Jack Thorne praises ‘remarkable’ journalists who exposed phone hacking

Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporterITV/PA MediaDavid Tennant (pictured left, in The Hack), performs the real-life Guardian journalist Nick Davies (proper, in 2011)Author Jack Thorne has praised the “outstanding” journalists who uncovered the usage of telephone hacking in some components of the media, forward of a brand new TV sequence in regards to 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, informed BBC Radio 4’s Immediately: “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 really… 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.”Getty ImagesThorne mentioned telephone hacking uncovered a “troubling” relationship between some components of the media and the policeThe 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 printed a number of tales about telephone hacking all through the scandal, however public outrage reached a brand new stage when it got here to mild 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 identical staff who made the vastly profitable Mr Bates vs The Publish Workplace.”The distinction between this and Mr Bates, which I believe is actually 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 retailers together with Laptop Weekly, Personal Eye and the BBC coated the Publish Workplace Horizon IT scandal, however the story minimize by to the general public in a a lot larger means after ITV’s dramatisation aired in January 2024.”There have been sensible journalists doing superb work within the submit workplace case,” Thorne mentioned, “however on this case, it is a celebration of sensible journalists who really managed to name their very own trade to account.”And I’ve thought quite a bit about that when engaged on this,” he continued. “I believe that I’m instinctively a coward in relation to issues and calling out issues inside my very own trade.”The brilliance of those individuals [the journalists who exposed phone hacking]… to have a look at what’s occurring inside the media sphere, and to do harm to that trade, is sort 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 Cook 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 docket with Information Group Newspapers, the publishers of the Information of the World, over the telephone hacking scandal.Getty ImagesAdolescence, created and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, swept up on the latest Emmy AwardsThe 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 impression of smartphones and social media on youngsters. Requested if there can be a follow-up, Thorne mentioned: “Definitely not a sequel, I believe we have informed the Miller story in addition to we presumably can. “We would, nicely we’re attempting, Stephen [Graham] and I are attempting, to write down one thing which makes use of the identical strategies, 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