Between 1997 and 1998, he (and friend Peter Cocks) wrote and co-starred in Granada TV's "Knight School", for which the two also produced a novelisation. He is however, clearly less enamoured by scriptwriting than by novel-writing, noting that:  In 2002, he was "in the middle of writing a screenplay for an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and about to write a screenplay for a cult children's show," an original sci-fi drama for the BBC, but his prime consideration turned to writing novels. In 2001, Billingham's first crime novel, "Sleepyhead", was published in the UK by Little, Brown and Company. He is a self-confessed fan of crime fiction, "as well as a really serious collector" and has alleged that the expense of collecting books inspired him to get into interviewing and reviewing books, partly for the complimentary copies. Starting with a local newspaper, he progressed to providing reviews and interviews for SHOTS, and then to magazines, including "Time Out", where he found himself interviewing people such as Michael Connelly, talking and learning from other writers. Mark Billingham became the first crime writer to win the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award twice when his novel "Death Message" won in 2009. He won this prestigious award against strong opposition including Reginald Hill, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Lee Child. From an early age, Billingham can remember writing, often "funny" stories for purposes of popularity and enjoyment. As he grew older, and his interests moved towards crime fiction, he began to skew his writing that way, setting an early novel (the as-yet unpublished "The Mechanic") in his native Birmingham. Inspired by the comic-crime work of Carl Hiaasen and other authors, he attempted to use his experience as a stand-up comedian and crime fan to write a similarly comic novel. Ultimately he abandoned his unfinished novel and the comic-crime genre to focus on his other idea—a book that would become "Sleepyhead". Billingham created Detective Inspector Tom Thorne for his 2001 debut novel "Sleepyhead", where a case of "Locked-In syndrome" reveals the dark depths of a twisted mind, as adept at toying with the DI as with the victims. This central character has since featured in the vast majority of his works, except "In the Dark", released in August 2008, "Rush of Blood", released in August, 2012, and "Die of Shame" (May 2016) in which Thorne has only very minor roles.