Danny Brocklehurst: the acclaimed TV writer on Manchester

The coffee shop-lined lanes of a genteel South Manchester suburb such as Heaton Moor might not seem like the most obvious place to spot a globally acclaimed TV writer and showrunner. Particularly not one who’s recently been voted one of the most influential creatives in the country and delivered one of Netflix’s biggest-ever drama hits. But it’s here that you will, indeed, find Danny Brocklehurst, the writer behind recent hit titles as varied as Fool Me Once (Netflix), Brassic (Sky) and Ten Pound Poms (BBC), often pounding local pavements when he’s in script writing mode. 'If I get stuck on something I’m a big fan of going for a walk,' he says. 'I think people see me and think, "he’s not doing much" but what they don’t see is my mind thinking... "what if I went in that direction with my writing?"'

It clearly works. As well as the millions of viewers who devour his shows, Hyde-born Danny has won awards from the Royal Television Society and BAFTA and plaudits from peers for his memorable characters and warm, funny stories, delivering plots packed with thrills and twists and setting as many of his dramas as he can here in the North West 'unless someone specifically tells us not to.'

'Lewd, crude and totally brilliant' Brassic is Sky UK's biggest comedy hit in a decade. (Image: Sky UK Limited) September saw the launch of the sixth series of Brassic, described as 'lewd, crude.. and totally brilliant' by the Guardian. Sky’s most successful comedy for more than a decade and already re-commissioned for a seventh series, it’s set in small-town Lancashire (filmed in Bacup) and was created by Danny and actor Joe Gilgun from stories inspired by Joe’s upbringing in Chorley. The madcap comedy centres on Vinnie O’Neil, who has bipolar disorder (played by Joe, who is open about his own bipolar diagnosis) and his ragtag gang of family and friends who rarely manage to stay on the right side of the law, even when they have the best of intentions. Produced by Calamity Films the cast includes Michelle Keegan playing Vinnie’s beloved Erin Croft and Dominic West’s roving-eyed GP Dr Chris Cox, with acting royalty such as Imelda Staunton starring in last year’s Christmas special.

Brassic clearly has a special place in Danny’s portfolio – recalling a stolen FA Cup storyline he has created for the new series has him chuckling over a cuppa in one of those Heaton Moor cafés. 'It’s one of the best episodes we have done, fast and funny,' he says. Today Joe takes more of a back seat on the writing with Danny leading: 'But the best ideas are still when Joe and I are just vibing together – we have a series 5 storyline with a guy who starts talking through ventriloquists’ dummies and that was me and Joe coming up with it and just howling with laughter,' he says.

It is notoriously difficult to write hit comedies the audience sticks with for years. So what’s the secret with Brassic? 'I think people like the characters; they want to be in the gang.' says Danny. 'I got a message on social media from a fan saying they watch the episodes over and over again and that they're like a comfort blanket and I understand that, I do that with Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld. I know they will cheer me up.'

From this writer’s laugh-packed laptop then, what you might not expect next is an edge-of-the-seat thriller with extraordinary twists or a period drama set in the dusty settlements of 1950s Australia. But that’s just what’s happened here.

In January, Netflix released Fool Me Once. Adapted by Danny from American best-selling author Harlan Coben’s book, the story follows Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), a former army pilot, as she investigates the murder of her wealthy husband, Joe Burkett (Richard Armitage) following the equally violent killing of her sister. The setting was shifted from New Jersey to Cheshire with the home of upper-class matriarch Judith Burkett (Joanna Lumley) played by Arley Hall, and Bramhall and Alderley Edge providing residential backdrops. The artful plot is packed with tension as Maya and the police uncover secrets and lies within families and organisations, with an ending you will want to watch more than once for its shockingly emotional and redemptive denouement. Fool Me Once attracted 61 million viewers globally in its first two weeks alone, reaching the streamer’s Top 10 in 91 countries and becoming the sixth most-watched Netflix show of all time.
Joanna Lumley in Fool Me Once, the global Netflix hit. (Image: Vishal Sharma/Netflix)

Danny wrote the series working with long-time collaborators and executive producers at Manchester-based Quay Street Productions, founder and chief executive Nicola Shindler and Richard Fee, and with Harlan Coben himself. It’s the latest in a series of thrillers from what Danny describes as 'the team of four' – they previously delivered original dramas The Five (Sky) and Safe (Netflix), along with an earlier Coben adaptation, The Stranger (Netflix). Netflix has already commissioned the quartet for two further Coben titles – Danny is executive producer on Missing You, while writing his next Coben series based on Run Away, a tense page-turner where the seemingly perfect life of well-to-do Simon Greene has been devastated by the drugs-related disappearance of his eldest daughter Paige. When Simon comes across Paige busking in a park, he has a chance to bring her home. But a breath-taking tapestry of missed chances, criminal underworlds, violence and deception follows, threatening the lives Simon is trying to protect.

Adapting a novel for film or television brings challenges – staying true to the original plot while conveying depth in characters, visualising the world and casting the right actors. For Run Away, the action again transfers from the US to the North West. 'The most complicated thing in any of these adaptations for us is guns,' adds Danny, 'because they’re so prevalent in US and uncommon here. But the rest of Harlan’s settings are comfortable suburban life with its big houses, big gardens, kids in lacrosse teams. So we take that and make it aspirational British – like in The Stranger where the protagonists are reasonably well off and living in Didsbury, with the kids using a nice local sports club.' Seeing familiar locations on screen always enhances a local audience’s connection with a drama but Danny is also clear on the universal appeal of these thrillers. 'Harlan’s titles are the TV equivalent of taking a book on holiday with you and reading it by the pool. You want to read it quickly, you can’t wait to turn the pages – they are great entertainment.'

Danny is extremely disciplined about his writing schedule with days firmly ring-fenced when he’s scripting. He’s also realistic about the tough, competitive nature of working in TV. 'I have writer friends like Jed Mercurio who are extremely successful and other mates who are good writers and find it really difficult to get work.'

He credits his working-class upbringing in Hyde for the resilience he’s deployed to persevere and prosper, even though his two sons do lovingly tease him about his comfortable home where he enjoys regular yoga sessions. 'But you come from where you come from. I got a foot in the door and that was hard, so I'm determined not going to let this slip now and I’m going to be successful in this career.'

He also wants to ensure other writers from the same background get the same opportunities. 'Only eight per cent of people working in British TV and film recognise themselves as working class and that’s appalling,' he says, adding that fresh, diverse voices from all backgrounds are crucial for stories to remain relatable and meaningful and emphasising his commitment to working with BAFTA and other organisations to address the issue.

The 53-year-old Danny got his own foot in the door in the early 2000s when he was working as a journalist in Manchester and was sent to interview acclaimed Burnley-born writer and Clocking Off and Shameless creator Paul Abbott. Seizing his chance, Danny opened up about his own screenwriting ambitions and Abbott introduced him to Nicola Shindler, the multi-award-winning Manchester-based television producer who was then running the pioneering Red Production Company. She offered him work on Clocking Off and they have worked on projects together ever since. Danny also wrote on three series of Shameless, the start of an impressive and unusually varied portfolio of work.

So from where did the creative ambition spring in the boy from Hyde? When he was growing up, Danny cites the likes of twisty taleteller Roald Dahl as favourites. 'I grew up watching a lot of different things – I was an avid TV watcher of series such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Minder but also Play for Today – edgy stuff like Boys from Black Stuff and silly comedies like Not the Nine O’Clock News and Monty Python, so there were a lot of influences. And I like to do a lot of different things – I like writing comedic things but I don’t want to be ‘a comedy writer’ – it would be exhausting having to be funny all the time.

'I try and represent working-class lives – ordinary people in exceptional circumstances – and try to put those lives and voices on screen. There’s a long tradition in British TV of people who’ve done it, including Jimmy McGovern, Alan Bleasdale, Kay Mellor and Paul Abbott. We do need to do is be careful we don’t lose our identity in broadcasting and make everything a universal ‘can be shown anywhere’.

Michelle Keegan who plays Kate in the BBC's Ten Pound Poms. (Image: Eleven/John Platt/Mark Rogers/BBC) His third project this year, writing the second series of Ten Pound Poms, illustrates how Danny sticks to his principles within more commercial realities. Co-commissioned by the BBC and Australian streamer Stan and inspired by the post-war assisted migration programme, the story follows a group of Brits, including the Roberts family from Stockport, leaving Britain in 1956 for a life-changing adventure in Australia. It was described by Danny on its commission as, 'a big bold character piece about what it means to start again, to be an outsider in a new land, asking questions about success and failure, identity, parenthood and belonging.

He says: 'I had never done a period drama and never wanted to because I think most of it looks like a bunch of contemporary people wearing silly hats and frocks and not saying anything about the modern world. But when this idea came up I thought it spoke to modern issues – immigration, prejudice, the need to escape to something you perceive as better when things are tough at home.'

Working with production company Eleven he wanted to create an unvarnished version of the tough environments that awaited the Brits. In the first series, the drama follows nurse Kate Thorne (Michelle Keegan) who arrives in Australia without her fiancé to rewrite her devastating past, and Terry Roberts (Warren Brown) and his wife Annie (Faye Marsay) hoping to ameliorate Terry’s PTSD and drinking with a fresh start for the family. Audiences were drawn to its accomplished scripts and performances and a recommission quickly followed. Series 2 is out in 2025 and Danny describes the story as picking up just days later, with Kate on the run and Terry’s young daughter coping with new family issues. 'This was pitched as a renewable precinct – one we can keep coming back to and hopefully follow the Roberts family over many years.'

When it comes to plotting his own next steps, Danny is hesitant about confirming too many details although he will say he’s developing something 'quite different' for ITV. What is clear is he won’t be moving to the other side of the world (or even the UK) himself. 'At one point I spent quite a lot of time developing a writing career in America and people were saying I should go to live in LA, but when push came to shove I didn’t want to. I see myself as a Northerner, a Mancunian... I like the way we speak in the world, with a groundedness and earthiness. I want to write about the sort of people you might meet on the school run and I want a truthfulness to what I write because I see those people around me”.

And with that, it’s time for tea and Danny is off home, last spotted disappearing down another of those leafy Heaton Moor streets.

Danny at home in Heaton Moor – he won't be moving to the other side of the world (or even the UK). (Image: Kirsty Thompson) Also by Danny Brocklehurst