Tag Archives: Jack Thorne

Touch – A new supernatural drama series for BBC3 {TV}

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Some super exciting news….. BBC Three have a new drama series, Touch, from acclaimed theatre, film and TV writer Jack Thorne (Skins, The Scouting Book For Boys, Cast Offs)

Described as an edge-of-the-seat supernatural thriller, Touch is about the vengeful dead who walk on Earth and only uber-geek Paul can save the living from a fiery Armageddon.

Paul is an ordinary young man from an ordinary town who discovers an extraordinary ability – he can see the dead. As he comes to terms with a nightmare reality he meets others who share his powers and share a horrifying secret – the spirits are waging war on the living. Mankind will be destroyed.

But the most terrifying twist is yet to come – Paul discovers that only he holds the key to the world’s salvation.

Ben Stephenson says: “Touch started life as one of our drama pilots but quickly showed such imagination and energy that we asked the hugely talented Jack Thorne to write five more episodes and Touch the series was born.”

Jack Thorne says he’s “Both scared and excited about it, hope it turns out OK.”

The series will comprise of six one hour episodes made by BBC Drama. The cast is still to be confirmed and filming will start next year.

BBC Three drama has won critical acclaim with Being Human and looks forward to Lip Service which is coming soon to the channel this autumn.

Preview: This Is England '86 {TV}

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Set three years on from Shane Meadows’ Bafta winning film This Is England, Chris de Burgh is top of the charts and over 3.4 million britons are unemployed. This Is England in the year 1986. A four-part serial for Channel 4 revisiting the original gang from the acclaimed film.

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Hapless Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) has just finished his final school exam and is a magnet for trouble and bullys. A chance encounter reunites him with Woody (Joe Gilgun), Lol (Vicky McClure), Smell (Rosamund Hanson) and the others and soon the past is forgotten. The gang are back together and they’re all looking for love, a laugh, a job and something that resembles a future.

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This is filmmaker Shane Meadows’ television debut and speaking at a Q&A after the preview screening he made it clear that he didn’t see Television as a stepping stone into film and that he’d grown up watching great made for TV films. He did however say

“UK telly has gone to s***. It really has it’s appalling, but American TV, the new type of shows they’re making like the Sopranos and the Wire are great. That’s how people want to watch TV today, several episodes back to back. They want to sit with the missus and watch a 12 hour film. It’s an event.”

Meadow’s brought in help to bring the much anticipated follow up to TV. That help came in the form of co-writer Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book For Boys, Skins) and sharing the directing of the series with Tom Harper (Misfits). It’s no suprise then that the series is packed full of both hilarious and touching moments.

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Judging by the preview clips of the rest of the series, it looks to become edgier and darker as it progresses. Meadows hints at a dramatic turn of events midway through the series and looks at it as “sort of like two separate films”. The soundtrack was evolved from music the actors were listening to on their mp3 players to get into character and from a stack of discs that the two directors shared between each other leading to a soundtrack that’s not cliche or packed full of well known 80’s chart toppers.

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This Is England ’86 looks to be a hit for Channel 4, another beautiful and gritty flagship show with a lot of potential. Who knows, maybe we’ll be seeing This Is England in the 1990’s in the future…

This Is England ’86 starts on the 7th September on Channel 4