. Except having the baby, and he hardly features!”
Page 78 –
“My favorite complaint was on Channel 4’s daily log after Episode 1 of QAF was broadcast: ‘My cleaner was so upset, I had to send her home!’ Ha ha ha. I swear to God that’s true.”
Page 93 –
>>We care about Nathan in QAF within two minutes flat – but is that just down to Charlie Hunnam’s lost-puppy-dog eyes?<<
“Charlie Hunnam’s arse, I’d say. Lovely man, Charlie. He’s really clever. At his audition, we asked him his favourite actor. He said, ‘Christopher Walken,’ which is just about the most intelligent reply I’ve ever head to that question. Plus, THE ARSE!”
(((Side note – there are SEVERAL emails printed over many pages carrying the header “RE: Charlie Hunnam’s Arse” – even when he’s completely left out of the content they are discussing…snicker.)))
Page 159 –
“Pause for weird story. That overdose scene really happened to me, in my kitchen, with a man like that – and I wrote it into the script. The existence of that scene was one of the great engines of QAF. A week before filming, the location feel through, and the production team said, ‘Can we use your house?’ Honest to God. So there’s a man, acting out what could have happened to me, but dying, in the place where it actually happened. I can’t tell you how that makes my head explode. Funny thing is, I believe that coincidence until about a year ago, when I realised that the director, Charles McDougall, who was a truly mad genius, was so intent on accuracy that he must have changed locations on purpose. I bet there was no ‘other location’. It took me eight years to realise that. (They painted my house and redecorated, by the way. It’s not really that awful hippy colour.)”
(((Side note – there is also a long section of the book which features emails carrying the header of “RE: James Marsters’ Arse” – hehe.)))
Page 220-221 – Discusses the opening of certain QAF scenes, and how they could have been shifted around with different impacts on visual presentation for viewers. Also talks about the original opening scene which would have featured Nathan and Donna at a teen party, with Nathan fuffing off to Canal Street when he sees even 12 year olds can get snogged, and he’s got getting anything…lol. Btw – he steals money to take the bus, and leaves Donna behind.
Page 299 –
“On QAF, we had one day so bad that the police were called in. We were filming outside Stuart’s flat, in a dead rough area, and the local pub turned its music up deliberately. When they discovered the show’s name, they turned it up further still. It was blasting out. When we went in to ask them to turn it down, the crew was threatened with machetes!”
Page 497 –
“Accepting second best is a quiet, passive condition – universal, yes, but you have to slide that into a drama. It’s what Rose has done with Andy in Bob & Rose, it’s what Vince does when he goes out with Cameron in QAF… they’re making do with compromises and imagining themselves happy, wishing themselves happy, even if it isn’t true. But no one does that in a crisis. It’s gradual.”
Once again, I encourage you - mannnnnnnnny times over - to buy this book. It is a wonderful thing to experience. RTD, bless.... (Said with full Alexander Perry emphasis!!!)
Hugs
xof
(I've been out of school so long I forget how to do a proper reference tag - but just know that these are direct quotes from a book that is not my own. I am only quoting it here for research purposes.) :)
Page 29 –
“Stuart Jones in QAF is like that. Without him, that show would have been The Everyday Lives Of Gays, and the whole thing would have died. But Stuart is selfish, cruel, cold, hedonistic… and fantastic! He’s the star around which every other character satellites. Stuart is honest and straightforward, and knows himself very well, and knows what he wants. Oh, people HATED him, vociferously at first, but he’s attractive as a character, undeniably, because he’s true. How many Stuarts are there on Canal Street? Dozens. HUNDREDS! More importantly, any one of us can, on a certain night of our lives, be like that, exactly like him. There are times when we would all do anything – drop our friends, stampede over people, defy convention – for the sake of getting a man. Or a woman. I don’t simply mean that men like Stuart exist; I mean that we can all be like that sometimes. Every one of us. My job as writer is not to worry on behalf of an invisible consensus wondering about sheer bloody boring niceness. Allow the bastards to be lovely, allow the heroes to be weak, and then they’ll come alive.”
Page 36 –
“Yes, QAF is a massively political drama, and yet barely a political speech is made. Not directly. But every word is loaded. Every scene is about the place of gay men in the world. You could argue that it’s entirely political. And it’s MY politics. It’s all me, me, me.”
Page 37 –
“….but that doesn’t mean I sit here thinking, oh, I must announce my thoughts about gay men, about Christianity, about life. Maybe that’s when bad scripts are written, when you choose the theme first. I consider that I’ve something to say when I’ve thought of a person, a moment, a single beat of the heart, that I think is true and interesting, and THEREFORE should be seen. It’s because I can imagine QAF’s Nathan Maloney so full of repression, and desire, and lust, and martyrdom, that I have to write him. It’s because I’ve seen, and sometimes been, Stuart Jones – it’s because I understand him and want to convey that life – or because I don’t understand him and want to explore him through writing.”
Page 43 –
“When I wrote QAF, I had strong mental impressions of Stuart, Vince and Nathan, but then when I came to write QAF 2, long after they’d been cast and had acted in eight episodes, I still didn’t write Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly and Charlie Hunnam. The mental versions were far stronger and took over again. I wonder if that’s weird. But it IS like when you picture your friends, isn’t it? You imagine their ESSENCE. I don’t imagine their hair colour, or teeth, or clothes, or crow’s feet; I sort of imagine their dynamic, the place they occupy.”
Page 52 –
“Right from the moment that QAF was conceived, I knew that it would end with Stuart and Vince dancing on a podium – and I knew WHY. Everything else – that poor, dumped boyfriend of Vince’s, Stuart’s loneliness, the circling drug-killer in the club – came later. But the central image – two men, eternally happy in a state of unrequited love – was a given. That was why I was writing the whole drama, right from the start, to reach that moment of happiness. It’s as crucial as the first moment of thinking of the story. An ending is what the story IS. For me, anyway.”
Page 61 –
“QAF was ten years of my life put on screen. Just about everything in that happened to me in some shape or form. Except having the baby, and he hardly features!”
Page 78 –
“My favorite complaint was on Channel 4’s daily log after Episode 1 of QAF was broadcast: ‘My cleaner was so upset, I had to send her home!’ Ha ha ha. I swear to God that’s true.”
Page 93 –
>>We care about Nathan in QAF within two minutes flat – but is that just down to Charlie Hunnam’s lost-puppy-dog eyes?<<
“Charlie Hunnam’s arse, I’d say. Lovely man, Charlie. He’s really clever. At his audition, we asked him his favourite actor. He said, ‘Christopher Walken,’ which is just about the most intelligent reply I’ve ever head to that question. Plus, THE ARSE!”
(((Side note – there are SEVERAL emails printed over many pages carrying the header “RE: Charlie Hunnam’s Arse” – even when he’s completely left out of the content they are discussing…snicker.)))
Page 159 –
“Pause for weird story. That overdose scene really happened to me, in my kitchen, with a man like that – and I wrote it into the script. The existence of that scene was one of the great engines of QAF. A week before filming, the location feel through, and the production team said, ‘Can we use your house?’ Honest to God. So there’s a man, acting out what could have happened to me, but dying, in the place where it actually happened. I can’t tell you how that makes my head explode. Funny thing is, I believe that coincidence until about a year ago, when I realised that the director, Charles McDougall, who was a truly mad genius, was so intent on accuracy that he must have changed locations on purpose. I bet there was no ‘other location’. It took me eight years to realise that. (They painted my house and redecorated, by the way. It’s not really that awful hippy colour.)”
(((Side note – there is also a long section of the book which features emails carrying the header of “RE: James Marsters’ Arse” – hehe.)))
Page 220-221 – Discusses the opening of certain QAF scenes, and how they could have been shifted around with different impacts on visual presentation for viewers. Also talks about the original opening scene which would have featured Nathan and Donna at a teen party, with Nathan fuffing off to Canal Street when he sees even 12 year olds can get snogged, and he’s got getting anything…lol. Btw – he steals money to take the bus, and leaves Donna behind.
Page 299 –
“On QAF, we had one day so bad that the police were called in. We were filming outside Stuart’s flat, in a dead rough area, and the local pub turned its music up deliberately. When they discovered the show’s name, they turned it up further still. It was blasting out. When we went in to ask them to turn it down, the crew was threatened with machetes!”
Page 497 –
“Accepting second best is a quiet, passive condition – universal, yes, but you have to slide that into a drama. It’s what Rose has done with Andy in Bob & Rose, it’s what Vince does when he goes out with Cameron in QAF… they’re making do with compromises and imagining themselves happy, wishing themselves happy, even if it isn’t true. But no one does that in a crisis. It’s gradual.”
Once again, I encourage you - mannnnnnnnny times over - to buy this book. It is a wonderful thing to experience. RTD, bless.... (Said with full Alexander Perry emphasis!!!)
Hugs
xof
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Would you mind if I post the link to this entry on the queerasfolk comm. I have no idea if there are still any people there that enjoyed QAF-UK but in case there are, this is interesting stuff.
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Hugs. x
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