Career
He has repeatedly collaborated with Jimmy McGovern. He has written several plays and has worked extensively for television including Brookside (Channel 4) and EastEnders (BBC1). Like McGovern, Duggan is associated with a realist tradition centring on documenting life in his home town of Born on the Norris Green council estate,Duggan"s writing career began at the age of 16, when his play William, inspired by The Smiths song "William, lieutenant Was Really Nothing", was produced at London"s Royal Court Theatre Upstairs as part of their Young Writers" Festival, 1986.
Shaun was befriended by his hero, Morrissey, who also interviewed him about the play on Channel 4"s The Tube.
His play Drama Queen was produced in for the Homotopia lesbian and gay arts festival as part of the city"s Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. Duggan spent eight years writing for the -set soap opera, Brookside.
He wrote the episode that featured the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television when Beth Jordache (Anna Friel) began a relationship with the Farnhams" nanny Margaret Clemence (Nicola Stephenson) in January 1994. The kiss was seen by an estimated global audience of one billion when Danny Boyle included it in the opening ceremony of London 2012.
As a result the kiss was shown in countries such as Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal to be gay.
Number other gay kiss has ever been shown on television in the Middle Eastern country. Caitlin Moran said in The Times "lieutenant was physically affecting — that brilliant, drug-like transcendence where you"re floating inside a story… I can’t remember the last time I was so on the side of someone in a script."
Shaun has also written extensively for television In addition to Brookside he spent four years on the script-team of EastEnders.
Other television work includes - Is Harry on the Boat (BSkyB), Maisie Raine, (British Broadcasting Corporation), Waterloo Road (British Broadcasting Corporation), Jiggery Pokery (British Broadcasting Corporation), High Rise, Low Life (Channel 4), Stepping Up (CBBC) and Justice (BBC1).
He also co-wrote the fifth episode of McGovern"s series Banished (2015). Duggan has recently written a new series for CBBC called Jamie Johnson, based on the books by Dan Freedman.
The series will premiere on CBBC in June 2016 and a second series is about to go into production. Duggan is currently working with Jimmy McGovern on a new series for BBC1.
