Russell is an experienced television scriptwriter whose credits include the top-rating A Touch of Frost. He has written for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C. He has also written for film, stage and radio.
After leaving university, Russell worked as a script-reader and development consultant for a number of film and TV companies. These included the Movie Acquisition Corporation, where he reported on major US/UK feature films, the European Script Fund (pilot organisation of the EU’s MEDIA Programme, the largest feature film development fund in Europe and co-developer of numerous award-winning films), London Weekend Television, Ffilm Cymru and the BBC.
He was a BBC Drama Script Editor for Ruth Caleb at BBC Wales, working in both development and production. He developed co-productions with S4C, worked on dramas for Screen One and Screen Two and on projects ranging from comedy to animation. His credits include the RTS award winning Selected Exits starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, episodes of BBC Wales Playhouse and Shot in a Shoebox, a 4 x 30’ series of short films/animation for BBC2 Wales on which he was producer.
Aside from A Touch of Frost, his television credits include McCallum, BMA award-winning Body Story (a 6-part science-medical-drama series for Channel 4/Discovery Channel) and a Welsh-language drama Rhag Pob Brad, starring Rhys Ifans. He has been commissioned by BBC Wales, BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland, YTV, STV and Carlton Television as well as numerous independents. The latter include Ray Winstone’s company Size 9 who commissioned him to write Ironman, a single drama about the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Griffilms (animation) and Blackjack Productions, for whom he wrote the opening episode of a crime drama series developed for BBC Wales.
In addition to his work as a scriptwriter Russell has published both fiction and non-fiction. His first Young Adult novel Rebels (Walker Books) was optioned for feature film development by the BBC. He is now working on further YA titles.
New television drama ideas he is developing include three-part crime drama The Passenger for which he has delivered the treatment and opening episode.
Originally from Bristol, Russell lives in Cardiff. He teaches scriptwriting at Cardiff University and is External Examiner on the BA Screenwriting and Producing course at Regent’s University, London.