Yahoo News Russell T Davies looks back at caring for his dying husband Andrew Smith
The Doctor Who showrunner and his late husband were together from 1999 until Smith's death in 2018
What did you miss?
Russell T Davies has reflected on caring for his husband Andrew Smith after he was diagnosed with a Stage 4 brain tumour and given just a 3% chance to recovering from the illness. The Doctor Who showrunner spoke about his late husband in a new BBC documentary, imagine…Russell T Davies: The Doctor and Me, which aired on Monday 18 December.
In it, Davies said that the years he spent caring for his husband were "strange times but in some ways the best times" because of how much time they were able to spend together before his passing on 29 September, 2018.
At the time Davies was set to work in Los Angeles but changed plans when he and Smith learned of the latter's diagnosis, choosing to move to Swansea to be near their family members and Davies became his full-time carer during this period.
Explaining why, Davies said: "I wasn't just being kind in giving up work I was being sensible, I was thinking 'I want to do this properly, I want to care for him properly'. The initial diagnosis was that he wasn't expected to see Christmas."
What, how, and why?
Davies and Smith first met in 1998 at a nightclub in Manchester, and Davies said in the documentary that he described as an "impossibly handsome man" and he said he knew immediately that he'd "stay with [him] for years."
Reflecting on when Smith was diagnosed with his illness, Davies said: "I think a lot of my friends thought work was more important to me, I'm pretty sure Andrew thought work was more important to me, but the moment he was diagnosed, it was so serious, it was a grade 4 brain tumour there's no way out of that."
Davies and Smith bought a house together in Swansea, and the writer still lives in the home. His friend Jill Nalder, whose time caring for men diagnosed with HIV/AIDs during the '80s serves as inspiration for It's A Sin, said that Smith was given months to live but went on to live years and she said Davies "cared for [his husband] beautifully in that time."
As well as reflecting on being his husband's carer, Davies also spoke of how Smith had always wanted to get married but he'd been against the idea until the diagnosis, saying jokingly in the documentary: "He'd always been asking me to marry him and then he cheated by dying, and he said 'now will you marry me?' I was like 'I can't say no now can I?' I was tricked into it."
The couple tied the knot in December 2012, and they walked down the aisle to Mr Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) with Davies recounting: "It stopped halfway down the aisle because the cd player cuts off if there's too much noise in the room, and it stopped because my friends were laughing so much.
"There were only four friends there but they were laughing at my face because I was so p***** off at the fact I was having to get married and Andrew was beaming, he was the happiest man on Earth. We were laughing down the aisle cheeky b******, and it was glorious, absolutely glorious."
What else happened on imagine…Russell T Davies: The Doctor and Me?
Davies also looked back at his life and career for the BBC documentary, reflecting on his first encounters with Doctor Who as a child and how he made his big break in TV with his iconic series Queer as Folk before helping to reboot the BBC's iconic sci-fi franchise.
The writer also reflected on how he felt the first time he realised he was gay, saying that he was "living in terror" and felt the need to be silent about his sexuality. He explained: "I was 13 or something and the fascinating thing is immediately you know not to say a word, you know to stay silent, living in absolute terror of anyone.
"Not terror of being beaten up but terror of being known, it's repression, it genuinely is repression. From the moment you have an awakening you also learn to silence it, it's not right."
imagine…Russell T Davies: The Doctor and Me is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
