Heidi Thomas (born 13 August 1962, Garston, Liverpool) is an English screenwriter and playwright.
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After reading English at Liverpool University, Thomas gained national attention when her play, Shamrocks And Crocodiles, won the John Whiting Award in 1985. Her play Indigo was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in their 1987/88 season. Other theatrical work includes Some Singing Blood at London's Royal Court Theatre, and an adaptation of Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, presented in London and at the National Theatre of Norway in Oslo. Her play The House of Special Purpose was staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2010.
Her screen adaptations include feature film I Capture the Castle (2003) [1] and the screenplay for a BBC television adaptation of Madame Bovary (2000). In 2007 she was the creator, writer and executive producer of BBC period drama Lilies. She wrote the screenplays for two major BBC adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford [2] and a film adaptation of the Noel Streatfeild novel Ballet Shoes.[3]
In 2010 she was writer and executive producer of a major revival of the classic British television drama series Upstairs, Downstairs for the BBC. She has also written episodes for television series Soldier Soldier and Dr. Finlay. Forthcoming work includes a TV adaptation of the 'Call the Midwife' trilogy of books by Jennifer Worth,[4] and a six-part series of Upstairs Downstairs scheduled for release in 2012.[5]
In March 2008, she received the Best Writer award at the UK Royal Television Society awards for her work on Cranford. In April 2008 she received the Best Writer award at the UK Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for her work on Cranford, Ballet Shoes, and Lilies. She was nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards for Cranford as well as a Primetime Emmy. In November 2008 she received the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best TV Series for Cranford. In 2011 she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Upstairs Downstairs.
Thomas is married to actor Stephen McGann.