- Jimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern (born 1949) is a BAFTA award-winning English
television scriptwriter from Liverpool.McGovern started his career working on
Channel 4 's social-realist soap opera "Brookside " in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.In 1993, he created the drama serial "Cracker" about the work of a criminal psychologist played by
Robbie Coltrane . Made byGranada Television and screened onITV , the series was a phenomenal critical and popular success. "Cracker" also aired in theUnited States , on the PBS anthology program "Mystery! ", and McGovern's writing earned him twoEdgar Award s from theMystery Writers of America .Since "Cracker", his work has included
BBC One drama serial "The Lakes" (1997-99),ITV 's "Hillsborough" (a dramatised reconstruction of the events of the 1989Hillsborough disaster ) (1996), "Sunday" (2002) forChannel 4 , based on the events of 'Bloody Sunday',Gunpowder, Treason & Plot , a two part dramatisation of the lives ofMary, Queen of Scots andJames I of England (2004) for BBC One and "The Street" (2006), also for BBC One. McGovern has also completed a musical stage show called King Cotton as part of theLiverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 which premiered at theLowry in September 2007 before moving to the Liverpool Empire. With a world-class director in Jude Kelly, an inspired musical director in Patrick Dineen, and a talented and hard-working cast, King Cotton has been winning acclaim from audiences and critics alike, and looks set to reach wider audiences in the near future.A second series of "The Street" is currently being broadcast with McGovern as lead writer; a script by
Danny Brocklehurst is being included in the series.McGovern has described cinema scriptwriters as being treated like hacks and forced to crank out countless drafts by successive producers. Conversely, he believes that television directors are underrated. He says: “I have worked twice with
David Blair [on "The Lakes" and "The Street"] , and I can tell you that he is the best there is. He can make a good project great... Why David hasn’t won the acclaim he deserves is a mystery to me.”cite news|title=Seeing the director’s point of view|date=2006-08-27 |publisher=Financial Times|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/50cfb916-35e9-11db-b249-0000779e2340.html]Notes
External links
*imdb name|id=0569568|name=Jimmy McGovern
* [http://www.bafta.org/learning/webcasts/bafta-writers-in-conversation-with-jimmy-mcgovern-and-writers-from-the-street,382,BA.html In Conversation with Jimmy McGovern] ,BAFTA webcast
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
