Part of a two-night murder mystery TV show, the other one called Thorne: Sleepyhead.
Prior to filming, David Morrissey commented on how he became involved with the role: "I was doing a film in New Zealand, on my own, in winter. I really needed a book. I stumbled across a Thorne novel, liked it, and then I looked up Mark online and found a question-and-answer session where he said that if his books ever made it to the screen, he'd like me to play the lead. I thought, that's a good start"
Although directly adapted from Mark Billingham's novels, there are many notable differences, including; Brigstocke (Lorraine Ashbourne)'s gender has been changed; Dave Holland (O-T Fagbenle)'s ethnicity has been changed; and Phil Hendricks (Aidan Gillen) is portrayed as a short, partly tattooed Irishman with a full head of hair, a juxtaposition of the tall, bald, heavily pierced, heavily tattooed Mancunian described in the novels.
Following Thorne: Sleepyhead (2010) & Thorne: Scaredycat (2010), Mark Billingham expressed a desire to film all ten Thorne novels. Likewise, David Morrissey confirmed in February 2011 that a second series had gone into production.[ However, in a newsletter issued to members of his mailing list in December 2012, Billingham stated that Morrissey's role in The Walking Dead (2010) had suspended plans for any further series. To date, no further series of Thorne have been produced.