His biggest solo project to date came about when Channel 4 asked him to write a trilogy of shows about modern Britain. “National Treasure” (2016) was inspired by Operation Yewtree, a police investigation into sexual misconduct by media personalities; the smash hit “Kiri” (2018) explored transracial adoption. Caroline Hollick, the channel’s head of drama, praises the balance in Mr Thorne’s writing between brutal honesty and warmth, even humour: “That’s why he can dig into these huge state-of-the-nation ideas and make them so appealing to watch.” The trilogy’s final instalment will be a mini-series about corporate manslaughter, which will draw on real-life incidents including the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.

Mr Thorne, who is 40, tends to anchor his stories in families (sometimes unconventional ones), scrutinising the relationships between siblings or between parents and their children. These families have a veneer of unity but, underneath, they tend to be fractured by lies and betrayals. Much is left unsaid. In “National Treasure” Dee (Andrea Riseborough) wonders whether her drug-addiction and memory loss is linked to the predatory behaviour of which her father is accused. In “The Virtues”, to mask his slide back into the bottle, Joseph (Stephen Graham, pictured left) spins a story about a workplace accident to his son. Mr Graham, who also starred in “This is England”, reckons that “no one catches truth and reality the way Jack does”. Mr Thorne’s shows do “more than make you look at pretty pictures,” Mr Graham says; they come “into your living room and make you think”.

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