Beautiful Thing explores pre-teenage homo-erotic sensuality and the frictions and intimacies of living cheek by jowl on a Thamesmead housing estate.

Jonathan Harvey is an award-winning playwright, whose plays include The Cherry Blossom Tree (Liverpool Playhouse Studio), which won him the 1987 National Girobank Young Writer of the Year Award; Wildfire (Royal Court Theatre); Beautiful Thing (Bush Theatre, London and Donmar Warehouse/Duke of York's Theatre), winner of the John Whiting Award 1994; Babies (Royal National Theatre Studio/Royal Court Theatre), winner George Devine Award 1993 and Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award 1994; Boom Bang-A-Bang (Bush Theatre); Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (English Touring Theatre/Contact Theatre Company, Donmar Warehouse/Criterion Theatre); Swan Song (Pleasance/Hampstead Theatre); Guiding Star (Liverpool Everyman/National Theatre); Hushabye Mountain (English Touring Theatre/Hampstead) and Out in the Open (Hampstead Theatre/Birmingham Rep). Television and film work includes: West End Girls (Carlton); Love Junkie (BBC); Beautiful Thing (Channel Four/Island World Productions); Gimme Gimme Gimme (BBC).