He is best known for writing the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the films Wonder and Enola Holmes, and the television programme His Dark Materials.
[13] Together with the composer Stephen Warbeck, Thorne wrote Junkyard, a coming-of-age musical centred around 'The Vench', an adventure playground in Lockleaze, Bristol.
[15] Thorne penned the play the end of history for Royal Court Theatre in 2019, starring David Morrissey and Lesley Sharp.
In June 2023, his play When Winston Went to War with the Wireless directed by Katy Rudd about the BBC during the 1926 General Strike premiered at the Donmar Warehouse.
[20] In August 2010, BBC Three announced Thorne would be writing a 60-minute, six episode supernatural drama for the channel called Touch, later re-titled The Fades.
[23][24] In 2014, Thorne's original rural teen murder drama Glue premiered on E4 and the show was nominated Best Multichannel Programme and the 2015 Broadcast Awards.
Next, the pan-European diamond heist thriller for Sky Atlantic The Last Panthers, which aired in the UK in September 2015 was BAFTA nominated for Best Drama Series.
Set and filmed in Liverpool, Help focused on the plight of disabled people and their carers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and addressed the multitude of ways in which Boris Johnson's government had failed them.
It was acclaimed by critics, with Carol Midgley of The Times calling it "a shaming nightmare [that] all ministers should see",[33] and won Best Drama at the 2021 Rose d'Or Awards.
"[44] A Summer Night (BBC Radio 3, 2011) was Thorne's response to the 2011 London riots, transmitted live as part of the Free Thinking festival.
In 2012, People Snogging in Public Places was produced and broadcast by France-Culture (in the Fictions / Drôles de drames slot) under the French title of Regarder passer les trains (translator: Jacqueline Chnéour).
"[47] Thorne has been commissioned to write feature films for producers both sides of the Atlantic, with credits including War Book starring Sophie Okonedo which Tom Harper directed, and A Long Way Down starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette and Aaron Paul (directed by Pascal Chaumeil) based on the novel by Nick Hornby.
[48] On 2 August 2017, it was announced he would rewrite the script for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,[49] but on 12 September 2017, he was replaced by J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio.
[50][51][52] In 2018, it was announced that he would rewrite the initial screenplay penned by Chris Weitz for Disney's live-action adaptation of Pinocchio, then to be directed by Paul King.
[53] Thorne also co-wrote the 2019 film The Aeronauts with Tom Harper for Amazon Studios, starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne.
He has since written disabled dramas The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Spastic King, Cast Offs, The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Don't Take My Baby, CripTales, and Then Barbara Met Alan, and has become a patron of the Graeae Theatre Company.
[56] He used the speech to discuss television's power as an "empathy box" in the living room of millions and its failings for neglecting a large and vibrant part of the populace by poorly representing the disabled community.
Thorne points to the great suffering of disabled people during the COVID-19 pandemic in which the media rendered huge amounts of unnecessary deaths acceptable through usage of the term "underlying health condition".
[57][58] This, in turn, lead to the launch of The TV Access Project,[59] or TAP, which has seen 10 of the UK’s biggest broadcasters commit to the full inclusion of Deaf Disabled and/or Neurodivergent Talent by 2030.