Modern British television has found its Dickens

JACK THORNE’S phone flashes with messages and alerts; he turns it face-down, swearing under his breath. With five BAFTAs, an Olivier and a Tony award to his name, Mr Thorne is Britain’s most sought-after scriptwriter. He is juggling several projects at once: his new play is in rehearsal ahead of its premiere at the Royal Court theatre in London on June 27th, while three television series that he wrote are in production. He is becoming to modern British TV what Charles Dickens was to the Victorian novel—a chronicler of the country’s untold stories and social ills, and the domestic dramas that encapsulate them.