Jimmy McGovern

Writing

Jimmy McGovern

Born

1949-01-01 (77)

Place of birth

Liverpool, England

Known for

Writing

Credits

24 titles

Born in Liverpool in September, 1949, James Stanley "Jimmy" McGovern is an English screenwriter and producer. He created the television series Cracker, a popular and critical success in the UK, for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

Known for

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

World in Action poster
7.0

World in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964.

World in Action

1963

Celebrity Mastermind poster
6.0

Celebrity Mastermind is a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. The show is a spin-off of the long-running quiz show Mastermind, with the exception that all the contestants are celebrities. As with the main show, John Humphrys is the host and question-master. Magnus Magnusson was quizmaster on the 2003/04 episodes featuring Jonathan Meades as winner.

Celebrity Mastermind

2003

Remembers… poster
7.5

What are the secrets of our favourite TV shows? Famous names from both sides of the camera reflect on making some of the most popular and influential programs of all time.

Remembers…

2022

Priest poster
6.3

The deeply held religious convictions of an idealistic young priest are challenged when he must face extraordinary events within his own congregation.

Priest

1995

Unforgivable poster
7.8

The Mitchell family deal with the devastating aftermath of an act of sexual abuse committed by a member of their own family who, after two years, is about to leave prison.

Unforgivable

2025

Film credits

2010s · 2 titles

1990s · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Priest poster
6.3

The deeply held religious convictions of an idealistic young priest are challenged when he must face extraordinary events within his own congregation.

Priest

1995

Unforgivable poster
7.8

The Mitchell family deal with the devastating aftermath of an act of sexual abuse committed by a member of their own family who, after two years, is about to leave prison.

Unforgivable

2025

Go Now poster
6.6

Nick, is a young Scottish soccer player living in the big city. He meets Karen, and the two fall in love and move in together. Soon after, Nick exhibits signs of serious illness. As his body slowly succumbs to multiple sclerosis, he experiences a wide sweep of jagged emotions, and in the process gives himself and those who love him the strength to carry on.

Go Now

1995

Reg poster
5.1

In June 2003, Reg Keys and his wife Sally return to their home in the Welsh countryside. As they switch on the TV to hear six military policemen have been murdered in Iraq, two men arrive bearing the terrible news that their son, Tom, was among them.

Reg

2016

Gas and Candles poster
NR

Black comedy play about two pensioners struggling to manage on an old-age pension and living in a high-rise block of flats.

Gas and Candles

1991

Hillsborough poster
7.2

Drama based on the real life events of April 1989, when ninety-six Liverpool supporters were crushed to death during an F.A. Cup Semi-Final match against Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium. This movie follows three Liverpudlian families before the match, during the tragedy and at the ensuing court battles which tried to decide who was to blame and what went wrong.

Hillsborough

1996

Liam poster
6.3

A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.

Liam

2001

Heart poster
5.4

A woman, plastered in blood, is arrested by a grave, and a tale of loss, lust and jealousy slowly unfolds.

Heart

1999

Anthony poster
6.0

In July 2005, black teenager Anthony Walker was murdered by two white men in an unprovoked racist attack in a Liverpool park. He was just 18 years old. This film tells the story of how this talented young man's life might have turned out.

Anthony

2020

Care poster
6.4

Jenny, a single mother raising two daughters after her husband leaves, is aided by her widowed mother, Mary. But Jenny struggles to stay afloat after Mary suffers a devastating stroke and develops dementia.

Care

2018

Dockers poster
6.9

Jimmy McGovern's depiction of the mid 90s Liverpool dockers strike. Featuring script contributions from Irvine Welsh and the real dockers themselves

Dockers

1999

Needle poster
10.0

Needle paints a harrowing picture of a Liverpool overrun by drugs, charting a young man's nightmarish descent into intravenous heroin use and AIDS and a police and political leadership incapable of the imagination or courage necessary to respond to the drug problem.

Needle

1990

Common poster
6.5

When 17-year-old Johnjo gives his cousin and his friends a lift, he finds himself implicated in a stabbing.

Common

2014

Sunday poster
7.7

Sunday tells the story of an infamous day in Derry, North of Ireland and how the events of that day were subsequently covered up by the British Government of the time. On Sunday 30th January 1972 a peaceful civil rights march against internment (imprisonment without trial), organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) ended with 13 marchers shot dead and 15 wounded. It became known throughout the world as Bloody Sunday. Told primarily from the perspective of the Derry community, juxtaposed with the British Army/state's preparations and reaction to the day, Sunday communicates the forensic and emotional truth of what happened

Sunday

2002

Sunday poster
7.7

Sunday tells the story of an infamous day in Derry, North of Ireland and how the events of that day were subsequently covered up by the British Government of the time. On Sunday 30th January 1972 a peaceful civil rights march against internment (imprisonment without trial), organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) ended with 13 marchers shot dead and 15 wounded. It became known throughout the world as Bloody Sunday. Told primarily from the perspective of the Derry community, juxtaposed with the British Army/state's preparations and reaction to the day, Sunday communicates the forensic and emotional truth of what happened

Sunday

2002

Traitors poster
7.0

A play about the gunpowder plot written from a new angle by Jimmy McGovern.

Traitors

1990