Sleepyhead (Tom Thorne Novels)

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Around 1987 he decided to pursue a career in comedy, stating:"[The] one great advantage of stand-up comedy [is that] nobody gives a stuff about what you look like – as long as you're funny, and if you can do it, and people laugh, then you'll get bookings." [3] Billingham cites his breaking into stand-up as a simple progression from 5-minute, unpaid "try-out" spots to 10-, 20- and 30-minute paid slots. [3] Billingham has headlined at the Comedy Store, where he also appears regularly as a Master of Ceremonies. [3]

Billingham was shortlisted for the 2015 Dagger in the Library UK Crime Writers' Association award for an author's body of work in British libraries. He was shortlisted again in 2019 and won the award in 2022. [19] The Other Half [ edit ] Learning the unpleasant differences between crime fact and crime fiction...". Article by Billingham for The Sunday Times. Accessed 10 February 2008. In Maid Marian and her Merry Men, Billingham played Gary, a dim-but-lovable guard in the employ of the Sheriff of Nottingham ( Tony Robinson), as part of a double-act with Graeme ( David Lloyd). After three award-winning series, Billingham and Lloyd helped creator-writer Robinson with plot and script ideas and gained co-writer credits on the first episode of series 4, "Tunnel Vision".Billingham's detective character Inspector Tom Thorne first appeared in his 2001 debut novel Sleepyhead. The character has since appeared in the majority of his works, except In the Dark, Rush of Blood, and Die of Shame (May 2016), in which Thorne has minor roles. Billingham claims to have imbued Thorne with many of his own characteristics, such as a birthday, a locale (London), and a "love of country music both alt and cheesy". [3] [11] With Sleepyhead, Billingham leaps to the upper echelons of British crime fiction in a single bound.

From an early age, Billingham wrote often "funny" stories for popularity and enjoyment. As his interests moved towards crime fiction, he set an early novel (the unpublished The Mechanic) in his native Birmingham. Inspired by the comic-crime work of Carl Hiaasen and other authors, he attempted to use his experience as a stand-up comedian and crime fan to write a similarly comic novel. [2] Ultimately he abandoned the unfinished novel and the comic-crime genre to focus on another book that would become Sleepyhead. Billingham has received nominations and awards related to all aspects of his various careers. What's That Noise (which he wrote and presented) won the 1995 Royal Television Society award for "Best Entertainment Programme", [9] while Knight School was nominated for the RTS's "Best Children's Drama" award two years running.Thorne must find a man whose agenda is terrifyingly unique, and Alison, the one person who holds the key to the killer’s identity, is unable to tell anybody. . . Good as Dead (Little, Brown & Company, August 2011), ISBN 978-1-84744-419-6. Retitled US The Demands (Mulholland Books, June 2012), ISBN 978-0-316-12663-2 His standalone novel In The Dark was adapted as a miniseries of the same name by the BBC in 2017. An adaptation of another standalone novel, Rush of Blood, is being developed for US television. [15] Awards and nominations [ edit ] TV [ edit ]

Maid Marian and her Merry Men Series 3 (Tony Robinson, Mark Billingham and David Lloyd on 'creative writing'). David Bell. UK: Eureka. 2006 [1993]. EKA40224. {{ cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) ( link) Lifeless (Little, Brown & Company, May 2005), ISBN 0-316-72752-0; Scorpion Press, June 2005, ISBN 1-873567-70-7; William Morrow US, September 2006, ISBN 0-06-084166-4 Dancing Towards The Blade" in Men From Boys by John Harvey (ed.) ( Arrow Books, September 2004), ISBN 0-09-946152-8 In September 2015 Billingham and co-host Michael Carlson released the six-part podcast The Crime Vault Live, [20] with the last episode released in January 2016. Don’t make any plans for the weekend when you buy it – because you won’t be leaving the house until its finished

A compelling, brilliantly written thriller by a name to watch. It’s been a long time since London noir was this good. An assured chiller. Disturbing and thrilling… with memorable characters and bundles of atmosphere. Britain now has its own forensic crime maestro. Who would have thought a stand-up comedian could write a British police procedural as good as those produced by crime queens Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell? Robinson, Lloyd and Billingham remain friends, and Robinson is partially credited for Billingham's literary career on the DVD release of Maid Marian (Series 3), in which the three discuss writing for the series and in general. [6] The trio announced in 2018 that they were working on a stage production of Maid Marian and her Merry Men. [7] [8] Writing [ edit ] In 2002, he was "in the middle of writing a screenplay for an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and about to write a screenplay for a cult children's show," a sci-fi drama for the BBC, but turned to writing novels. [3] [9] Novels [ edit ]

After graduating with a degree in drama from the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, he helped form a socialist theatre company, Bread & Circuses, in Birmingham. Bread & Circuses toured with shows in schools, colleges, arts centres and the street. [3] In the mid-1980s he moved to London as a "jobbing actor", taking minor roles in episodes of TV shows Dempsey and Makepeace, Juliet Bravo, Boon, and The Bill. [2] [4] After playing a variety of "bad guy roles such as a soccer hooligan, drug addict, a nasty copper, a racist copper or a bent copper", he claimed that he had become disenchanted with acting and that the emphasis was not on talent, but on looks. [3]

Billingham lives in North London with his wife Claire and their two children. He supports Wolverhampton Wanderers, although his protagonist Thorne supports Tottenham Hotspur. [22] Bibliography [ edit ]