Jack Thorne praises ‘remarkable’ journalists who exposed phone hacking

Author Jack Thorne has praised the “outstanding” journalists who uncovered the usage of cellphone hacking in some elements of the media, forward of a brand new TV sequence concerning the scandal.

ITV’s forthcoming drama The Hack stars David Tennant as Nick Davies, the investigative Guardian reporter who uncovered the extent of hacking at Sunday tabloid the Information of the World.

Thorne, who additionally wrote Netflix hit Adolescence, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “I believed I knew this as a narrative, I believed it was a narrative about journalists behaving badly, I believed the story began and ended with that.

“However truly… you see it is much more than that. It is a relationship between the press, politics and the police that is actually troubling. And what we attempt to do on this present is uncover the element of that.”

The Information of the World was closed down in 2011, after it emerged journalists on the paper had hacked telephones of public figures in an effort to acquire unique tales.

Davies revealed a number of tales about cellphone hacking all through the scandal, however public outrage reached a brand new degree when it got here to gentle that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s voicemails had been amongst these which had been hacked, giving her mother and father false hope that she was nonetheless alive.

For the ITV dramatisation of the scandal, Thorne has collaborated with a few of the similar group who made the vastly profitable Mr Bates vs The Put up Workplace.

“The distinction between this and Mr Bates, which I feel is admittedly fascinating, is that Mr Bates was about the truth that journalism could not get buy on this,” Thorne informed presenter Justin Webb.

A number of journalists working for shops together with Laptop Weekly, Personal Eye and the BBC coated the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, however the story lower by to the general public in a a lot greater manner after ITV’s dramatisation aired in January 2024.

“There have been good journalists doing wonderful work within the put up workplace case,” Thorne mentioned, “however on this case, this can be a celebration of good journalists who truly managed to name their very own trade to account.

“And I’ve thought loads about that when engaged on this,” he continued. “I feel that I’m instinctively a coward in terms of taking a look at issues and calling out issues inside my very own trade.

“The brilliance of those individuals [the journalists who exposed phone hacking]… to take a look at what’s taking place inside the media sphere, and to do injury to that trade, is kind of outstanding.”

The Hack tells the story from two completely different factors of view – that of Davies, because the journalist reporting on it, and police detective Dave Prepare dinner (performed by Robert Carlyle), who investigated the homicide of personal investigator Daniel Morgan.

Tennant is considered one of greater than 1,600 celebrities and different public figures to have settled out of court with Information Group Newspapers, the publishers of the Information of the World, over the cellphone hacking scandal.

The launch of The Hack comes after one other of Thorne’s TV dramas, Adolescence, dominated the Emmy Awards earlier this month.

The sequence, co-created by actor Stephen Graham, informed the story of a schoolboy named Jamie Miller accused of murdering a feminine classmate, and explored the affect of smartphones and social media on youngsters.

Requested if there could be a follow-up, Thorne mentioned: “Actually not a sequel, I feel we have informed the Miller story in addition to we probably can.

“We’d, properly we’re attempting, Stephen [Graham] and I try, to put in writing one thing which makes use of the identical methods, works with the identical group of individuals, to make clear a distinct side of our society.”

The Hack begins on Wednesday 24 September at 21:00 BST on ITV1 and ITVX