Russell T Davies is a man who prefers to look on the bright side. That time he was gay-bashed by a gang of bus conductors? \u201cPeople have been beaten up far worse than me, that was just a bit of a thumping in the street.\u201d When the production schedule of his dystopian drama Years and Years<\/a> forced him back to work within days of his husband\u2019s death? \u201cWriting was a nice escape.\u201d Even a story about his \u201ctough\u201d father branding him \u201cyesterday\u2019s man\u201d after his initial departure as showrunner on Doctor Who concludes with a cheerful: \u201cI knew I wasn\u2019t.\u201d It\u2019s easy to see how he\u2019s earned a reputation as the most affable man in TV, if not the world. So why has he taken to keeping a kitchen knife by his front door, \u201cready to use\u201d?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m called a paedophile and a groomer online by people like [Father Ted creator and anti-trans activist] Graham Linehan, and now people believe what they read. People believe it when they\u2019re told the Earth is flat,\u201d he says. His support for trans rights has resulted in years of death threats and \u201cgroomer\u201d smears, which he used to brush off. \u201cBut the online world is becoming the real world. People have worked out my address, and one person turned up at my house. If you believe a paedophile lives here, it\u2019s not the maddest thing in the world to come and get me. I\u2019ve been saying for years that our rights are paper-thin, and here we are. What scares me is that I can\u2019t see an end to it. Nothing is going to unseat these tech barons \u2013 it will require some sort of revolution to stop them. So for the first time in history, hatred is being monetised by an algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4738cbb62055e48176a116748bb92142782b9f4f\/0_2866_6192_4954\/master\/6192.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8aa21977c24a7f0236ba970b56e2a9e2\" "\\"\u2018One")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"