So he put acting on the backburner for a while and begun experimenting with standup comedy.īecause Mark was lucky enough to tackle standup comedy at a time when the business wasn’t so competitive, he made quick gains. After trying his hand at acting, Mark grew weary of being cast in the same stereotypically thuggish roles. Death Messages involves Thorne becoming the hunted as a psychopath reaches out to him from prison and attempts to get to him through various means, putting the life of our hero in grave danger.īorn Mark Philip David Billingham, the author started out in television and movies. Death Message, the seventh book in the Tom Thorne series, which was published in 2007, also won the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. In fact, Lazybones, the third book in the Tom Thorne series, which was published in 2003, won the following year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. It would not be the only award Billingham would win for the Tom Thorne series. However, perhaps the greatest achievement for Billingham when it comes to Scaredy Cat is that it won the Sherlock Award for Best Dectective Novel Created by a UK Author. ![]() As well as being the follow-up novel to Sleppyhead, Scaredy Cat was also the follow-up to Sleepyhead on Sky 1, being shown in November 2010. Scaredy Cat was based around real events in which Billingham and his writing partner, Peter Cocks were kidnapped and held hostage. Scaredy Cat features the case of dual serial killers who appear to be working together, but who appear to act separately. The success of Sleepyhead led to the publication of the second book in the Tom Thorne series, Scaredy Cat, in 2002. Sleepyhead was also dramatised and shown on Sky 1 in the UK in October 2010, to widespread critical acclaim, featuring a great performance from David Morrissey putting in a great performance in the lead role. Sleepyhead introduced Tom Thorne to the general public, when he is brought in to investigate a case involving a patient with locked-in syndrome. However, the publication of Sleepyhead brought Billingham to a new audience. The creation of Tom Thorne, and the genre of crime fiction itself was a huge departure for Billingham, who had focused mostly on comedy writing for his own stand-up act and also his television scripts. Mark Billingham created the character Tom Thorne around 2001, when the first book in the series, Sleepyhead was published. Where other authors prefer to plan the story of their protagonists out, noting every detail of their lives beforhand, Mark Billingham uses every new Tom Thorne book to discover the character.Īccording to the author, if he knew Tom Thorne as well as most writers know their characters, he wouldn’t be writing the Tom Thorne series anymore because it wouldn’t be much of an adventure. Thorne has grown with Mark over the years. Mark Billingham, the author, has admitted to putting a little bit of himself into Tom Thorne.īoth he and Thorne share the same birthday. He is divorced and a little dependent on alcohol.Īnd he is always clashing with his superiors, not to mention taking reckless chances to get the job done. The law enforcement agent is a little worn out from all the trials that life has thrown his way. This is why I gave up acting and became a writer.Tom Thorne isn’t the best of detectives, at least not from the outside. Even if Thorne’s cat does not make an appearance.Īnother performer not making an appearance was the author himself, whose cameo as ‘unnamed detective in the back of shot’ did not make the final cut. So, there were significant differences in story and character, but I hope the programmes are not judged in comparison with the novels but as a series of films in their own right. ![]() There are things you can do in a book that simply will not work on screen and it is impossible to make a four hundred page novel into three hours of television without condensing and cutting. ![]() It has certainly not changed the way I write, which is the most important thing.Īs with any adaptation of a book, there were a number of changes in bringing these books to the screen, but I was happy with all of them. After all, it is almost impossible not to associate John Thaw with Inspector Morse, however much he might differ from the character in Colin Dexter’s books. It remains to be seen if the TV incarnations of Thorne, Hendricks, Holland and the others have changed the way that readers see these characters when they are reading the books. Aside from the wonderful David Morrissey, who has always been the actor I wanted to play Tom Thorne, the series featured Aiden Gillen, Eddie Marsan, Natascha McElhone and Sandra Oh: an amazing cast! The six part series “Thorne”, first broadcast on Sky One, is based on the first two novels in the series Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat and I was thrilled with how it turned out.
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