Theatre Thorne's plays for the stage include
When You Cure Me (
Bush Theatre 2005),
Fanny and Faggot (
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2004,
Finborough Theatre and tour, 2007),
Stacy (
Arcola Theatre and
Trafalgar Studios, 2007),
Burying Your Brother in the Pavement (
Royal National Theatre Connections Festival 2008),
2 May 1997 (
Bush Theatre 2009),
Bunny (Underbelly and tour 2010) which won a Fringe First at the 2010
Edinburgh Festival and
Hope (
Royal Court Theatre, 2014). He also collaborated on
Greenland (2011) with
Moira Buffini,
Penelope Skinner and
Matt Charman at the National Theatre. In 2011 he participated in the Bush Theatre's project
Sixty-Six Books, for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the
King James Bible. In 2012 his version of
Friedrich Duerrenmatt's
The Physicists was staged at the
Donmar Warehouse. Thorne's 2013 adaptation of the book and film
Let The Right One In was staged in a production by the
National Theatre of Scotland at
Dundee Rep Theatre, London's
Royal Court Theatre, West End and New York's
St. Ann's Warehouse. In summer 2015, his play
The Solid Life of Sugar Water premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, produced by Graeae Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Plymouth, it then toured in early 2016, with a run at the National Theatre in March 2016. Together with the composer
Stephen Warbeck, Thorne wrote
Junkyard, a coming-of-age musical centred around 'The Vench', an
adventure playground in Lockleaze, Bristol. Thorne wrote the stage play
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, based on an original story by Thorne,
J. K. Rowling and
John Tiffany, which is running at the
Palace Theatre in London's West End since August 2016, on
Broadway at the
Lyric Theatre since April 2018, in Melbourne's
Princess Theatre since February 2019 and San Francisco's
Curran Theatre since December 2019. Thorne also wrote a new adaptation of
Woyzeck by
Georg Büchner for the
Old Vic in 2017 with
John Boyega in the title role. He wrote a new adaptation of
A Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens for the Old Vic for the Christmas 2017 season, directed by
Matthew Warchus, which has subsequently returned every year, as well as for the 2019 season on Broadway at the
Lyceum Theatre and the 2020 live broadcast through Old Vic: On Camera due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2025,
A Christmas Carol returned to New York for an Off-Broadway run at the
Perelman Performing Arts Center. Thorne rewrote the musical adaptation of
King Kong for its 2018 Broadway debut. Thorne penned the play
the end of history for
Royal Court Theatre in 2019, starring
David Morrissey and
Lesley Sharp. Thorne's play
Sunday premiered at
Atlantic Theatre Company in New York in 2019, directed by
Lee Sunday Evans. In June 2021, his adaptation of
After Life based on the
film of the same name opened at the
National Theatre, London. In April 2023, Thorne's play
The Motive and the Cue, directed by
Sam Mendes, about the making of
Richard Burton and
John Gielgud's
Hamlet, opened in the Lyttleton Theatre at the
National Theatre, before transferring to the
Noël Coward Theatre in the
West End in December 2023. In June 2023, his play
When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, directed by Katy Rudd, about the
BBC during the
1926 General Strike, premiered at the
Donmar Warehouse. In November 2023,
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel to the
Netflix Series by
Kate Trefry with a story by Thorne, Trefry and
The Duffer Brothers and directed by
Stephen Daldry, opened at the
Phoenix Theatre, London. Thorne's plays are published by
Nick Hern Books.
Television Thorne has written for the TV shows
Skins and
Shameless. He co-created
Cast Offs, and co-wrote ''
This Is England '86,
This Is England '88, This Is England '90, and The Virtues with Shane Meadows. Thorne was also in the running to write an episode for the fifth series of Doctor Who, but amicably parted ways with the production. In August 2010, BBC Three announced Thorne would be writing a 60-minute, six episode supernatural drama for the channel called Touch
, later re-titled The Fades. In 2012, he won BAFTA awards for both drama series (The Fades) and serial (This Is England '88''). In 2014, Thorne's original rural teen murder drama
Glue premiered on
E4 and the show was nominated Best Multichannel Programme and the 2015
Broadcast Awards. In autumn of 2015 ''This Is England '90
was broadcast on Channel 4 and earned Thorne a Best Series Award at the Jameson Empire Awards 2016 and the BAFTA for Best Mini-Series in 2016. Next, the pan-European diamond-heist thriller for Sky Atlantic The Last Panthers'', which aired in the UK in September 2015, was BAFTA nominated for Best Drama Series. To round up a hat-trick of nominations at the 2016 BAFTA TV Awards, Thorne's BBC 3 drama ''Don't Take My Baby'' was nominated and went on to win the BAFTA for Best Single Drama. Thorne's Channel 4 drama
National Treasure started on 20 September 2016 and won the BAFTA for Best Mini-Series in 2017. In April 2016 it was announced that Thorne would be adapting
Philip Pullman's epic trilogy
His Dark Materials for BBC One. In 2017, it was announced that he would write an episode of the
Channel 4/
Amazon Video series ''
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams and would write the Damien Chazelle musical drama Netflix series The Eddy''. Thorne's four-part dark drama
Kiri began on Channel Four on 10 January 2018 and was nominated for Best Mini Series at the 2019 BAFTA's. In 2021, Thorne wrote the television film
Help. Set and filmed in
Liverpool,
Help focused on the plight of disabled people and their carers during the
COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and addressed the multitude of ways in which
Boris Johnson's government had failed them. It was acclaimed by critics, with Carol Midgley of
The Times calling it "a shaming nightmare [that] all ministers should see", and won Best Drama at the 2021 Rose d'Or Awards. In 2022, Thorne co-wrote
Then Barbara Met Alan with
Genevieve Barr, the true story of
Barbara Lisicki and
Alan Holdsworth, the founders of DAN (
Disabled People's Direct Action Network). It tells the story of two disabled cabaret performers who meet at a gig in 1989, fall in love and, driven by their own experiences and the experiences of those around them of discrimination, mistreatment, and the realities of living in an ableist society, lead protests nationwide, eventually leading to the passing of the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Then Barbara Met Alan was received to both popular and critical acclaim, with Frances Ryan of
The Guardian saying "By the time the real-life Barbara was on screen in the final scene – with a ramp symbolically coming out of a bus to finally give her entry – I was crying. For what we gained. For what was taken from us for decades, and still is. For the campaigners who gave so much for my generation and those that do today. Roar in the streets and kiss your lover. This is what disability looks like – and the battle continues." In 2023, Thorne wrote the four-part BBC drama
Best Interests, starring
Michael Sheen and
Sharon Horgan as loving parents who are forced to make a harrowing decision about their daughter's medical care. In 2025, several of Thorne’s television projects were released. These included the Netflix drama
Toxic Town, which follows the story of three mothers involved in the Corby toxic waste case. The series was executive produced by
Charlie Brooker and
Annabel Jones. Netflix also released the four-part limited series
Adolescence, which Thorne co-wrote with
Stephen Graham about a 13-year-old boy who is accused of murder.
Adolescence topped the UK’s weekly TV ratings, with its first episode pulling in 6.45 million viewers in its first week, according to ratings provider Barb. It made history as the first streaming show to top the UK's weekly TV ratings. Thorne also wrote about the
News International phone hacking scandal for the
ITVX television series
The Hack which was released in September 2025. Filming began in 2025 of Thorne's romantic drama
Falling, starring
Keely Hawes and
Paapa Essiedu.
Radio Thorne has written four plays for radio; an adaptation of
When You Cure Me (BBC Radio 3, 2006),
Left at the Angel (BBC Radio 4, 2007), an adaptation of
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (co-written with Alex Bulmer, BBC Radio 4, 2009) and
People Snogging in Public Places (BBC Radio 3, 2009). The latter won him the
Sony Radio Academy Awards Gold for Best Drama 2010. The judges described it "as a wonderfully written and performed, highly original piece of radio drama in which the production perfectly mirrored the subject. Painful and funny, it was a bold exciting listen."
A Summer Night (BBC Radio 3, 2011) was Thorne's response to the 2011 London riots, transmitted live as part of the
Free Thinking festival. In 2012,
People Snogging in Public Places was produced and broadcast by France-Culture (in the Fictions / Drôles de drames slot) under the French title of
Regarder passer les trains (translator: Jacqueline Chnéour).
Film Thorne's first film
The Scouting Book for Boys was released in 2009, it won him Best Newcomer at the
London Film Festival. The jury said, "Jack Thorne is a poetic writer with an end-of-the-world imagination and a real gift for story-telling." Thorne has been commissioned to write feature films for producers both sides of the Atlantic, with credits including
War Book starring
Sophie Okonedo which
Tom Harper directed, and
A Long Way Down starring
Pierce Brosnan,
Toni Collette and
Aaron Paul (directed by
Pascal Chaumeil) based on the novel by
Nick Hornby. On 8 May 2013, Thorne was hired to write
Wonder, a film adaptation of the 2012
novel of the same name by R.J. Palacio. Thorne co-wrote the script with
Steve Conrad and
Stephen Chbosky. The latter directed the film, which starred
Julia Roberts,
Owen Wilson, and
Jacob Tremblay and was released on 17 November 2017. On 2 August 2017, it was announced he would rewrite the script for
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but on 12 September 2017, he was replaced by
J. J. Abrams and
Chris Terrio. In 2018, it was announced that he would rewrite the initial screenplay penned by
Chris Weitz for Disney's
live-action adaptation of
Pinocchio, then to be directed by
Paul King. Thorne also co-wrote the 2019 film
The Aeronauts with
Tom Harper for
Amazon Studios, starring
Felicity Jones and
Eddie Redmayne. Although Amazon does not release exact streaming figures, Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios said in an interview with
Deadline Hollywood that as of January 2020
The Aeronauts was the most viewed movie of all time on Amazon Prime. 2020 saw the release of three more films written by Thorne, including
Radioactive, a biographical drama about
Marie Curie, starring
Rosamund Pike;
The Secret Garden, an adaptation of the novel of the same name; and
Enola Holmes, about the sister of Sherlock Holmes, starring
Millie Bobby Brown and
Helena Bonham Carter. Thorne would also write
the sequel, which released on Netflix in 2022. Thorne co-wrote the film
The Swimmers in 2022, which follows two young sisters on their harrowing journey as refugees, from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2024, he co-wrote
Joy, about three pioneering British scientists in the '60s and '70s and their struggle to develop IVF — against all odds. Thorne wrote a treatment to the 2025 sequel to
Tron: Legacy (2010), titled
Tron: Ares, though he ultimately went uncredited. ==Campaigning and advocacy==