经济学人下载:记录别人的生活(2)

His biggest solo project to date came about when Channel 4 asked him to write a trilogy of shows about modern Britain. “National Treasure” (2016) was inspired by Operation Yewtree, a police investigation into sexual misconduct by media personalities; the smash hit “Kiri” (2018) explored transracial adoption. Caroline Hollick, the channel’s head of drama, praises the balance in Mr Thorne’s writing between brutal honesty and warmth, even humour: “That’s why he can dig into these huge state-of-the-nation ideas and make them so appealing to watch.” The trilogy’s final instalment will be a mini-series about corporate manslaughter, which will draw on real-life incidents including the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.
迄今为止，他最大的个人项目是英国第四台邀请他创作一部关于现代英国的电视剧三部曲。《国家淫才》（2016）的灵感来自于“杉树行动”，“杉树行动”指代警方对传媒人士不当性行为的调查；第二部又名为《姬芮》（2018），一度热播，讲述不同种族间收养的故事。该频道戏剧主管卡罗琳•霍利克称赞索恩在写作中保持了残酷的诚实与热情、甚至幽默之间的平衡:“这就是为什么他能深入挖掘这些宏大的国家理念，使其如此有吸引力。” 三部曲的最后一部将是一部关于公司过失杀人的迷你剧，取材于真实事件，其中包括2017年格伦费尔大厦大火事件。

Mr Thorne, who is 40, tends to anchor his stories in families (sometimes unconventional ones), scrutinising the relationships between siblings or between parents and their children. These families have a veneer of unity but, underneath, they tend to be fractured by lies and betrayals. Much is left unsaid. In “National Treasure” Dee (Andrea Riseborough) wonders whether her drug-addiction and memory loss is linked to the predatory behaviour of which her father is accused. In “The Virtues”, to mask his slide back into the bottle, Joseph (Stephen Graham, pictured left) spins a story about a workplace accident to his son. Mr Graham, who also starred in “This is England”, reckons that “no one catches truth and reality the way Jack does”. Mr Thorne’s shows do “more than make you look at pretty pictures,” Mr Graham says; they come “into your living room and make you think”.
索恩今年40岁，他的故事多以“家庭”为题材 (有时是非传统的)，审视兄弟姐妹之间或父母与孩子之间的关系。这些家庭表面上团结一致，但实际上往往被谎言和背叛弄得支离破碎。还有很多话没说。在《国家淫才》中，迪伊(安德里亚·瑞斯伯勒饰)怀疑她的毒瘾和失忆与她父亲被指控的掠夺性行为有关。在《德性》中，为了掩饰自己又回到瓶子里，约瑟夫(斯蒂芬·格雷厄姆饰，图左)给儿子讲了一个关于工作场所事故的故事。同样在《英格兰》中担任主角的格雷厄姆认为，没有人能像杰克那样捕捉真相和现实。格雷厄姆表示，索恩的作品“不仅仅是让你看漂亮的画面”；它们“走进你的客厅，让你思考”。

Other threads knit the writer’s disparate subjects into a coherent oeuvre. Many of his stories feature loss or violence, exploring how such experiences calcify into trauma; several of his characters are dependent on booze or sex. He is an acute observer of nuances of affluence and class, that eternal British theme. Typically, Mr Thorne avoids the temptation to provide easy moralising and neat conclusions, considering those unrealistic and therefore dishonest. He says he wants his work to lead “to people asking questions rather than giving them answers”.
其他线索将作者不同的主题编织成连贯的作品。他的许多故事都以失去或暴力为特色，探索这些经历是如何变成创伤的；他的几个角色都依赖于酒精或性。他敏锐地观察到了富裕和阶级之间的细微差别，这是英国永恒的主题。通常情况下，考虑到那些不现实、因而不诚实的结论，索恩避免了提供简单的道德说教和简洁结论的诱惑。他表示希望自己的工作能让人们提出问题，而不是给出答案。