Russell T Davies interview

It's been a long time since a TV writer was as influential as Russell T Davies. Not only has he overhauled BBC One's Saturday night schedule with the return of Doctor Who, he also seems to have restored the faith of the entire industry in prime-time family drama. In The Telegraph he talks to Richard Johnson.

Doctor Who, which is just about to begin its third series under Davies, first appeared in 1963; it is now the longest-running science fiction television series in the world. With good reason, reckons Davies - it's down to the writing.

'Take The Talons of Weng Chiang, for example. Watch episode one. It's the best dialogue ever written. It's up there with Dennis Potter. By a man called Robert Holmes. When the history of television drama comes to be written, Robert Holmes won't be remembered at all because he only wrote genre stuff. And that, I reckon, is a real tragedy.'

Freema Agyeman and David Tennant prepare for series three of the new-look Doctor Who.

Russell T Davies also has a letter in The Guardian today, defending John Inman's portrayal of Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served? (written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft).

It seems a bit easy to condemn both John Inman and Mr Humphries for the failings of a bygone age (G2, March 9). As a young, gay viewer, back then, I loved that character, and even watching it now, it strikes me that in a sitcom full of failure and frustration - as the best British sitcoms are - Mr Humphries was the only one with an active, successful sex life. He's the only character in Are You Being Served? who is essentially happy. And that's how I will remember him.