Russell T Davies says he keeps a knife by his door after address was found online

Russell T Davies has said that he now keeps a knife next to his front door “ready to use” after a man turned up at his house.

The screenwriter, 63, has long been targeted with death threats and online campaigns branding him a “groomer” and “paedophile” due to his vocal support of trans rights. “People believe what they read,” he said.

“People have worked out my address, and one person turned up at my house,’ Davies told The Guardian. “If you believe a paedophile lives here, it’s not the maddest thing in the world to come and get me.”

Paedophile hunters are controversial groups, with some accusing them of being “vigilantes”, while others praise them for their work.

The activity is not against the law in itself but has occasionally resulted in alleged assaults, while some people targeted have taken their own lives.

Davies – also behind TV hits such as It’s a Sin and Tip Toe – condemned the lack of privacy that led the unknown man to his house.

“I’ve been saying for years that our rights are paper-thin, and here we are,” he said of the intrusion after the misinformation online.

“What scares me is that I can’t see an end to it. Nothing is going to unseat these tech barons – it will require some sort of revolution to stop them. So for the first time in history, hatred is being monetised by an algorithm.”

Later this month, Davies will publish a memoir titled The Queerest of Folk, in which he chronicles his career from pioneering queer drama to spearheading Doctor Who.

Davies is behind a number of groundbreaking shows, most notably Queer as Folk, his Nineties drama about a group of gay men in Manchester credited with pioneering representation for gay men on screen.

He also created the 2015 series Cucumber for Channel 4, which explored gay relationships in the 21st century, and the Bafta-nominated 2021 drama series It’s a Sin, about the HIV/Aids crisis in the UK.

When asked whether he thinks the doors he’s kicked open keep closing, the writer replied: “You know those slow pneumatic hinges that close automatically? I think that’s what happens. They ‘hisss’ closed slowly.”

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