Jimmy McGovern (born 1949 in Liverpool, England, UK) is a British television scriptwriter, known for his powerful and thought-provoking dramas often based around hard-hitting social issues or controversial real-life events.

He started his career working on Channel 4's socially-realist soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.

In 1993, he created the drama serial Cracker about the work of a criminal psychologist played by Robbie Coltrane. Made by Granada Television and screened on ITV, the series was a phenomonal critical and popular success, being regarded as one of the finest British television dramas of the age, winning many awards and making McGovern one of the most sought-after writers in the industry.

Since Cracker, his work has included BBC ONE drama serial The Lakes (1997-99), ITV's Hillsborough (1997, a dramatised reconstruction of the events of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster), and Sunday (2002) for Channel 4, based on the events of 'Bloody Sunday'.