Jack Thorne

WGGB joins Global Day of Solidarity in support of WGA strike

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain will today join writers and other workers around the world for 'Screenwriters Everywhere', a global day of solidarity and action. The WGGB protest takes place in London's Leicester Square from 1-2pm. WGGB President Sandi Toksvig OBE and WGGB Chair Lisa Holdsworth will come together with fellow writers including Jack Thorne, Russell T Davies, Alice Nutter and Simon Beaufoy, Dennis Kelly and many more in a show of solidarity from the UK.

Waller-Bridge reveals Fleabag has an alternative ending

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has revealed there was an "alternative ending" to Fleabag series two, but vowed she would "never say" what it was.

Jack Thorne, the lead creator of Cast Offs, has a mission statement for the taboo-breaking comedy drama in which six disabled people take up a Survivor-style reality TV challenge: "To get away from the usual patronising division of most disabled people on screen into 'acerbic or tragic'." Ushered into existence by writers of Skins, Shameless and The Thick of It pedigree, and reinforced at script-writing stage by the experiences of its disabled cast, there's no reason for mission unaccomplished, right? But here's the rub - and it's possibly an easy trap to fall into when you're trying to smash taboos - last night's opener felt so heavy-handed that acerbity and tragedy ran through it like SodaStream bubbles.

If the main message was that disabled reality TV contestants can be just as odious as "normal" reality TV contestants, that was certainly achieved (although blind Mikey from Big Brother 9, with his vile shoutiness and nose picking, has already blazed that trail).

Filmed in mockumentary style, each of the six episodes focuses on one of the castaways. Last night we learnt that kindly Dan, recently made paraplegic by a car accident, was just as likely to be bullied on "Spastic Island" (their words) as by his wheelchair basketball team-mates back home. In flashbacks his chair-bound buddies stole his pants; now his reality show peers desert him, sans chair, on a dark beach after skinny-dipping, just as he was feeling at home with his new self. How could we not feel wretched for him?

The "comedy", alas, wasn't skilfully done. Deaf Gabby smited Carrie, a dwarf, for having a mouth too small to lip-read - but so often that it lost any comical smack. A clumsy layer of crude was then poured on; "little lips" becoming one of the show's many too-easy euphemisms. Surprisingly, the writing became even more clunky when they tackled disability head-on: Dan used forced lines such as "old me, new me, f*** me" to describe his post-accident chagrins.

Its darkness, silences and quiet asides did much more to build genuine poignancy. Moments of Dan's backstory were reminiscent of The Street - when a girl came home with him despite his wheelchair, his dad bobbed around with meerkat-on-Ritalin curiosity. This quietly delivered the message that disability is as much about people around you coming to terms with it as coming to terms with it yourself.

Some lovely lines flowed when the focus drew away from disability. Dan's dad recounted that Dan's accident happened when he lit a fag; his mum interjected, all motherly: "I didn't even know he smoked." The less we confronted the castaways' physicality, the more intriguing they became. Deaf Gabby was most amusing when she was just the dappy-girl-on-reality-TV, saying things such as "I like fire". Will drew us in by being ignored at the campfire - not by being thalidomide-affected.

Perhaps it was a mistake to start with Dan, who is more explicitly tragic because he's still adapting to his own disability, so nice that he makes others look mean. Perhaps Cast Offs just isn't well-written enough to fulfil its goals. Perhaps it's me as a spectator who is still too self-conscious, not sure whether it's OK to laugh at synchronised wheelchair dancing. Wherever the awkwardness lies, I'm intrigued enough to watch tonight's episode, featuring blind Tom. Hopefully Cast Offs will grow more of the courage of its apparent conviction, and let the characters farther transcend their disabilities as it moves away from this harsh first-episode initiation.

Jack Thorne on writing and disability

Writer Jack Thorne talks about Cast Offs.

Are we there yet?

The disabled on screen have rarely been more than quirky objects of pity - until now. Cast Offs co-writer Jack Thorne reveals why his new TV drama will be 'filthy, funny and annoying'.