ON SCREEN: Danny Brocklehurst

Come Home (9pm, BBC1) is the latest drama by Manchester’s Danny Brocklehurst, 46, a writer whose work you’ve been watching on TV since 2001. Here’s his story…

New career: His big break as a screenwriter came about through pure opportunism. While working as a features writer in the 1990s, Danny interviewed Paul Abbott. A big fan, Danny took the chance to hand the Shameless creator one of his scripts, opening a door that led to Danny writing five episodes for Abbott’s Baftawinning drama Clocking Off, from 2001.

Strong mentors: Danny took over as lead writer on Shameless for series three, and also worked with another hugely acclaimed TV writer, Jimmy McGovern, penning episodes for anthology series The Street

(2007) and Accused (2010, 2012). Moving on: Danny’s first original script to make it to the screen was The Stretford Wives in 2002, a drama starring Fay Ripley. He’s also the writer behind Sorted, a 2006 series about postal workers, with Hugo Speer; The Driver (2014), with David Morrissey; and In The Dark (2017), starring MyAnna Buring. All together now: Danny’s popular Ordinary Lies, an anthology drama that ran for two series (2015-16), was conceived as a way of bringing together his many ideas for one-off stories under one umbrella. Look out for: Safe, starring Michael C. Hall, will air later this year, a second collaboration with crime writer Harlan Coben, after The Five (2016). Did you know? He was story adviser on Take That musical Never Forget.