[2] In an interview, Thompson said "I took a sudden left turn and became a scriptwriter.”[1] He trained on the RADA playwrights' course, and his first play, Damages, was performed at the Bush Theatre in 2004, winning the Meyer-Whitworth Award for new writing.
Since then, he has contributed scripts for several popular shows, including Silk, Upstairs Downstairs, Doctor Who, and the first three series of Sherlock (the latter two both in collaboration with Steven Moffat).
[7] On 3 October 2018, it was announced that Thompson would be teaming with Frank Spotnitz to develop a drama about Leonardo da Vinci.
[9] On 16 August 2019, the BBC announced they would broadcast Thompson's adaptation of the popular Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, Vienna Blood.
[10] On 6 July 2020, Endor Productions and MR Film announced that a second series had been jointly recommissioned by ORF, ZDF, BBC and PBS.