Shaun Duggan (born 1970) is a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-nominated English writer based in the UK. He has repeatedly collaborated with

Jimmy McGovern James Stanley McGovern (born September 1949) is an English screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating the drama series '' Cracker'' (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He als ...

. He has written several plays and has worked extensively for television including ''

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Bro ...

'' (Channel 4), ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' (BBC1), and '' Jamie Johnson'' (CBBC).

Early life and career

Like McGovern, Duggan is associated with a realist tradition centring on documenting life in his home town of Liverpool. Born in

Norris Green Norris Green is a suburb and ward of Liverpool, England, in the east of the city. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 17,784, which had fallen to 15,047 at the 2011 Census. History Historically a part of Lancashire, Norris Green's dev ...

,"The Smiths and Morrissey changed our lives", ''The Observer'', 2 October 2011
/ref> Duggan's writing career began at the age of 16, when his play ''William'', inspired by

The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

song "

William, It Was Really Nothing "William, It Was Really Nothing" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths. It was released as a single in August 1984, featuring the B-sides " Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" and " How Soon Is Now?", and reached No. 17 in ...

", was produced at London's

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

Upstairs as part of their Young Writers' Festival, 1986. Shaun was befriended by his hero,

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey ( ; born 22 May 1959), known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 198 ...

, who also interviewed him about the play on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

The Tube The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

. Shaun continued to write other stage plays for the Liverpool Everyman and the Playhouse, including ''It's Nearly June'', ''A Brusque Affair'', ''All Lips and Sex''; and ''Boy'', (winner of the

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...

and Daily Post Best Writing Award), which went on a UK tour before transferring to the Lyric Studio, London. His play ''Drama Queen'' was produced in Liverpool for the '' Homotopia'' lesbian and gay arts festival as part of the city's Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008.

Television

Duggan spent eight years writing for the Liverpool-set soap opera, ''Brookside'', writing over 100 episodes; he wrote the episode that featured the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television when Beth Jordache (

Anna Friel Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. She first achieved fame as Beth Jordache in the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brookside'' (1993–1995), later coming to international prominence with her role as Charlotte "Chuck" Charle ...

) began a relationship with the Farnhams' nanny Margaret Clemence (

Nicola Stephenson Nicola Stephenson (born 5 July 1971) is an English actress. She played the roles of Margaret Clemence in '' Brookside'', Julie Fitzjohn in '' Holby City'', Sarah Williams in '' The Chase'', Allie Westbrook in '' Waterloo Road'', and Tess Harr ...

) in January 1994. The kiss was seen by an estimated global audience of one billion when

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on the films ''Shallow Grave (1994 film), Shallow Grave'' (1994), ''Trainspotting (film), Trainspotting'' (1996) and its sequel ''T2 Tra ...

included it in the Olympics opening ceremony of

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. As a result the kiss was shown in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal to be gay. No other gay kiss has ever been shown on television in the Middle Eastern country. Duggan has also written extensively for television. In addition to ''Brookside'' he spent four years on the script-team of ''

''. Other television work includes '' Is Harry on the Boat'' (

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

), ''

Maisie Raine ''Maisie Raine'' is a British television crime drama series, first broadcast on BBC One, that ran from 28 July 1998 to 9 July 1999. Pauline Quirke stars as the eponymous title character, an unorthodox detective whose hands on yet down-to-earth a ...

'', (BBC), '' Waterloo Road'' (

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

), ''Jiggery Pokery'' (

), ''High Rise, Low Life'' (

), '' Stepping Up'' (CBBC) and ''

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

'' (BBC1). Duggan received a BAFTA nomination in 2013 for the opening episode of the second series of Jimmy McGovern's '' Accused'' (starring

Sean Bean Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean; 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in a production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre. Retaining his ...

in a BAFTA-nominated/RTS Award winning/

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York City, New York–based International Academy of Televisi ...

winning performance as cross-dressing teacher, 'Tracie' Tremarco).

Caitlin Moran Catherine Elizabeth Moran ( ; born 5 April 1975) is an English journalist, broadcaster, and author at ''The Times'', where she writes two columns a week: one for the Saturday Magazine, and the satirical Friday column "Celebrity Watch". Moran w ...

said in ''The Times'' "It was physically affecting — that brilliant, drug-like transcendence where you're floating inside a story… I can’t remember the last time I was so on the side of someone in a script."Shaun Duggan: The Writer's Company
/ref> Having created the role of 'Tracie Tremarco' for Jimmy McGovern, Duggan has also written eight episodes of McGovern's ''Moving On'' (BBC1): ''Losing My Religion'' (2010), ''Donor'' (2011), ''Friends Like These'' (2013), ''Fledgling'' (2013), ''Madge'' (2014) ''A Picture of Innocence'' (2015) "''Zero'' (2016) and ''Lost'' (2018) He also co-wrote the fifth episode of McGovern's series ''

Banished Banished may refer to: * The punishment of being exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumsta ...

'' (2015). Duggan also wrote episode 5 of the Jimmy McGovern series '' Broken'' (BBC1), starring Sean Bean as a Catholic priest. His episode focused on the story of Carl McKenna (played by Ned Dennehy) and challenged homophobia in the Catholic church. It was aired in the summer of 2017. Duggan is also the lead writer on the popular CBBC show ''Jamie Johnson'', having written the original pilot episode based on the books by Dan Freedman. The drama focuses on a young working class boy who dreams of becoming a famous player. Many top sporting personalities have made cameos in the show including Jurgen Klopp, Gareth Southgate, Steven Gerrard, Gary Linekar, Marcus Rashford, Jessie Lingard to name just a few. Series 6 is currently in pre-production. In 2017 the second series of Jamie Johnson was nominated for a BAFTA and International Emmy for best children's drama. Series 3 was also nominated for an International Emmy Award in the best drama category.

References

External links

*
Morrissey interviews Duggan on ''The Tube'' in 1987
* http://www.slate.com/blogs/five_ring_circus/2012/07/28/lesbian_kiss_opening_ceremony_why_danny_boyle_featured_a_scene_from_the_british_soap_brookside_.html * http://seanbeanonline.net/forums/index.php?topic=3968.10;wap2 * http://www.morrissey-solo.com/wiki/Shaun_Duggan * http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/15/tv-review-sean-bean-accused-drag_n_1777998.html * https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/aug/14/great-british-bake-off-review * http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Arts%3A+Drama+Queen+not+a+gay+play.-a0188598229 * https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25101123 * http://www.bafta.org/children/awards/childrens-awards-nominations-2017#drama * https://jesuit.org.uk/adoremus-fringe-events-st-francis-xavier * http://guru.bafta.org/jamie-johnson-bafta-kids-qa * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuujfA1WIgk * https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08jmdmt * https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/shaun-duggan {{DEFAULTSORT:Duggan, Shaun 1970 births Living people People from Norris Green English television writers English male dramatists and playwrights English male screenwriters English soap opera writers English LGBTQ screenwriters English LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights English male television writers Writers from Liverpool