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Me Hear Jack Thorne before I see him. We’re gathering in a quiet cafe in Hampstead, north London, to discuss her first TV romance, Falling. I find him talking to various waiters – “Thank you, good sir” and “Dear, lovely” – before he appears in front of me, smiling but slightly nervous. Which is surprising given that he is a writer who has worked on songs like Skins, Shameless and This Is England trilogy, has created a group of amazing adaptations (His Dark Materials, Lord of the Flies, Enola Holmes) and is constantly building a large book of works but shocking, shocking-interesting stories. Town, The Hack). Most importantly, he also created a Netflix series Youthwinner of endless awards, including being viewed by 140 million people and counting.
Ironically, Thorne’s acting career is almost as good as her TV career. There is a small version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on stage (an experience Thorne found rewarding but, with all his eyes, “not always a lot of fun”); including his takes on A Christmas Carol and chilling Let the Right Ones In. He drew on his family’s experience with IVF in the film Joy, and is currently writing a series of Sam Mendes’ most famous films about the Beatles (“I’m not allowed to talk about it”).
His new series though is an unknown step. The fall was fueled by a story that TV producer George Faber, a long-time collaborator whom Thorne calls his “Fary godmother”, introduced him. The piece was about a nun and a priest falling in love and, while the idea sounded uncomfortable to Thorne, it stuck with him: “I couldn’t stop thinking about that idea of love at first.”
In this series, nun Keeley Hawes changes her life when, after being attracted to Paapa Essiedu’s priest, she falls deeply in love. It’s an experience that, Thorne was pleased with, marked his life. On a train trip to the Cornwall film festival, the writer – then just about to hit 30 – found himself sitting next to comedy assistant Rachel Mason and the two did not stop talking (he was asked to leave the Peace Train). Nothing happened then but the two continued to cross paths. Then one night Mason texted Thorne at 1am, having spent the night working on the Old Vic’s 24 Hour Plays gala, in which producers were challenged to write, direct, rehearse and perform seven 15-minute plays in one day. Thorne stopped writing for a minute, texted Mason and said: “These messages just went on forever.”
It’s a lifestyle the now 47-year-old would never have imagined in his 20s. While studying social and political science at Cambridge, Thorne developed cholinergic urticaria, which left him unable to feel his body temperature and making him “afraid to go outside”. He dropped out of university and lived in Luton where he spent most of his time at home: “I had friends over at the Luton Labor party which I loved and I went to Labor meetings – but the rest of the time I watched TV and slept.”
Writing became Thorne’s life force and, for a long time, his true love. He said: “I believed that my life would be my own and that whatever I wrote outside was something related to my work. “My desire to write was so complete that I could not think of anything about the side. I guess I believed in love but I didn’t believe in changing my life for love.”
For Thorne, marrying Mason and having a son changed everything – and allowed her to allow chaos into her life. He said: “The confusion I had as a teenager and in my twenties was to avoid anything that bothered me. “Actually, writing was a very safe job and living in Luton was very safe and I could put things in boxes. And the difficult thing about being married and having a child is that all the boxes go in different directions, and you have to figure out how to be human.”
Figuring out how far you can go, and whether or not to trust in love at first sight, is at the heart of Falling. It’s a generous and hopeful show, filled with troubled people struggling to find a place in the world.
The ensemble cast is brilliant, too; bursting with a host of actors including Niamh Cusack, Jason Watkins and Adrian Scarborough, all reveling in bringing life to Thorne’s series of romantic characters. Some of the best scenes are between Essiedu’s slippery and kind priest and his sister, played by deaf actress Sophie Stone. Their dialogue – a mix of simple sign language and open conversation – lights up each episode with moving humor and boundless affection.
Many of the characters in Falling (not necessarily religious) show a natural desire to help those around them, something Thorne experienced growing up. He said: “My parents are really socialists. My mother went to prison for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. My father spent his whole life going in and out of meeting rooms arguing about what he believed in. So he has his own religion.”
Thorne doesn’t pray or go to church but there’s something about the simplicity of religious life that he admires: “I love the community of the church and I feel for that community in a way. I love the fellowship you get in religion.
One of the places where Thorne finds connection in his life and work is the TV Access Project, which promotes talent with disabilities across the industry. He said: “Getting together once a week and being part of a team is really special. And that’s what I’ve also found in Luton in the Labor Party, that having a bit of a mindset is important to me.”
Thorne has spoken extensively in previous interviews about the loneliness of her teenage years, but our conversation today is influenced by a number of close relationships she has formed over the years. Shane Meadows, who Thorne worked with on This Is England, comes up a lot (“He taught me not to be precious”). Then there’s the 20-year-old film Thorne is working on with Sophie Okonedo, and the screenplay they’re dreaming up together, and the regular chats they have with Waiting Out writer Dennis Kelly about the purpose of their work (“Our job is to do a little charity work on the edge of life”).
But the name that comes up more than any other is Stephen Graham, with whom Thorne has partnered six times. It’s no coincidence that one of the author’s most memorable characters – Eddie, the broken father of a young man arrested for murder in Youth – wrote for an actor he clearly admired. Burning with rage and capable of such love and compassion, Eddie has a lot of Stephen Graham in him. He said: “Stephen is brave and sometimes it’s very frustrating. “I see when he acts, but I also see when he helps people.” What I want to do with Eddie is to expose Stephen. He is raw but he has a need to touch people: to fix them and help them stand up for themselves.
As Youth began, Graham and Thorne carefully discussed what to do after experiencing such an incredible success. The bottom line? “We decided not to be stupid.” Thorne also decided to take a short break from her TV career. “I wasn’t happy with how much I was on TV so I decided to take it out a bit. I’m not currently signed by any TV broadcasters. Maybe it’s not good for me to do so much.”
Thorne may have stayed away from TV — except for his private shows on Netflix — but he has fueled his campaign. Behind Youth was a visit to Downing Street to discuss the challenges facing young men, and an appearance on Question Time where Thorne challenged science secretary Peter Kyle about the government’s plans to deal with copyright and AI. Kyle assured Thorne that there was a plan and invited him to come visit his fellow councilmen.
Thorne hasn’t heard anything since and he’s not happy about it. “Unless the government has a plan then we will see that 5% of our economy, which the manufacturing industry represents, will shrink,” he says. “Stop the flow of talent and business will stop. I think piracy is the biggest problem of our time and at the moment I don’t see a single plan from the government – other than to stop their bad ideas of exit.”
To his initial dismay, Thorne recalls a recent speech he gave in his role as president of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. His path through network TV – Skins, Shameless, This Is England which gives him the space to create multiple tours – is the kind of path he worries is ending. “I spoke before Christmas when I was talking about Michaela Coel. So, Michaela starts at the theater (in east London) at the Yard, goes to Edinburgh with Chewing Gum Dreams, is picked up by the National Theater and, behind it, I May Destroy You – the most important show of the last 20 years in my opinion.
Without taking a break, Thorne continues with purpose (a child of two activists if ever there was one): “Michaela wanted the producers to invest in her every step of that journey. generation.”
And that Thorne is back home – maybe to write, maybe not. Even Thorne walks in the door, chatting with me and asking me about my kids, my cats and my week ahead. It seems he can’t resist learning more about other people’s lives – he’s always looking for the next story.
Fall starts on Channel 4, 19 May, 9 p.m.
