Jimmy McGovern

Writer

January 1, 1949 (77 years)

Liverpool, England

Biography

Born in Liverpool in September, 1949, James Stanley "Jimmy" McGovern is an English screenwriter and producer. He created the television series Cracker, a popular and critical success in the UK, for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

Filmography

6.2

Brookside

The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.

7.1

Screen Two

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

6.6

Cracker

The wise-cracking Fitz is a brilliant but flawed criminal psychologist with a remarkable insight into the criminal mind.

6.0

ScreenPlay

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.

7.6

Time

Guilt, violence and impossible choices – what does it take to survive? Tense, gritty and heartbreaking – Jimmy McGovern's award-winning prison drama, with an all-star cast.

8.1

Accused

How certain people end up being accused of a crime.

6.0

The Play on One

A series of television plays, some original, some based on pre-existing plays or novels.

7.6

The Street

Anthology drama following the lives and passions of neighbors on a northern English street.

7.0

The Lakes

The Lakes is a mystery drama created and written by Jimmy McGovern for BBC1. The first series – comprised of four episodes – broadcast from 14 September to 5 October 1997. A second series of ten episodes ran from 10 January to 14 March 1999. Danny Kavanagh leaves Liverpool for the Lake District, finding work at a hotel and love with a local girl named Emma. Yet Danny remains an outsider in the close-knit community, and through the machinations of fate, he finds himself implicated in a tragedy. The secrets, lies, and crimes, of the seemingly tranquil community continue to be revealed.

6.2

Priest

The deeply held religious convictions of an idealistic young priest are challenged when he must face extraordinary events within his own congregation.

7.2

Banished

Banished is a British period drama television serial created by Jimmy McGovern. The seven-part serial first aired on BBC Two from 5 March to 16 April 2015. It received mixed reviews, with most of the criticism for its perceived inaccuracies to the depicted events. Though set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.

6.1

Gunpowder, Treason & Plot

Mini series depicting the turbulent and bloody reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots and her son King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot.

7.8

Hearts and Minds

A young teacher begins work at a tough Liverpool comprehensive, where he has to deal with racism, homophobia and his students' poor backgrounds.

6.6

Go Now

Nick, is a young Scottish soccer player living in the big city. He meets Karen, and the two fall in love and move in together. Soon after, Nick exhibits signs of serious illness. As his body slowly succumbs to multiple sclerosis, he experiences a wide sweep of jagged emotions, and in the process gives himself and those who love him the strength to carry on.

7.8

Unforgivable

The Mitchell family deal with the devastating aftermath of an act of sexual abuse committed by a member of their own family who, after two years, is about to leave prison.

6.5

Common

When 17-year-old Johnjo gives his cousin and his friends a lift, he finds himself implicated in a stabbing.

7.7

Sunday

Sunday tells the story of an infamous day in Derry, North of Ireland and how the events of that day were subsequently covered up by the British Government of the time. On Sunday 30th January 1972 a peaceful civil rights march against internment (imprisonment without trial), organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) ended with 13 marchers shot dead and 15 wounded. It became known throughout the world as Bloody Sunday. Told primarily from the perspective of the Derry community, juxtaposed with the British Army/state's preparations and reaction to the day, Sunday communicates the forensic and emotional truth of what happened

6.0

Anthony

In July 2005, black teenager Anthony Walker was murdered by two white men in an unprovoked racist attack in a Liverpool park. He was just 18 years old. This film tells the story of how this talented young man's life might have turned out.

10.0

Needle

Needle paints a harrowing picture of a Liverpool overrun by drugs, charting a young man's nightmarish descent into intravenous heroin use and AIDS and a police and political leadership incapable of the imagination or courage necessary to respond to the drug problem.

5.4

Heart

A woman, plastered in blood, is arrested by a grave, and a tale of loss, lust and jealousy slowly unfolds.