--- name: "Jonathan Harvey" canonical: "https://film.one/person/jonathan-harvey" fi1m_id: "jonathan-harvey" imdb_id: "nm1281893" tmdb_id: 67571 wikidata_id: "Q1282769" roles: ["Writer"] born: "13 June 1968" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 75 average_as: "writer" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-07T13:20:14.299883+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." --- # Jonathan Harvey ## Identity Jonathan Harvey - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jonathan-harvey - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** jonathan-harvey - **IMDb ID:** nm1281893 - **TMDB ID:** 67571 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1282769 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Harvey_(playwright), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1282769, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1281893/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67571 Writer. Born 13 June 1968 in Liverpool. ## Details - **Work:** Writer - **Born:** 13 June 1968, Liverpool - **Active:** 1960–2012 - **Also known as:** Jon Harvey - **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 2 acting, 4 writing - **Frequently works with:** [Afia Nkrumah](https://film.one/person/afia-nkrumah.md), [Dominic Leclerc](https://film.one/person/dominic-leclerc.md), [Hugh Warren](https://film.one/person/hugh-warren.md), [Ian Kershaw](https://film.one/person/ian-kershaw.md), [Jamie Payne](https://film.one/person/jamie-payne.md), [John Kerr](https://film.one/person/john-kerr.md), [Noreen Kershaw](https://film.one/person/noreen-kershaw.md), [Roger Goldby](https://film.one/person/roger-goldby.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as writer, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 74 (1), 1990s 66 (2), 2000s 73 (2), 2010s 80 (1) - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 3, Comedy 2, Soap 1 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Harvey_(playwright), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1282769, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1281893/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67571 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*Shameless*](https://film.one/tv/shameless.md) (75), [*Coronation Street*](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) (74) - **Netflix:** [*Call the Midwife*](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) (80) - **BritBox:** [*At Home with the Braithwaites*](https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites.md) (71) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Jonathan Harvey > Jonathan Harvey writes people on estates who are funnier than they have any right to be and warmer than they let on. In *Beautiful Thing* the comedy and the tenderness share a room; in *Gimme Gimme Gimme* the jokes drown everything. Linda Henry's Sandra Gangel in *Beautiful Thing* (1996) can be exasperated with her son and devoted to him in the same breath, and she runs the comedy without ever seeming to have stepped into a different film. That is the Jonathan Harvey character: a loud woman in a flat who is funnier than her circumstances and kinder than her voice. He has written her more than once, and his work is better when she is in it. The stage came first. *Beautiful Thing* was a play at the Bush Theatre in 1993 before Hettie Macdonald filmed it, and it is set on the Thamesmead estate where Harvey taught for four years. He then created and wrote *Gimme Gimme Gimme* (1999) for Kathy Burke, wrote on *At Home with the Braithwaites* (2000) with Sally Wainwright and Katie Baxendale, and in 2004 joined *Coronation Street*, where he has written hundreds of episodes over two decades, with *Shameless* and *Call the Midwife* alongside. Television is where most of the work is. What he does well is change gear inside a scene, from a joke to something that hurts and back, without the join showing. In *Beautiful Thing* the supporting characters are allowed to be awkward and contradictory rather than wise or cruel. The weakness is in the same film: the two boys are clearer about what they want than about who they are, and we wanted the ordinary detail that would tell them apart away from each other. *Gimme Gimme Gimme* loses the gear change and keeps only the loud gear. Every joke is about sex, weight or somebody's face, and every joke is announced before it arrives. We laughed at Burke's Linda La Hughes and then felt faintly ashamed, because the line was the one about her looks we had already heard twice that episode, and she had landed it by force of will alone. On the Street he is one of the writers with an ear for how people in a pub talk: round the subject, in insults, with the real matter saved for the door. What he does less well is the long game. On *At Home with the Braithwaites* the secret carried two series, then the writers went looking for replacements, and by the fourth series everyone is shouting in a marquee. Harvey writes the scene better than the arc. He has said of *Beautiful Thing*: "I wanted to write a play about two boys falling in love and give it a happy ending. During the Aids crisis, it was unusual for a gay character to be alive at the end of a drama." That is still the thing to start with. After it, find a good night on the Street, where the same people are still at the bar, still talking round whatever it is. ## Biography Jonathan Harvey is an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Liverpool in 1968, he studied psychology and education at Hull University and worked for several years as a special-needs teacher in a comprehensive school before becoming a full-time writer. His breakthrough came with the stage play *Beautiful Thing* (1993), which he adapted for the 1996 film of the same name. He has written extensively for television, including episodes of *Gimme Gimme Gimme* (1999–2001), *Coronation Street*, *Shameless* and *Call the Midwife*. His stage plays have received awards including the George Devine Award and the John Whiting Award. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) ### Performed in (2) - *Gimme Gimme Gimme* (1999), Fi1m 52, as Louie — [page](https://film.one/tv/gimme-gimme-gimme.md) - *Beautiful Thing* (1996), Fi1m 80, as Petra — [page](https://film.one/film/beautiful-thing.md) ### Wrote (4) — the average rests on these - *Call the Midwife* (2012), Fi1m 80, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) - *Shameless* (2004), Fi1m 75, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/shameless.md) - *At Home with the Braithwaites* (2000), Fi1m 71, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites.md) - *Coronation Street* (1960), Fi1m 74, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) ## Complete filmography (16) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Beautiful Thing* (2013), Theatre Play - *Panto!* (2012), Writer - *Call the Midwife* (2012), series, Writer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/call-the-midwife.md) - *Octavia* (2009), Writer - *Beautiful People* (2008), series, Writer - *Twisted Tales* (2005), series, Writer - *Big Brother Panto* (2004), series, Writer - *Von Trapped* (2004), Writer - *Shameless* (2004), series, Writer — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/shameless.md) - *Birthday Girl* (2002), Writer - *At Home with the Braithwaites* (2000), series, Writer — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites.md) - *The Delivery* (1999), as Marc - *Gimme Gimme Gimme* (1999), series, as Customer, Louie · Writer, Associate Producer, Creator — Fi1m 52, [page](https://film.one/tv/gimme-gimme-gimme.md) - *Beautiful Thing* (1996), as Petra · Theatre Play, Screenplay — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/beautiful-thing.md) - *Murder Most Horrid* (1991), series, Writer - *Coronation Street* (1960), series, Writer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/coronation-street.md) --- © 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/jonathan-harvey