Robert Thorogood is an English screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as the creator of the BBC One murder mystery series Death in Paradise. He won France Film's "En Route to France" award in 2012.
Early life
Thorogood was educated at Uppingham School in Rutland where he met his future wife, Classic FM presenter Katie Breathwick. He read History at Downing College, Cambridge where he toured with the university's student comedy troupeFootlights in 1993 and was elected President in 1994. Soon after leaving Cambridge Thorogood set up a theatre company that toured small theatres and schools, the highlight of which was a production of Molière's The Miser that he directed and acted in alongside Robert Webb, David Mitchell and Olivia Colman.
Writing career
Thorogood wrote for many years - selling scripts to the BBC, ITV and independent film companies – but before 2011 the only script of his that was actually produced was a Radio 4 afternoon drama play called From Abstraction, about the life of mathematician Paul Wolfskehl. In 2008, Thorogood entered the inaugural Red Planet Prize and was a chosen finalist, where he was able to pitch his 'Copper in the Caribbean' idea to Tony Jordan. By 2011, when the show was finally broadcast.
''Death in Paradise''
Thorogood wrote five episodes of the first series of Death in Paradise. The first episode aired in November 2011 to an overnight audience of nearly 6 million. The first episode of the second series aired in 2013 to an overnight audience of nearly 7 million. Robert also wrote two episodes on the second series, three of the third series, and one episode in each of the following series. In February 2019 it was announced by the BBC that the show had been commissioned for series 9 and 10.
Spin-off novels
In January 2014, it was announced that Robert Thorogood had signed a deal with MIRA / Harlequin to write three Richard Poole Murder Mystery novels. The first of the three – A Meditation on Murder – was published in hardback in January 2015 and in paperback in May 2015. The second – The Killing of Polly Carter – was published in hardback in December 2015 and in paperback in early 2016. The third – Death Knocks Twice – was published in hardback in July 2017 and in paperback in October 2017. Murder in the Caribbean, the fourth mystery, was published in December 2018.
''Trackers''
In 2018, it was announced that Thorogood was showrunning Trackers, a major new TV series set in South Africa, and an adaptation of the novel "Trackers" by Deon Meyer. Just as Death in Paradise pioneered the first co-production between the BBC and France Televisions, Trackers was the first co-production between M-Net in South Africa, ZDF in Germany and HBO's sister stationCinemax in America. Just before the last episode aired in South Africa, it was already M-Net's best-performing show of the year.
Speaking
Thorogood was a guest speaker at the 2012 London Screenwriters Festival. Since then, he has spoken about creating international co-productions for the European TV Drama Series Lab in Berlin and at the Totally Serialised TV Festival in London in 2014. He's also acted as an after-dinner speaker at the Dagger Awards for the Crime Writers Association in 2017 and Bristol Crimefest in both 2018 and 2019.
