Award-winning novelist Lee Childs wrote his first Jack Reacher book with 1997’s Killing Floor. Twenty-four years, 25 novels, two movies and now one TV show later, Childs is still benefiting from the anger stemming from his termination at ITV Granada in 1995.
Reacher on Amazon Prime has skyrocketed to the top of IMDB’s trending television shows since its release on Feb. 4. Led by Alan Ritchson in the titular role, Reacher has already been greenlit for a second season.
None of it would have been possible if Childs wasn’t made redundant all those years ago.
The Little Guy
For a character that has been around for more than two decades, Childs is set in the core values that make up Jack Reacher.
“The little guy now is worse off than ever before,” said Childs in an exclusive interview with BackstageOL. “Somebody’s got to stand up for the little guy and Reacher will always do that. That’s how I started out.”
Childs is referring to his termination from ITV Granada, known as Granada Television at the time. He had worked at the station for 18 years and was involved with over 40,000 hours of programming while also writing commercials and news stories.
Childs, along with hundreds of other employees, was let go by Granada as a result of corporate restructuring.
“I was angry and vengeful about, not necessarily me, but there were 300 people in the same boat as me, really badly treated at the time,” said Childs. “So part of it was anger at that and part of it was betrayal. I had been a really great employee. I had worked really hard and done some great stuff and got nothing for it.”
The Lee Childs Way
The rest is history, as they say. Childs announced in early 2020 he would be retiring from the series and hand the series off to his brother Andrew Grant. He plans to co-write the two upcoming novels with his brother before completely leaving the character to Grant.
All it takes is a glance to notice the similarities between the author and his journeyman character. Both begin their stories with the ending of their relationships to social and political organizations (Reacher in the form of the military). Both act in response to their anger towards the powers that be.
Childs cites a line from the first novel that can be attributed to both author and character.
“‘I tried it their way, now I’m going to try it my way.’ That’s really the decision I took, and it worked out pretty good in the end.”
Season one of Reacher can now be streamed on Amazon Prime. The story is an adaptation of the first Reacher novel, Killing Floor.
