Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Big Issue

    Social justice

    Jan 10, 2022 7 minutes

    44 Jack Thorne

    For top screenwriter Jack Thorne, words matter. And so does representation. Thorne is one of the most prolific writers in film, television and theatre. In 2021, his drama Help – starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham – was both a story of love and community and a furious exposé of the calamitous handling of the Covid crisis in care homes. It will win awards. Thorne also delivered the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival and used the prestigious platform to champion greater access and representation for disabled people in the television industry.

    In a powerful speech he said: “TV has failed disabled people. Totally and utterly”, and announced the creation of Underlying Health Condition, a disabled-led collective movement for change in the UK TV industry.

    Next year, Then Barbara met Alan, written by Thorne and UHC co-founder Genevieve Barr, charts the founding of disability activist group Direct Action Network in the 1980s. So, as he has done throughout his career, Thorne continues to put disability front and centre. In 2021 you shone a light on the care home Covid scandal in Help then used your MacTaggart Lecture to focus on the way the television industry fails disabled people. Do you see links between both issues?

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Big Issue

    The Big Issue3 min read
    ‘Nothing Beats What Nature Makes. It Really Speaks To Me’
    It’s 8am on a crisp Tuesday morning in my local park. The Leaf Man emerges from the mist. In certain artistic circles, and among his hundreds of Instagram followers, the intricately hand-cut designs that Aasen Stephenson painstakingly carves into lea
    The Big Issue3 min read
    Film
    Would it work if it was Subbuteo? That was a question that bubbled up in my mind even as I was being happily swept along by the ravishing new film from Italian sensualist Luca Guadagnino, the acclaimed director who pierced both hearts and peaches wit
    The Big Issue2 min read
    CONFLICT Counting The Cost Of War On The Climate
    From 1950 to 2000, over 80% of the largest armed conflicts worldwide took place in biodiversity hotspots. Last year, analysts from the Europe-based research group Initiative on GHG Accounting of War assessed the climate and environmental damage cause

    Related Books & Audiobooks