Jack Thorne

Casting announced for Lord of the Flies adaptation, with Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve to co-create score

A clapperboard for Lord of the Flies, stood upright in the sand on a tropical beach

Much of the cast are making their professional acting debuts on the show, following an open casting call. 

In the four-part drama, a plane crash strands a group of schoolboys on a desert island. Without adults, the children attempt to organise themselves, to disastrous results. Ralph tries to provide structure, supported by the intellectual Piggy. Eventually, though, Jack – who oversees the signal fire – challenges Ralph’s leadership, and tempts other boys into savagery.  

One way to stop failing disabled people

Two actors in character have handcuffed themselves to a bus

An “Access Coordinator” is a relatively new role in the world of British television. But it is one that disabled-led organisations, such as TripleC and DDPTV (Deaf and Disabled People in TV), have wanted to see brought in for several years.

Jack Thorne helped to shine a light with his blistering 2021 Edinburgh MacTaggart lecture. His stark message was that TV had “failed disabled people utterly and totally”.

Jack Thorne, Abi Morgan and Steven Knight among new RTS Fellows

Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show and Succession), Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders and the upcoming Victorian boxing drama A Thousand Blows), Abi Morgan (The Hour and The Split) and Jack Thorne (National Treasure and His Dark Materials) have all been honoured by the RTS.

Jack Thorne to dramatise the Corby Poisonings with new series starring Jodie Whittaker

Corby, a town in Northamptonshire, experienced one of the biggest child poisoning cases the UK has ever seen, after it was exposed to a high volume of toxic waste in the 1980s and 90s.

Children born in this period were three times more likely to have birth defects than the rest of the UK.

In Toxic Town, Jack Thorne (Best Interests) will focus on three mothers who fought on the frontlines for justice, battling in court for recognition of Corby’s mistreatment.

Comfort Classic: This is England '86

Hilarious, ribald and ridiculous but also achingly bleak and sad. This Is England ’86 is all these things but, more than anything, what it has in spades is humanity.

The 2010 Channel 4 drama features a gang of largely unemployed misfits in an unnamed, impoverished East Midlands coastal town, following England’s progress at Maradona’s “Hand of God” World Cup in Mexico.

The gang comes in all ages, shapes and sizes, sporting the worst 1980s haircuts. There’s no fake tan, fancy nails or gym bodies on show, as you fear there would be in a contemporary version.

Trailer released for Jack Thorne’s new drama Best Interests

Bad Sister’s Sharon Horgan and Good Omen’s Michael Sheen star as a married couple going through an emotional legal battle.

The trailer shows Nicci (Horgan) and Andrew (Sheen) finding out that the condition of their daughter Marnie, who suffers with a rare neuro-muscular disorder, is rapidly declining.

When doctors tell the couple it is in Marnie’s best interests to cease all treatments, Nicci and Andrew enter a legal battle to go against the doctor’s wishes and fight for their daughter’s life.

Jack Throne to adapt first ever TV adaptation of Lord of the Flies for BBC One

The multi-award-winning screenwriter Jack Thorne, of Help and This is England '90 fame, is writing the four-part series, telling the universally loved story of a group of young boys and their struggle to survive while stranded on a tropical island.

In an attempt to keep the peace, the boys organise themselves by appointing a leader in Ralph, who's supported by the group's intellectual, Piggy. But there is a rebel in their midst in Jack, who's in charge of signal fire duty but is more interested in hunting and vying for leadership.

First look at Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen in Jack Thorne’s drama Best Interests

Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen (credit: BBC)

Written by the multi-RTS-Award winning writer Jack Thorne (Help), the four-part series sees Horgan and Sheen star as the married couple Nicci and Andrew. The pair have two daughters: Katie, played by Alison Oliver (Conversations With Friends), and Marnie, played by Niamh Moriarty (Jack Thorne’s A Christmas Carol).

Disabled representation: Is TV finally starting to listen?

Credit: BBC

Watching two disabled people make love on prime-time terrestrial TV is something many disability campaigners thought they’d never see. But last month, in BBC Two’s widely praised drama Then Barbara Met Alan, we witnessed the eponymous Barbara and Alan enjoy being intimate in a scene that may well go down as one of the most powerful and moving moments of TV drama in 2022.