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Celebrated screenwriter and showrunner Russell T Davies won widespread acclaim for bringing Doctor Who back to the small screen in 2005 after a 16-year absence.

As a child growing up in Swansea, Doctor Who was the first television programme he remembers watching, and with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the two-hearted alien and the universe he inhabits, who better to select six archive gems for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary.

The ����ý Archives caught up with Russell to hear about his highlights from the anniversary collection. So, in no particular order…

“I’ve been lucky enough to meet Waris over the years and I feel a tremendous kinship with him. We’re two gay men in the industry from different generations. I always find it extraordinary that Doctor Who in 1963 had a female producer, that was a rare thing, and a gay, Asian director. That's absolutely astonishing. What a progressive show it was from the start and I love the fact that throughout his career Waris has directed a million things, but he’s always stayed devoted to Doctor Who. He’s always been kind to fandom. He’s always spoken up about it and defended it and I love him for that. I’m proud to know him as a friend.”

Russell T Davies

“The memo from Joanna Spicer talking about the budgets for Doctor Who is amazing. There they were in 1963 fighting to get the money for the TARDIS. It just proves that in 2023, 60 years later, we have the same conversations. I'd like to think we have a bit more money than they did in Lime Grove in those days, but it’s the same conversations. Good old Joanna Spicer, worried then, just like we’re worried now.”

Russell T Davies

"I knew Beryl, she was the agent to Terry Nation, the writer who created the Daleks. She went on to become an absolute titan in television. She was one of the most famous, powerful and lovely producers you’d ever work with. She was a properly, properly lovely woman. She famously arranged one of the best deals ever with the Daleks, whereby Terry Nation kept all the rights, and I think it's fair to say, earned a fair bit of money off it. Money he absolutely deserved. I'm all in favour of writers having rights. And she was clearly brilliant at her job and ran rings around the ����ý and continued to do that for the rest of her career, so all power to her. She was brilliant and also, it's nice of you to mention Daleks because they are my favourite thing in the whole of Doctor Who. I’m here for the Daleks. I love them.”

Russell T Davies

“One of my favourite memories of Doctor Who is the episode of Blue Peter where there was a strike at the ����ý. As a result, the Blue Peter set couldn’t be erected in the studio. No one could move anything. It was that kind of strike. And so they presented Blue Peter from the set of a Doctor Who story called ‘Robot’, commonly known now as ‘Doctor Who and the Giant Robot’ but it was just called ‘Robot’.

So there was the extraordinary thing watching as a kid as Lesley Judd and John Noakes walked into the Doctor's laboratory, with the TARDIS in the corner. And I think there was even a stepladder in the middle of the set that they weren’t allowed to move because no one was allowed to move anything. And they presented Blue Peter from the Doctor's laboratory, which was kind of mind-blowing as a kid, but also kind of a remarkable insight to unions and strikes. But I love that. It’s quite an indelible memory of Doctor Who, the day Blue Peter came from the Doctor’s lab.”

Russell T Davies

“Another thing I’d like to choose, which is part of my own work, which feels strange, but I will love and always love the trailer from 2005 where Doctor Who was coming back and no one knew what it was going to be like. Was it going to be silly? Was it going to be daft? Was it going to be clumsy? Was it going to be cheap? And this trailer is a movie-sized trailer. It’s specially shot. You don't often get the chance to do that. It's not just clips from the show, it's Chris, Billie and the TARDIS. There’s cameras on cranes, there’s an explosion, stuff like that. It was a fabulous statement of intent in 2005 and I think genuinely helped get everyone buzzing and we’ve paid a lot of attention to trailers ever since. But it’s that rare thing. It’s a trailer that worked. Love it.”

Russell T Davies

“Finally, a thing to choose from the archive is looking to the future, and it’s a lovely item with Ncuti. I remember the day of Ncuti’s announcement, when we quite cleverly chose to announce it on the day of the BAFTAs when all the worldwide press descends on London and photographs that red carpet. We very cheekily unveiled our new Doctor then. Blazing sunlight. It was so hot, but it was a great day. We got coverage like you would never have got anywhere else, and then it made the newspapers. It was especially big news in Scotland, of course, with Ncuti coming from there. And to see this brand-new star, knowing what I know about the future coming up with him, to see him being celebrated from the day he was cast onwards is very exciting. And I can promise you, this is just the beginning of the Ncuti Gatwa archive, not just for Doctor Who but for life. The man’s going to be everywhere and everything, so it’s exciting to be part of that.”

Russell T Davies