Whitnall's theatre play "The Sociable Plover", first performed at Old Red Lion Theatre in 2005, was made into a feature film by Poisson Rouge Pictures and Solution Films (re-titled as "The Hide") and received its UK première on Film4 in February 2009. Following its screen release at the ICA Cinema, London, the film was released on DVD in January 2010. For this work, Whitnall was nominated for Best First Feature Length Screenplay category in the 2010 Writer's Guild of Great Britain Awards.