Shaun Duggan

Shaun Duggan
Shaun Duggan
Born	25 May 1970 (age 54); Norris Green
Nationality	UK
Occupation(s)	playwright; television writer
Years active	1986+
Notable work	Brookside; Accused

Shaun Duggan (born 1970) is a BAFTA nominated writer based in the UK. He has repeatedly collaborated with Jimmy McGovern. He has written several plays and has worked extensively for television including Brookside (Channel 4) and EastEnders (BBC1).

Liverpool

Like McGovern, Duggan is associated with a realist tradition centring on documenting life in his home town of Liverpool. Born on the Norris Green council estate,^[1]Duggan's writing career began at the age of 16, when his play William, inspired by The Smiths song "William, It Was Really Nothing", was produced at London's Royal Court Theatre Upstairs as part of their Young Writers' Festival, 1986.^[1] Shaun was befriended by his hero, Morrissey, who also interviewed him about the play on Channel 4's The Tube.^[1] Shaun continued to write other stage plays for the Liverpool Everyman and the Playhouse, including It's Nearly June, A Brusque Affair, All Lips and Sex; and Boy, (winner of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post Best Writing Award), which went on a UK tour before transferring to the Lyric Studio, London. His play Drama Queen was produced in Liverpool for the Homotopia lesbian and gay arts festival as part of the city's Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008.^[2]

TV work

Duggan spent eight years writing for the Liverpool-set soap opera, Brookside; he wrote the episode that featured the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television when Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) began a relationship with the Farnhams' nanny Margaret Clemence (Nicola Stephenson) in January 1994. The kiss was seen by an estimated global audience of one billion when Danny Boyle included it in the opening ceremony of London 2012. As a result the kiss was shown in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal to be gay. No other gay kiss has ever been shown on television in the Middle Eastern country.^[3]

Duggan received a BAFTA nomination in 2013 for the opening episode of the second series of Jimmy McGovern's Accused (starring Sean Bean in a BAFTA nominated/RTS Award winning/International Emmy Award winning performance as cross-dressing teacher, 'Tracie' Tremarco).^[4] Caitlin Moran said in The Times "It was physically affecting — that brilliant, drug-like transcendence where you're floating inside a story… I can’t remember the last time I was so on the side of someone in a script."^[5]

Shaun has also written extensively for television. In addition to Brookside he spent four years on the script-team of EastEnders. Other television work includes - Is Harry on the Boat (BSkyB), Maisie Raine, (BBC), Waterloo Road (BBC), Jiggery Pokery (BBC), High Rise, Low Life (Channel 4), Stepping Up (CBBC) and Justice (BBC1).

Having created the role of 'Tracie Tremarco' for Jimmy McGovern, Duggan has also written seven episodes of McGovern`s Moving On (BBC1) - Losing My Religion (2010), Donor (2011), Friends Like These (2013), Fledgling (2013), Madge (2014) A Picture of Innocence (2015) "Zero" (to be screened in 2016/17). He also co-wrote the fifth episode of McGovern's series Banished (2015).

Duggan has recently written a new series for CBBC called Jamie Johnson, based on the books by Dan Freedman. The series will premiere on CBBC in June 2016 and a second series is about to go into production. Duggan is currently working with Jimmy McGovern on a new series for BBC1.

References

External links

[ggg-1] "The Smiths and Morrissey changed our lives", The Observer, 2 October 2011

[2] Joe Riley, "Drama Queen not a gay play", Liverpool Echo, 7 November 2008

[3] "Lesbian kiss at Olympic opening ceremony sparks praise, fury", Gay Star News, 28 July 2012

[4] "Shaun Duggan nominated for BAFTA award", Liverpool Confidential, 25 March 2013

[5] Shaun Duggan: The Writer's Company

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