Hot 100 2013 Directors
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Marc Munden Utopia
The colours. That’s what most people took away from Utopia. From the primary yellows of the marketing campaign to the saturated blues and greens of the landscape, Marc Munden’s direction set the off-kilter tone from the outset. From the claustro phobia of the dark, heavy wood of the Network’s offices to wide open fields of heather, Munden flooded the senses with each new location, running with the comic book template in every frame. It cemented a reputation as one of the most striking and innovative directors in the business, adding to a CV that already included The Devil’s Whore and The Crimson Petal And The White. As well as seeing what’s up his sleeve for Utopia 2, viewers will watch with interest what he brings to Black Sails, Starz’ riff on Treasure Island.
Inside Claridges: BBC2
series, pulling in more than 4 million viewers and rapidly becoming the envy of rival broadcasters. A long, varied career has taken in distinctive projects from Tom Daley and Prince William to male prostitutes and heroin addicts, and her fascination with human foibles lent layers of depth to this landmark series.
Jane Treays Inside Claridge’s
It’s testament to Jane Treays’ sharp eye and the investigative instincts that have informed her earlier work that Inside Claridge’s became so much more than a shop window for the luxury Mayfair hotel. Her blunt off-screen questions and tenacity teased out revealing moments and indiscretions from staff and guests, garnered across a year of filming. The access doc was a landmark BBC2 18 | Broadcast | 6 December 2013
from Sri Lanka. Screening his films before diplomats, political figures and NGOs globally, Macrae’s fight to expose the oppression of Tamils goes on.
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larly restricted work on BBC4’s Enid and Fanny Hill has shown, Hawes is a man who likes a challenge. The Mill’s success rested on a drama director who could bring to life what risked being a dry subject, and Hawes found both the visual grammar of the workhouse machines in motion and a look and mood that showed the gritty lives the workers faced without letting things get too grim. BBC co-pro The Challenger threw up quite different dilemmas, but played to the cinematic strengths that Hawes had previously brought to Doctor Who.
Callum Macrae No Fire Zone
The thorn in the side of the Sri Lankan government, Callum Macrae’s mission to document the country’s civil war continues to steer him into dangerous territory. Two years on from making Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields for Channel 4, Macrae recently found himself trailed, and later trapped on a train, by pro-government protesters accusing him and his team of being funded by the Tamil Tigers. Such antagonism has become a hallmark of Macrae’s relationship with Sri Lanka. His recent film No Fire Zone was branded “chilling” by David Cameron, who has called for an independent investigation. “I am a celebrity and they want me out of here”, Macrae recently wrote
James Hawes The Mill; The Challenger
James Hawes once said he turned down Downton Abbey because he couldn’t work out what to do with it. What floated his boat instead was a low-budget, fact-based period drama from Channel 4’s history department. As his simi-
Penny Woolcock One Mile Away
Not for the first time, Penny Woolcock’s most recent project succeeding in effecting social change. With exquisite timing, One Mile Away landed on Channel 4 just one day after former prime minister Gordon Brown turned up at MipTV, urging broadcasters to use TV as a force for good. Here was the proof: with typical sensitivity and tenacity, Woolcock documented efforts to end 20 years of gang turf wars in Birmingham. There
The Mill: Channel 4 www.broadcastnow.co.uk