By Cara Nash
While the name Jack Thorne may not be instantly recognisable, the BAFTA-winning screenwriter’s list of credits likely will be. He’s penned such modern television classics as This Is England and Skins, as well as the acclaimed series, The Fades and Glue, and the apocalyptic feature film, How I Live Now, with Saoirse Ronan. Oh, and he also shared writing credits with J.K. Rowling on the latest entry in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, opening on stage later this year. (“I can’t talk about that. I’m really sorry. I’ve been caught out before.”) Suffice to say, Jack Thorne has become somewhat of an expert when it comes to writing about adolescence with the perfect mix of grit, emotion, and authenticity. His latest series, The Last Panthers, sees Thorne exploring strikingly different territory. “It was tough,” the affable Thorne tells FilmInk about the transition. “I had written adult material for the stage but not for TV. It was a massive challenge but one that was irresistible and amazing.”
One can easily see why Thorne was drawn to The Last Panthers. It’s based on the real-life Pink Panthers, a notorious network of robbers born out of war-torn Yugoslavia known for pulling off spectacular heists worldwide, but who also adhere to an intriguing moral code. The series opens with a daring diamond heist that goes tragically wrong, before delving into the dark heart of Europe and the shadowy alliance of gangsters and players that rule it. Beside Thorne, the series has some serious talent attached, with Samantha Morton starring as Naomi, a British loss adjustor tasked with recovering the stolen diamonds. John Hurt plays Naomi’s boss, and French star, Tahar Rahim (The Past, A Prophet), steps into the shoes of a conflicted French-Algerian policeman. “I wasn’t familiar with The Pink Panthers at all,” Thorne says about his real-life subject. “In England, they’re not that well known. It’s mainly continental Europe where they’re known, but what intrigued me was that these were criminals who have a very clear code and don’t bend the rules that normal criminals do. It felt like a really fascinating world to plunge myself into. I was desperate to do it.”
While the Panthers were a revelation for Thorne, he was similarly surprised to learn about the role of lost adjustors in this world. Not simply insurance officers, lost adjustors are often charged with recovering the stolen goods, regardless of the cost and dangers involved. “I didn’t realise that they were so dogged in searching for things,” Thorne says. “Again, it struck me as a world that people didn’t know about, and that’s what you always want as a dramatist.” The role of Naomi (played by Samantha Morton) is arguably the most fascinating in a richly characterised series. “The character was not always a woman,” Thorne says. “But I didn’t want all the lead characters to be male; that would have felt like a missed opportunity. It feels like a very male world in terms of its investigative and solitary nature – it typically feels like a male world and a very interesting world to put a woman in.”
Imperative to Thorne understanding this world was French journalist, Jerome Pierrat, who has made a name for himself chronicling Europe’s criminal underbelly. “He was integral to every single part of it,” Thorne says. “The first part of the process was literally just Jerome and I travelling around Europe together, meeting various mobsters, police officers, and loss adjusters, and trying to get a sense of the world. Jerome is friends with everyone. You can walk into any bar in Paris and he’d be friends with someone in there… probably from the slightly dodgy end of the bar! But he’d know someone or know someone they were in jail with. We’d often walk into these situations and Jerome wouldn’t tell me a great deal beforehand, and you’d discover quite quickly that you were talking to someone who was a serious drug dealer or bank thief. But his knowledge was invaluable. We would have a lot of arguments about things that I would want to do from a dramatic point of view, but he’d say, ‘That’s not true’ or ‘That wouldn’t happen in that way’, and invariably he’d win. He changed me as a screenwriter in terms of that constant search of authenticity.”
The top-notch talent involved in the series also extends to the haunting theme song, which was penned by none other than David Bowie, and later revealed to be a cut of the title song from the music icon’s final album, Blackstar. “It’s unbelievable,” Thorne says. “I can’t quite put into words what it meant. I’d heard rumours that the producers were excited about someone writing a song, but they wouldn’t tell me who until they had it confirmed. Then I got the email, and it was one of those fall-off-your-chair moments. The idea that David Bowie had watched my stuff was just nuts, and the idea that he liked it was an incredible thing. The sad thing of course, and none of us knew except maybe Johan [Renck, director], was that he was ill and then he was tragically lost.”
While a prolific writing talent, Thorne admits that he’s also a binge-watcher when it comes to television. “If I watch TV with my wife, she never wants to watch too much, but if I’m on my own, I’ll watch eight or nine hours straight and go to bed during the day. I like eating things whole!” As for what he’s addicted to now? “Better Call Saul might be better than Breaking Bad. I just love it. It’s so brilliant what the creators have done with that character, especially knowing that we know where it’s going. It’s really hard to do that as a writer – to have a character where everyone knows his destiny, but still make it exciting watching him get to that destiny. They make it into a tragedy. It’s incredible.”
The Last Panthers is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital from June 9.
