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Danny Brocklehurst

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Danny Brocklehurst
BornJune 1971 (age 53)
Hyde, Cheshire, England
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, journalist

Danny Brocklehurst (born June 1971 in Hyde, Cheshire) is a BAFTA and International Emmy winning English screenwriter. Brocklehurst worked as a journalist for several years (as a freelancer for The Guardian, City Life and Manchester Evening News and senior feature writer for The Big Issue) before becoming a full-time screenwriter.

He has written numerous hit television drama series including Brassic; the Harlan Coben mystery thrillers The Stranger, Safe and The Five; Come Home, The Driver, Ordinary Lies, Clocking Off, Shameless and The Street; International Emmy winner Accused, comedy-drama Linda Green; serials Exile, The Stretford Wives, In the Dark and Sorted. He has been nominated for both BAFTA and Royal Television Society writing awards.

Television work

Brocklehurst wrote several episodes of the BAFTA award-winning series Clocking Off, as well as the acclaimed two-part BBC film The Stretford Wives, which was shot by director Peter Webber.

With Shameless, Brocklehurst won a BAFTA for series one, co-wrote series two with Paul Abbott and became lead writer on series three. He left prior to the fourth series.

His self-created series, Sorted, the BBC's high-profile postal drama, starring Hugo Speer, achieved 5 million viewers in the summer of 2006 and was the only drama that year to grow week on week in the ratings. Despite this; and the largely good critical response; the then controller Jane Tranter did not recommission the show.

In 2007, Brocklehurst wrote a film about the Fathers4Justice campaign for producers Harbour Pictures. Whilst, his Company Pictures produced four-part ITV drama, Talk To Me, starring Max Beesley, Laura Fraser, Adrian Bower, Kate Ashfield and Emma Pierson.

He has written episodes of both Jimmy McGovern's The Street and his new crime drama Accused for BBC One.

In 2011 he wrote a 3-part BBC 1 drama, Exile, "a tale of prodigal redemption" which becomes an investigative crime story. It starred John Simm and Jim Broadbent. It was critically acclaimed. It received an average of 5.5 million viewers and an Audience Appreciation score of 90%.

In 2011 it was announced that Danny would write a new HBO drama, Dirty, with Andrea Arnold attached to direct.[1] This project is now being developed with Sharon Horgan and Amazon.

In August 2013, Charlotte Moore, the BBC1 controller announced a new drama, Ordinary Lies, written by Brocklehurst.

The Driver, starring David Morrissey was announced in January 2014, a three-part drama about a taxi driver who takes a job driving for a criminal. Shown on for BBC One it co-starred Ian Hart, Claudie Blakely, and Colm Meaney. It was co-created by Jim Poyser and made by Red Productions and Highfield Pictures. In January 2015, US network Showtime announced they were developing a remake of the drama.

HBO announced a project called A Teacher, in February 2014 which will be co-written by Brocklehurst and Hannah Fidell, and executive produced by Mark Duplass. It is a drama about a teacher/student relationship, based on the film of the same name. The show didn't get made by HBO but has now been picked up by FX.

In 2017 Netflix made Safe starring Michael C. Hall. It is written by Danny and Harlan Coben.

Come Home, a 3-part BBC drama was shown to critical acclaim in April 2018. It starred Christopher Eccleston and Paula Malcomson.

Brassic is the biggest Sky comedy launch in over 7 years, it scored viewing figures of 2.8 million.

The Stranger, became a huge international Netflix hit in January 2020, it starred Richard Armitage, Stephen Rea and Jennifer Saunders.

Theatre

In theatre he has written three award-winning plays, My Eight Times Table, Nobody and Loaded (transferred to Radio Four), as well being story adviser and book co-writer of the hit West End (and national touring) musical Never Forget.

His new play Casual Ties has been commissioned for production in 2014. It is a dissection of modern relationships.

Film

In film, he has adapted the Whitbread nominee Buddha Da (as Jimmy Buddha); and written a book adaptation for Working Title Films.

Miscellaneous

He was featured in the writers' section of the Broadcast magazine Hot 100 2007.

He has cited Tony Marchant, Jimmy McGovern and Alan Bleasdale as his writing inspirations. In a Creative Times feature in 2010, he wrote that Our Friends in the North was his favourite drama of all time.

In 2011 he has been nominated for two Writers Guild Awards for Exile and Accused.[2]

In 2013 Danny wrote the track "Ring" with dance band Mint Royale, featuring the vocals of Willem Dafoe.

Career in brief:

BAFTA nominated 2020

Awards

BAFTA

BAFTA TV Award

Year Series Category Result
2001 Clocking Off Best Writer Nominated
2002 Shameless Best Series Won
2002 Clocking Off Best Drama Series Nominated
2006 Shameless Best Writer Nominated
2011 Exile Writer, actor Nominated
2020 Brassic Writer Nominated

Royal Television Society

RTS Television Award

Radio

Danny has written extensively for radio. His police series Stone is in its eighth series. It stars Hugo Speer as Detective Inspector John Stone and every episode features a morally complex crime. It has been described as "gritty" (The Guardian), "hard hitting" (The Times) and "realistic in a way radio drama rarely is" (The Observer).

Danny has written a play about Thatcher's Mutually Assured Destruction policy in the 1980s, The End of The World, a thriller about a man who seems to have ceased to exist Nobody, an Australian set examination of greed, Loaded and a single drama about an eighty-year-old woman who admits to a series of brutal murders, Mary Shane.

He has appeared as a regular commentator on Radio 4 and 5Live.

References

  1. ^ Wallenstein, Andrew (1 June 2011). "HBO Getting Dirty with Danny Brocklehurst". Variety. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  2. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20130624222500/http://www.writersguild.org.uk/news-a-features/general/203-guild-awards-2011-shortlists-announced
Year Series Category Result
2001 Clocking Off Best Writer Nominated
2002 Shameless Best Series Won
2006 Shameless Best Writer Nominated
2015 The Driver Best Serial Nominated
2018 Come Home Writer, best drama winner
2020 Brassic Writer nominated
International
National
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