--- name: "Jimmy McGovern" canonical: "https://film.one/person/jimmy-mcgovern" fi1m_id: "jimmy-mcgovern" imdb_id: "nm0569568" tmdb_id: 201639 wikidata_id: "Q6200774" roles: ["Writer","Producer"] born: "1 January 1949" reviewed_on_fi1m: 7 average_fi1m_score: 77 average_as: "writer" average_over: 7 updated: "2026-10-07T19:01:44.317422+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Jimmy McGovern ## Identity Jimmy McGovern - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jimmy-mcgovern - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** jimmy-mcgovern - **IMDb ID:** nm0569568 - **TMDB ID:** 201639 - **Wikidata ID:** Q6200774 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_McGovern, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6200774, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569568/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/201639 Writer and producer. Born 1 January 1949 in Liverpool, England. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Producer - **Born:** 1 January 1949, Liverpool, England - **Active:** 1960–present - **Frequently works with:** [David Blair](https://film.one/person/david-blair.md), [Alice Nutter](https://film.one/person/alice-nutter.md), [Bill Anderson](https://film.one/person/bill-anderson.md), [Charles McDougall](https://film.one/person/charles-mcdougall.md), [Danny Brocklehurst](https://film.one/person/daniel-brocklehurst.md), [Julian Jarrold](https://film.one/person/julian-jarrold.md), [Matthew Bird](https://film.one/person/matthew-bird.md), [Michael Winterbottom](https://film.one/person/michael-winterbottom.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 77, as writer, over 7 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 74 (1), 1990s 81 (2), 2000s 74 (1), 2010s 73 (2), 2020s 82 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 6, Crime 3, Romance 1, Soap 1 - **Screen time:** 3 hours of reviewed films - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_McGovern, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6200774, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569568/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/201639 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Cracker*](https://film.one/tv/cracker.md) (85), [*Time*](https://film.one/tv/time-2021.md) (82), [*The Street*](https://film.one/tv/the-street.md) (74), [*Coronation Street*](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) (74) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Go Now*](https://film.one/film/go-now.md) (77) - **The Roku Channel:** [*Accused*](https://film.one/tv/accused.md) (76) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Jimmy McGovern > Jimmy McGovern writes people cornered by one wrong turn and then sits them down at the kitchen table to talk about it. When he trusts the scene he is as honest as British television gets. When he adds the speech, we wince. A woman sits beside a hospital bed, making tea for her husband and trying to keep her face straight, because she was over the road with another man when the car hit her daughter. That is Jane Horrocks in the first hour of *The Street* (2006), and it is McGovern's method whole: one ordinary household, one wrong turn, sixty minutes with no way back. Almost nothing is said. We were wrecked by it, and it was Horrocks doing so little, not the drip or the monitors, that did the damage. He learned the trade on *Brookside*, writing for it from 1982 to 1989 after years as a labourer, a bus conductor and a teacher, and the people in his scripts have stayed the people he once worked beside: working-class, northern, and in trouble. *Cracker* (1993) made his name and is still the best thing we have from him, a crime series built around Robbie Coltrane's Fitz, a man written to irritate and never smoothed over for our comfort. Single dramas followed, *Priest* (1994) and *Hillsborough* (1996), the second made with the help of the families of the dead. Then came *The Lakes* (1997), *The Street*, *Accused* (2010), *Moving On* (2009) and *Time* (2021), a prison drama about punishment and what an institution does to the people locked inside it. What interests him is the distance between the law and justice, and the anthology shape, one household and out, has suited him better than it has any right to. He shares the writing more than his reputation suggests, with Paul Abbott and Ted Whitehead on *Cracker* and Daniel Brocklehurst, Marc Pye and Alice Nutter on *The Street*, and the seams barely show. Sean Bean has worked with him three times. His own summary of the job is "simplicity of narrative, complexity of character", and on his best days that is exactly what is on screen. The flaw is that he has never trusted an audience to draw its own conclusion when a character could stand up and draw it for them. *The Street* has a speech, delivered straight and at length, that tells us what the hour had already shown, and *Cracker* has stretches where Fitz's excesses are demonstrated one more time as though repetition were revelation. Some critics file him as an issue writer rather than a formal one, and he would probably not argue; the form is a postcard and the argument is the point. The other trouble is the laughter, or its absence. Real people in real grief make bad jokes at the worst moment, and *The Street* will not let its Mancunians do it, so six hours of bad news arrive without relief. Start with *Cracker*, then take *The Street* an hour at a time, and forgive the speeches. The kitchen scenes before them are why you came. ## Biography Jimmy McGovern is an English screenwriter and producer. He was born on 19 September 1949 in Liverpool and is best known for creating the ITV drama series *Cracker* (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. McGovern began his television career writing for the Liverpool-set soap opera *Brookside*. He went on to create or write series including *The Lakes* (1997), *The Street* (2006–2009), *Accused* (2010) and *Time* (2021), as well as the film *Priest* (1994). In 2021 he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (7) - *Time* (2021), Fi1m 82, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/time-2021.md) - *Common* (2014), Fi1m 70, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/common.md) - *Accused* (2010), Fi1m 76, Writer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/accused.md) - *The Street* (2006), Fi1m 74, Writer, Creator, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-street.md) - *Go Now* (1995), Fi1m 77, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/go-now.md) - *Cracker* (1993), Fi1m 85, Creator, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/cracker.md) - *Coronation Street* (1960), Fi1m 74, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) ## Complete filmography (34) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Unforgivable* (2025), Writer, Executive Producer - *Time* (2021), series, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/time-2021.md) - *Anthony* (2020), Writer - *Care* (2018), Writer, Executive Producer - *Reg* (2016), Writer - *Redfern Now: Promise Me* (2015), Creative Producer - *Banished* (2015), series, Writer, Creator - *Accusé* (2015), series, Creator - *Common* (2014), Writer — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/common.md) - *Accused* (2010), series, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/accused.md) - *Moving On* (2009), series, Producer, Creator - *The Street* (2006), series, Creator, Writer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-street.md) - *Gunpowder, Treason & Plot* (2004), series, Writer - *Celebrity Mastermind* (2003), series, Actor - *Sunday* (2002), Writer, Screenplay - *Liam* (2001), Writer - *Dockers* (1999), Writer - *Heart* (1999), Writer - *Cracker* (1997), series, Creator - *The Lakes* (1997), series, Writer, Creator - *Cracker: White Ghost* (1996), Creator - *Hillsborough* (1996), as Football Dad · Writer - *Go Now* (1995), Writer — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/go-now.md) - *Priest* (1995), Writer - *Hearts and Minds* (1995), series, Writer, Creator - *To Be A Somebody* (1994), series, Creator - *Cracker* (1993), series, Writer, Creator — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/tv/cracker.md) - *Gas and Candles* (1991), Writer - *Traitors* (1990), Writer - *Needle* (1990), Writer - *The Play on One* (1988), series, Writer - *ScreenPlay* (1986), series, Writer - *Screen Two* (1985), series, Writer - *Brookside* (1982), series, Writer ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Edgar Awards 1995: Edgar Awards (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/jimmy-mcgovern