Mark Philip David Billingham (born 2 July 1961)[1] is an English novelist, actor, television screenwriter and comedian known for the "Tom Thorne" crime novel series.

[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.

"[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 was the human face on the puppet-representation-of-celebrities series Spitting Image, and "the taller half" of the top double act the "Tracy Brothers" with Mike Mole from Bread & Circuses days (now guitarist with British comedy punk band Punks Not Dad), appearing regularly on the radio version of The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

[5] 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).

As his interests moved towards crime fiction, he set an early novel (the unpublished The Mechanic) in his native Birmingham.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.

"[3] He also cites the big ending, and "pullback and reveal", whereby the audience or reader is led along a specific path and lulled into thinking that they can guess the twist, before "boom!

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".

It's not a cliché – It's part and parcel of the genre – cowboys have six-guns, horses and stetsons and detectives have [a] past... problems [and] flaws, because if they don't, then there is nothing to read about.

[13] In 1997, Billingham and his writing partner Peter Cocks were kidnapped and held hostage in a Manchester hotel room.

Billingham recalls being terrified by the audacity of the criminals, and later used the event as inspiration for his second Thorne novel, Scaredy Cat.

[19] In 2015, Billingham collaborated on a musical project called The Other Half with My Darling Clementine, reading an original story alongside a soundtrack by the Americana band.