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He has been hailed as the hardest-working writer in Britain. Looking at Jack Thorne’s astonishing list of credits, it’s hard to argue. The prolific playwright and screenwriter’s output includes many of the best homegrown TV dramas of the past two decades.
That’s without the many hit plays and films he has also written. There’s more to come, too. Next out of the Thorne pipeline is Channel 4’s forbidden romance Falling, with Keeley Hawes and Paapa Essiedu, and the film Enola Holmes 3, which will be followed by the small matter of Sam Mendes’ four Beatles biopics.
As Thorne’s new BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies arrives, we’ve rated his 20 TV projects so far. Surely he’s overdue a holiday?
20. The Eddy (2020)
A rare misfire saw Thorne penning a moody Netflix musical drama for director Damien Chazelle about a bereaved jazz pianist running a struggling Paris nightclub. With dialogue in French, English, Arabic and Polish, it was as confusing as it was chin-strokey.
19. The Accident (2019)
This Channel 4 miniseries followed a south Wales community’s fight for justice after local teens were killed in an explosion at a building site. It was rousing and righteous, but was let down by Sarah Lancashire’s wobbly Welsh accent and a plodding courtroom climax. Thorne would later tell a similar story in Toxic Town to more powerful effect.
18. Cast Offs (2009)
This unjustly forgotten Channel 4 mockumentary followed six disabled people sent to a remote island for a fictional reality show. Episodes intercut the Survivor-style action with flashbacks fleshing out their lives. These proved superior to the main plot. Darkly funny and bracingly transgressive.
17. Lord of the Flies (2026)
Pass the conch. The first ever TV adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel about stranded schoolboys sees writer Thorne reunite with a regular collaborator, director Marc Munden. The result is low on dialogue, high on unsettling atmospherics. However, it’s lifted by the brilliant performances of its young cast, particularly David McKenna as Piggy.
16. The Last Panthers (2015)
Kicking off with a diamond heist, this Sky Atlantic six-parter delved into a sprawling international alliance between criminal gangs and shadowy “banksters”. The sleek trilingual series had elements of a textbook Euro-pudding, deliberately designed to appeal continent-wide, but was more thrilling than most. Samantha Morton, John Hurt and a David Bowie theme tune helped.
15. His Dark Materials (2019-2022)
It was no easy task to adapt Philip Pullman’s epic multi-world trilogy for TV. This HBO/BBC co-production didn’t entirely succeed but did a damn sight better than the 00s film flop. It was visually stunning and strongly performed (Ruth Wilson’s villainous Mrs Coulter was a standout) but, ironically, lacked a little magic dust.
14. The Hack (2025)
This ITV romp told the story of the News International phone hacking scandal. With David Tennant breaking the fourth wall as Guardian journalist Nick Davies and a parallel plot following Robert Carlyle’s police detective, it recounted the sprawling saga in galloping style, although the playful tone jarred with some. Anyone would think a Harry Hill cameo was a bad thing.
13. Then Barbara Met Alan (2022)
Co-written with Genevieve Barr, this one-off drama celebrated a milestone in civil rights history. It told the true story of cabaret performers Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, whose campaign for disabled rights resulted in the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. A rollicking activism biopic, wrapped up inside a sparky romcom – complete with disabled sex scenes, rare on mainstream TV.
12. Don’t Take My Baby (2015)
Another superb standalone factual drama. Based on real testimonies, this BBC Three heartbreaker chronicled a young disabled couple’s fight for custody of their newborn daughter. Would wheelchair user Anna and partially sighted Tom be allowed to keep their baby? Or will social worker Belinda take her into care? It went on to win the Bafta for best single drama.
11. Toxic Town (2025)
The legal case was dubbed “the British Erin Brockovich”. This Netflix miniseries dramatised the Corby toxic waste scandal by following three mothers involved in the case. When contaminated soil from the dismantled steelworks caused congenital birth defects in local babies, the women fought a council cover-up. Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood and Claudia Jessie made for compelling leads.
10. Glue (2014)
Broadchurch meets Skins, anyone? E4’s gripping rural whodunnit laid bare the dark heart of the bucolic Berkshire countryside. When a 14-year-old Romany boy was found murdered, the investigation uncovered all manner of druggy criminality. The cast brimmed with rising stars, among them Callum Turner, Billy Howle, Faye Marsay and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
9. The Fades (2011)
This bold, Bafta-winning BBC Three supernatural drama followed bed-wetting student Paul (Iain de Caestecker), who was able to see vengeful spirits of the dead all around him. He was pulled into a battle between these zombie-like “Fades” and the “Angelics” able to detect them. Tense, haunting and gory, it had a strong cast that included Daniel Kaluuya, Natalie Dormer, Johnny Harris – and Daniela Nardini as a gun-toting priest.
8. Skins (2007-2009)
The landmark E4 teen drama would figure higher here, except Thorne was a relatively small cog in its machine, writing five episodes in its first three series – plus one instalment of the US remake. His writing of the Bristolian sixth formers was an early sign of his deftness of touch with controversial issues and acute understanding of young lives. Thorne credits showrunner Bryan Elsley as a formative influence on his career.
7. Kiri (2018)
This wonderfully observed, warmly humane four-parter centred on the abduction of the titular nine-year-old Black girl, who had been fostered by a middle-class white couple and was about to be adopted by them. The mighty Sarah Lancashire was mesmerising as her social worker, strongly supported by Paapa Essiedu and Wunmi Mosaku. It became a breakout hit for Channel 4, clocking up 5 million viewers and becoming the biggest ever drama on its catchup service. Not bad for a penetrating study of race, class and family.
6. Help (2021)
There was a flurry of lockdown dramas during Covid. This was comfortably the best – and angriest. Following Jodie Comer’s care home assistant and Stephen Graham’s resident with early-onset Alzheimer’s, it was a blistering indictment of the plight of vulnerable people during the pandemic and the myriad ways they were failed by the government. The harrowingly hellish night shift sequence, shot in a 26-minute single take by director Marc Munden, was a masterpiece.
5. National Treasure (2016)
“They think I’m Jimmy fucking Savile.” Inspired by Operation Yewtree, this Bafta-winning miniseries starred Robbie Coltrane as a veteran gameshow host. When he was accused of historic sex crimes during his standup days, his family’s life fell apart. It would be Coltrane’s last major role before his death. Julie Walters as his longsuffering wife and Andrea Riseborough as his drug addict daughter were equally devastating. A morally knotty treatise on memory and truth, celebrity and power.
4. Best Interests (2023)
Another miniseries, this time for the BBC, tackling issues around disability. Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen delivered powerhouse performances as a married couple fighting for their disabled daughter’s future. When she winds up in intensive care after a chest infection, doctors question whether treatment should be withdrawn. Her parents fight for medical care to continue but are driven apart by the battle. Urgent, unflinching and profoundly moving, with tragic echoes of the previous year’s Archie Battersbee case.
3. The Virtues (2019)
One of Thorne’s fruitful collaborations with writer-director Shane Meadows. The Channel 4 miniseries was based partly on the latter’s own experience of repressing the memory of childhood sexual abuse. Stephen Graham was heartbreakingly convincing as the unravelling alcoholic who returned to his native Ireland to find his estranged sister – in the process unearthing a horrific buried trauma from his past. Niamh Algar and Helen Behan co-starred and PJ Harvey composed the soundtrack; the bruisingly painful material was masterfully handled.
2. Adolescence (2025)
In terms of sheer impact, this would be No 1. Quality-wise, it came mighty close, too. The Guardian’s critic Lucy Mangan called it “the closest thing to TV perfection in decades”. Co-created with star Stephen Graham, last year’s Netflix four-parter was an unflinching look at the deadly consequences of online life leaking into the real world. Tracing the fallout of a 13-year-old boy’s arrest for the murder of a female classmate, director Philip Barantini audaciously filmed each episode in one continuous take. Graham and Erin Doherty delivered bravura turns. Newcomer Owen Cooper became the youngest ever Emmy-winner. Thorne wanted to “look in the eye of modern male rage”. He did so in a devastating drama that transcended TV to hit headlines worldwide.
1. This Is England ’86, ’88 and ’90 (2010-2015)
Edging out Adolescence partly thanks to its scope and longevity, the three tumultuous TV sequels to Shane Meadows’ 2006 coming-of-age film combined bittersweet romance with brutal violence to uncompromising effect. Set in 1986, 1988 and 1990, the vibrant backdrop spanned from the mod revival to rave culture, adding up to a resonant parallel history of Thatcher’s Britain. The lovingly portayed Midlands gang of Shaun, Woody, Lol, Milky, Combo, Smell and the rest became like old friends. By turns deeply affecting, stomach-churningly tense and anarchically funny, all set to an evocative soundtrack, it’s a modern masterpiece. And if rumours of This Is England ’00 are to be believed, the final adventure is still to come.
