Jack Thorne

Chess Masters: The Endgame

Monday

BBC Two, 8.00pm

Falling will tell the story of two deeply religious characters, Anna and David. A devoted nun who has spent most of her adult life in a convent, Anna never expected to fall in love. And neither did David, a catholic priest committed to his work in the church and his Bristol community.

But when they do, both experience a crisis of faith as they try to reconcile their love with their relationship with God.

A co-production with ITV Studios and Australia’s Stan, the seven-part programme is produced by the same team behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Starring David Tennant (Doctor Who), Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) and Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), it will explore two real-life stories.

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.  

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”.

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.

The Fellowships were presented last night during the RTS Patron Dinner at One Great George Street in London.

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.

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.

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.